Civic Affairs - Creating World Class Innovation Hubs in the Walnut Creek Region

Creating World Class Innovation Hubs in the Walnut Creek Region.  Our expert panel tackles the present state of the Life Science and Food Tech Industries in the East Bay; whether there are opportunities to attract more of these industries to the I-680 corridor and what cities should do to best position themselves to attract them.

Panel:
 
GORDON ZAGAR
Facilities and Real Estate Project Executive Gordon Zagar has over twenty five years combined experience in facilities operations, real estate optimization and project management; holding previous positions such as, Director of Facilities, and Director of Operations and Bio/Pharma Projects. With the ability to focus on big picture issues, he has significant skills and technical abilities in facilities and operations management, budget planning and financial analysis, real estate negotiation, complex problem solving, contract administration, cost control and strategic planning. He has additional experience in Global Operational Multi-Site Planning for past Life Science/Device companies such as Amgen, Genentech, XenoPort, Dynavax, and Nektar.  His company, Zagar Consulting Inc was established in 2015 and has lead over 5M sqft of laboratory space improvements in California. 


BRIAN STONEROCK
Director of Global Facilities, Real Estate, Capital Projects at Zymergen. Brian currently overseas and develops approximately 500,000 sqft of biotech space in major life science hubs across the US.  Currently he is designing and constructing a 300k sqft space for Zymergen?s new corporate hub in Emeryville, Ca.  Previously Brian was the Manager of Construction Management for Tesla at the Fremont, Ca. manufacturing plant.  He led all construction management for Tesla?s California manufacturing operations covering about 5 million sqft of factory, R&D lab, office, and onsite storage.  Over this time Brian has developed valuable expertise in company specific real estate strategies and master site planning.
 
Moderator: Edward Del Beccaro
 
Ed is the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Manager for the TRI Commercial offices located in Walnut Creek, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco. The SF Bay Area brokerage operation is a full-service Leasing, Consulting and Investment Service Company specializing in office, industrial, life sciences, medical, retail, multi-family and investments and consulting. In addition to brokerage, TRI plans to grow San Francisco Bay Area property management to complement TRI?s Sacramento enterprise with over 4 million square feet of commercial property under management.