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Steven Firestone
Chairman
sfirestone@someracapital.com |
Mr. Firestone is the founder and Chairman of Somera. His leadership roles include strategic planning, investment selection, and oversight of the general business and financial management of the company. Prior to founding Somera in 1994, Mr. Firestone was an entrepreneurial businessman and an active real estate investor for himself and for his family’s account, with interests throughout the Western United States.
Mr. Firestone’s success and leadership story started at age 17 when he captained a crew of 11 teenagers on an 18-month circumnavigation of the globe in an 85-foot sailing schooner. Upon his return, Mr. Firestone started an entrepreneurial career in the computer industry that, over the next 15 years, created a significant net worth for himself and for his family.
During the course of his career, Mr. Firestone and his family have accomplished a number of notable business achievements, including the formation and eventual sale of Century Computer Marketing, an international distributor of computer parts, and the formation, venture capital-backed recapitalization and initial public offering/NASDAQ listing of Somera Communications, Inc., a leading worldwide provider of telecommunications infrastructure solutions. When Century Computer Marketing was sold in 1994, the owners, which included many of the original crew members and the families that had participated in the circumnavigation, decided to invest their wealth in real estate, an asset class with which Mr. Firestone and his family had substantial experience. To accommodate these investments, Mr. Firestone formed Somera Real Estate Group, Inc. to provide a platform from which to manage the real estate investment activities of Mr. Firestone’s family and business associates.
Since 1994, Mr. Firestone has served in many capacities while leading Somera’s growth from a family office operation to a nationally-recognized institutional real estate investment firm. From inception, Mr. Firestone identified, analyzed and closed the first series of transactions while establishing Somera’s initial operating partner relationships, including the relationship with Pacifica Real Estate Group, where he met David Brown. Mr. Firestone designed the partnership structure when he and Mr. Brown co-founded Somera Capital Management in 1998 as the successor to Somera Real Estate Group, Inc. Mr. Firestone then continued his active participation in the investment process while turning his focus to the company’s financial and business management and recruitment of talent as Somera’s business prospered and grew. Under Mr. Firestone’s leadership, Somera has grown from a small family office in 1994 to a staff of 24 in four offices throughout the United States. Mr. Firestone is a member of Somera’s Executive Committee.
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