George M. Marcus is the founder of Marcus & Millichap Company and its chairman since 1971. Marcus & Millichap Company is the parent company of a diversified group of real estate, service, investment and development firms including SummerHill Homes, one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest home builders. Marcus is also the Founder and Chairman of Essex Property Trust (ESS) and Marcus & Millichap, Inc. (MMI), both publicly traded companies. He was one of the original founders and directors of Plaza Commerce Bank and Greater Bay Bancorp. He is a Regent Emeritus of The University of California. His professional memberships include the Real Estate Roundtable and the Policy Advisory Board of the University of California at Berkeley - Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, among many others. A major philanthropist, Marcus was born in Euboea, Greece, and migrated to the US with his family in 1945, at the age of four.