Cornell’s Baker Program in Real Estate is honored to showcase Steve Benjamin of Stromiga Real Estate Development as the next featured guest in its Distinguished Speaker Series on April 27, 2017. Now in its second generation of family leadership, Stromiga Inc. develops and manages a portfolio of properties in Western Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan), California, and Arizona. Stromiga’s portfolio includes multi-tenant industrial, retail centers, office buildings, apartment buildings and residential condominium projects. Mr. Benjamin has served as Managing Partner of Stromiga since 2002.
Mr. Benjamin maintains strong ties to the Cornell community. Steve graduated from Cornell University and holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering, a Master in Engineering, and an MBA. As the Vice Chair of the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Alumni Council, he supports the university’s mission to “find and foster the entrepreneurial spirit in every Cornellian.” Steve was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Cornell’s highly acclaimed Johnson Graduate School of Management from 2008 through 2010, and today regularly guest lectures on entrepreneurship at the Johnson School, the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the Baker Program in Real Estate. A strong believer in education, Steve served as a Cornell Council member, is a founding member of the 15-year-old Cornell Silicon Valley Alumni Advisory Board, and is active on the Cornell Real Estate Council.
Prior to assuming his role at Stromiga Real Estate Development, Mr. Benjamin, in partnership with Burke Inc., one of the nation’s leading market research firms, created and managed customer loyalty strategy for major technology companies including Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials and Synopsys. Steve and his wife, Shert, co-founded The Benjamin Group Inc., an award-winning West Coast marketing firm. The company was successfully sold to communications conglomerate Interpublic Group in an earn-out that ended in 2002. Steve started his career in the corporate world, at Emery Air Freight, where he was director of planning, then later as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Burlington Air Express, where he designed the company’s nationwide transportation system, buying (and doing the subsequent leveraged lease financing) for more than a dozen cargo airplanes to support the firm’s operations.
For the last seven years he has served as Board Chair for Hillbrook School, one of the Bay Area’s leading independent K-8 schools, and was a Hillbrook Trustee for a total of 14 years–well beyond his children’s graduation from not only that school, but also from high school and college. It is with great pleasure that the students and faculty welcome Mr. Benjamin back to Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
