Richard Ziman

Richard Ziman was born on November 5, 1942 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the son of Helen and Charlie Ziman.[2] His father, Charles Ziman, was a furniture manufacturer who donated the materials to build a new synagogue in his hometown.[2] Both his parents were Jewish.[3] He has four siblings: brothers, Allan, Curt, Larry, and sister Phyllis.[2] His family moved to Beverly Hills, California in 1958.

Ziman earned a J.D. at USC in 1967.[2]

In 1968, he started a job as an associate with the law firm Loeb & Loeb where he handled real estate including development, syndication and financing.[2] In 1971, he made partner.[2]

In 1980, he left the firm and founded the real estate investment firm, Pacific Financial Group which purchased and redeveloped rundown buildings using non-recourse financing.[2] By 1987, his firm had a portfolio of 5,000,000 square feet and after discovering in 1989 that 2,000,000 square feet of his portfolio contained asbestos, which was just then becoming a concern,[2] he sold off his entire portfolio of Southern California real estate in 19 months[4] reducing his payroll from 90 to 10 employees.[2] The sale was timely as the market crashed in 1990.[4] In 1991, he co-founded with Victor Coleman and Andrew Sobel the Arden Pacific Management Group - named after the street he grew up on in Beverly Hills.[2] Arden began purchasing, at deep discounts, foreclosed commercial buildings from banks eager to exit from the burdens of property management.[2] The firm focused on properties in good locations in Southern California with small tenants (who did not have a lot of negotiating leverage and would not have a significant impact to Arden's cash flows if they moved) and who had owners willing to provide direct financing of up to 90% of the purchase price.[2] By 1996, Arden had a portfolio of 24 office buildings and 4,000,000 square feet.[2] In October 1996, Arden Realty, Inc. went public on the New York Stock Exchange in a $496 million IPO organized by Lehman Brothers.[2] Subsequent share issuances in July 1997 and February 1998 raised an additional $360 million and $710 million respectively.[2] By 2004, Arden had 200 buildings with 19,000,000 square feet.[2]

Ziman is a prominent Democratic Party contributor. In early 2007, he hosted a fundraiser for Joe Biden.[5] In 2008, he raised enough money for Hillary Clinton to earn the Clinton campaign's designation 'Hillraiser'. He contributed $15,000 to a group to help Florida and Michigan seat their Democratic Party primary election delegates.[6]