Gregory J. Mika, director, lease management, corporate real estate dept., Waste Management, Inc., has more than 20 years of experience in the field. Of the 9.9 million sq. ft. (919,710 sq. m.) of facilities in the Waste Management portfolio, 5.9 million sq. ft. (548,110 sq. m.) are leased. Mika's duties include not only transaction and lease management, but the procuring of economic development incentives. He is headquartered in Lombard, Ill.

        Neal Hesler, vice president, AMB Property, oversees leasing, property acquisition and disposition, and conducts credit reviews of AMB customers from headquarters in Boston, Mass. Major industrial property company AMB owns more than 100 million sq. ft. (9.29 million sq. m.) worldwide.

        Dennis R. Boles, director, global facilities, Haworth, Inc., oversees the North American component of Haworth's 11-million-sq.-ft. (1-million-sq.-m.) portfolio. The maker of modular interior and office furniture products owns most of that space. Based in Holland, Mich., Boles counts among his duties security and design as well as real estate and facility management.

        Thomas J. Casey, vice president, real estate, Space Center Inc., works on the acquisition, development and management of more than 18 million sq. ft. (1.67 million sq. m.) of industrial property owned by Space Center, based in Oak Brook, Ill. The company's portfolio also encompasses more than 7 million acres (2.83 million hectares) of land, above and below ground.

In October, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. opened its 621-acre (251-hectare) BNSF Logistics Park-Chicago as the centerpiece of CenterPoint Properties' mammoth intermodal project in Joliet, Ill.

        James J. O'Neil, assistant vice president, property and facility management, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co., looks back on more than 20 years of experience in asset management to help him manage and develop the railroad's more than 3 million sq. ft. (278,700 sq. m.) of facilities from his home base of Fort Worth, Texas.
        O'Neil is joined in membership by the railroad's assistant vice president of economic development, J. Vann Cunningham.

        O'Neil's counterpart at Norfolk Southern Corp., vice president of real estate Richard W. Parker, joined IAMC this spring as well. He oversees 1 million sq. ft. (92,900 sq. m.) of company-owned facilities.

        Ken Barker, director, alliance management, Sprint Corp. Based at the company's recently constructed campus in Overland Park, Kan., Barker manages site acquisitions, transactions and partnerships involving 11 million sq. ft. (1 million sq. m.) of owned space and 12 million sq. ft. (1.1 sq. m.) of leased space.

        Dwight Stenseth, managing director, Cherokee Investment Partners. Cherokee acquires environmentally impaired assets, or "brownfields," and protects sellers from the associated risks and liabilities. The firm has offices in Raleigh, N.C. (headquarters), Denver, Colo., Elizabeth, N.J. and London, U.K. Stenseth works out of Greenwood Village, Colo.

        Kevin Dollhopf of St. Louis-based Sara Lee Bakery Group, oversees one division of the Chicago-based corporation's wide-ranging portfolio of properties engaged in making, moving and selling everything from hot dogs to Hanes. The company is in the midst of a two-year restructuring program, and the $3-billion bakery group is a major part of it. Richard A. Noll, the division's new CEO, remarked in May on the group's cost-cutting efforts, which have included the closing of six bakeries and elimination of 2,000 different stock-keeping units, at the same time that the group launches a new line of fresh breads, buns and rolls. These actions, combined with headquarters staff reduction and other cost-cutting measures, are anticipated to generate $40 million to $45 million in annual savings.

        Kathleen Shanteau, of global concern Holcim, works out of Dundee, Mich. Her Zurich-based parent company's name derives from combining its founding family's surname, Holderbank, with the French word for cement, its core product.
        In 2002, the company's net investments in property, plant and equipment were down by $369 million to $967 million, reflecting the completion of larger plant projects, including a new plant in Portland, Ore.

        As director of loss prevention and global environmental health and safety for International Rectifier, Gregory Takagi is responsible for managing and reducing risk at the facilities used by the El Segundo, Calif.-based semiconductor company. Founded in 1947, the company's products help power electronics work more efficiently and use less energy, and are found in everything from washing machines to automobiles, conveyor systems to laptop computers.
        The company has more than 5,800 employees and 800,000 sq. ft. (74,320 sq. m.) of manufacturing space worldwide. Recent restructuring at the company, which included closing and consolidating of facilities, is expected to generate $80 million to $85 million in annual savings.
        "While our component business continues to face market weakness, we are streamlining the company's manufacturing and operations to focus on our proprietary products," said CEO Alex Lidow in December 2002.