Peter Linneman

Dr. Peter Linneman (born March 24, 1951) is the principal of Linneman Associates, the CEO and founder of American Land Fund and of KL Realty. He previously served as the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, Finance, and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, retiring in December 2010. Linneman served as the founding chairman of Wharton's Real Estate Department, and was the Director of Wharton's Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center for 13 years. He is also the founding co-editor of the Wharton Real Estate Review. Linneman has also been named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in New York real estate according to The New York Observer and one of the 25 most influential people in commercial real estate by Realtor Magazine.

Biography

Linneman grew up in Lima, Ohio and attended Lima Central Catholic High School. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Ashland University in 1973 and went on to obtain his masters (1976) and Ph.D. (1977) in Economics at the University of Chicago, where he began his teaching career. In his early career, Linneman began doing litigation support work in the field of anti-trust economics, and by the mid 1980s had begun focusing on commercial real estate. He has served on several public company boards, including serving on the Executive Committee of Equity Office Properties, and was chairman of Rockefeller Center Properties, successfully negotiating the foreclosure of its previous owners and its subsequent sale in the mid 1990s. He subsequently founded the Linneman Letter in 2001, a widely subscribed quarterly commercial real estate publication. He has been married to Kathy Linneman since 1973, with no children.

Philanthropy

Linneman began "Save a Mind, Give a Choice", a charitable effort as part of the Lewa Conservancy Education outreach in Kenya. This program provides education to orphans and rural poverty children in the area of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

Controversy

Linneman made one sinophobic comment directed against Chinese men. The incident raised criticism among current students at the Wharton School because the school failed to release any public letter to clarify its position on the issue. However, Wharton students went ahead to release their Open Letter to condemn Linneman's discriminatory remarks