William David Sanders (born December 2, 1941) is an American real estate businessman and developer.

Biography

Sanders was born in 1941 in

Ramsey County, Minnesota Ramsey County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 552,352, making it the second-most populous county in Minnesota. Its county seat and largest city is Saint Paul, the state capital and ...

, the son of Marion Jane (Birkenstein) and David Edwin Sanders, an advertising agency owner. His father was born in

Parral, Chihuahua Hidalgo del Parral is a city and seat of the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is located in the southern part of the state, from the state capital, the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua. As of 2015, the city ...

, Mexico, to German Jewish immigrants. Sanders' maternal grandfather was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to German Jewish parents while his maternal grandmother was also born in Chicago to

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

parents. He was raised in

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, Texas. In 1964, Sanders graduated from

Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences The New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University (CALS or Ag School) is a statutory college and one of the four New York State contract colleges on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. With enrollmen ...

. In 1968, he founded the

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

firm

LaSalle Partners Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global commercial real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to insti ...

, headquartered in Chicago. In 1999, LaSalle Partners merged with Jones Lang Wooton to form

Jones Lang LaSalle Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global commercial real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to insti ...

. He served as chairman of the

National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Nareit is a Washington, D.C.-based association representing a large and diverse industry that includes equity real estate investment trusts (REITs), mortgage REITs (mREITs), REITs traded on major stock exchanges, public non-listed REITs, and pri ...

(NAREIT). In 1999, he received Cornell's "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Sanders once managed a real estate portfolio of $20 billion, and was referred to as the "Warren Buffett of real estate" by ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

'' in 1999.

Personal life

Sanders married Louann H. Feuille on May 18, 1974 in El Paso. They have two sons and three daughters. Sanders' middle daughter, Amy, is the wife of

Beto O'Rourke Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke ( , ; ; born September 26, 1972) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Rourke was the party's nominee for the U.S. Senat ...

, former Democratic U.S. Rep. of

Texas's 16th congressional district Texas's 16th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives includes almost all of El Paso and most of its suburbs in the state of Texas. The current Representative is Democrat Veronica Escobar. The district was initially ...

References

External links

Profile of William Sanders by ''Real Estate Portfolio'' magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, William 1941 births Living people American real estate businesspeople Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Businesspeople from Minnesota American people of German-Jewish descent People from Ramsey County, Minnesota 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American people of Irish descent Businesspeople from El Paso, Texas American people of Mexican-Jewish descent