Industry Leader William Millichap Dies at 76

William A. Millichap, co-chairman of Marcus & Millichap, has died after a year-long battle with cancer at the age of 76, the real estate brokerage announced. George M. Marcus remains as chairman of the NYSE-listed firm, which is led by President & CEO Hessam Nadji.

Millichap joined the company—then called G.M. Marcus Co.—shortly after its founding in 1971 and helped build it into a brokerage powerhouse that employs more than 2,000 investment sales and financing professionals today. The Calabasas, Calif.-based company, which has more than 80 offices across the U.S. and Canada, last year closed nearly 10,000 investment deals for private and institutional investors.

The innovation-focused executive played a key role in the evolution and professionalization of the brokerage industry. “As George recalled in his tribute, Bill really led the effort to have an electronic database for our business as early as 1978,” Nadji told Commercial Property Executive. “It was the first time in the industry that it had been done.”

Millichap’s efforts added to those of Marcus, who pioneered the concept of exclusive representation for commercial investment sales, the creation of a platform that specialized in investment real estate only, and of a managed sales force dedicated to that space.

“All these new concepts that had been laid down as the foundation by George when he started the company was then elevated significantly by Bill,” Nadji said. “He advanced our training programs to a sophisticated and formal series of modules. And he was truly a pioneer with technology.”