Featured Speaker: C. Frederick Wehba, Chairman, BentleyForbes
Event Details: Friday, December 4, 2009, 10:00-11:30am
Union Golden Eagle Suite
C. Frederick Wehba has built a lifetime of success on three guiding principles: hard work, family values centered in the strength of his Christian faith and charitable generosity. These principles have held fast across all his endeavors, including the successful creation and management of numerous businesses, his close relationship with family and church and his support of many worthy causes dedicated to eradicating disease and poverty and promoting education and citizenship.
As the Chairman of BentleyForbes, a national commercial real estate investment company headquartered in Los Angeles that was recently recognized in November 2007 as the 11th fastest growing private company in this internationally recognized city by the Los Angeles Business Journal, Mr. Wehba is the guiding vision behind the firm’s highly disciplined operating strategy and phenomenal growth since its inception in 1993. Working with a team of dedicated and experienced executives which include his sons and other family members, Mr. Wehba leverages nearly 40-years of real estate and corporate leadership in defining and attaining the operational goals of BentleyForbes.
Since its formation in 1993, BentleyForbes has successfully completed real estate investment transactions in excess of $3 billion in major metropolitan and local markets across the United States The Company is increasingly focused on acquiring trophy Class A office towers and signature resort and hotel properties in top tier markets across the United States, including recent investments or pending investments in Chicago, Washington D.C., Dallas and Atlanta.
Mr. Wehba was born in Crowell, Texas, a small Northwest Texas town. He attended elementary and high school in Crowell. His father owned and operated a small chain of grocery stores in Texas and Oklahoma for more than 60 years. Mr. Wehba began working in his father’s stores at an early age. Mr. Wehba worked throughout high school and while attending college at North Texas State University.
During this time, Mr. Wehba met and subsequently married his wife of more than 36-years, Susan “Suzi” Wehba.
In 1969, after college, Mr. Wehba moved to Oklahoma City and began purchasing small supermarkets, and then increased their volume. He then sold those improved stores for a very handsome profit, often times at as much as five times the value of the initial investment. During his seven years in Oklahoma City, he also built a 120,000-square-foot shopping center and thus began his real estate career. At the age of 26, he built designed and built a 53,000-square-foot Superstore which received the award of “Store of the Year 1976” from Progressive Grocer Magazine.
Mr. Wehba moved to Denver in 1977, to preside as President and General Manager of a twenty-store supermarket chain for a period of two years.
Mr. Wehba relocated to Dallas in 1978, where he continued his career in buying and selling real estate. During this time, he also operated a manufacturing company in which he sold it for an excellent profit within three years. In 1983, he began to devote his full time to real estate and has since bought, sold and/or financed more than $3 billion worth of property including land for development, office buildings, shopping centers, warehouse projects and sale/leaseback opportunities that all represented long-term, value generating and risk conscious investments.
In 1989, Mr. Wehba moved his business interests and his family to California. By 1993, Mr. Wehba had founded what is today known as BentleyForbes along with his wife Suzi, oldest son C. Frederick Wehba II and other family members, including his sister, Ms. Eleanor Cates.
Among his many honors and distinctions, Mr. Wehba is an Eagle Scout with Gold Palms. He has also served in various commitments and board positions for the following organizations: The Boy Scouts of America; California Baptist University; First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills; InChrist Church; The Church at Beverly Hills; Westside Community Church; The Institute for Social and Economic Policy on the Middle East, part of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; The Dove Foundation; and the Associates for Breast Cancer Studies (ABC’s), part of the John Wayne Cancer Institute. He is listed in the Who’s Who of American Business Leaders, is actively involved in more than 30 charities around the United States and has served in the creation, development and leadership of several Christian churches.
Notably, Mr. Wehba is a President Emeritus for the ABC’s in Los Angeles and in 1990 was recognized by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley as Man of the Year. In 2003, Mr. Wehba and his wife were honored for their charitable efforts with the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s (MDA) Humanitarian Award. The couple was again acknowledged in 2004 by California Baptist University with the Spirit of Excellence award for achievements in philanthropic endeavors. In 2006 the Jeffrey Foundation honored Mr. and Mrs. Wehba.
Mr. Wehba is currently a member of the Cedar-Sinai Medical Center Board of Governors, the Beverly Hills Education Foundation, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools Board of Directors and the International Circle of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.
For more information contact: Julie Willems-Espinoza, Julie.Willems-Espinoza@unt.edu or 940-369-8442.
