News Release

Local angle: Atlanta, Greensboro
Photo: To download a photo of Hartzell, see end of release

David Hartzell named inaugural
Bell-Wood professor in real estate

CHAPEL HILL — Dr. David J. Hartzell has been named the first Steven D. Bell and Leonard W. Wood Distinguished Professor in Real Estate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Bell and Wood, both alumni, endowed the professorship with a $2 million gift in 2001.

An award-winning teacher, Hartzell’s research examines issues related to the structure of institutional real-estate portfolios, real-estate finance and mortgage-backed securities. He received his doctorate from Carolina and his master’s degree and bachelor of science degree from the University of Delaware.

Hartzell brings professional experience to the classroom. He was a vice president at Salomon Brothers Inc. in New York, where he focused on institutional real-estate finance and investments. He also worked as a research associate for The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, and as a financial economist for the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency. He was president of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in 2000.

Bell is chairman and chief executive officer of Steven D. Bell & Company, a Greensboro-based real-estate management company that focuses on apartment communities, shopping centers and senior housing properties in the Southeast. He graduated in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in history.

“We wanted our gift to celebrate the tradition of real-estate education at UNC Kenan-Flagler and ensure that its legacy is sustained,” Bell said.

Wood, formerly a principal of Trammell Crow Residential, is a founding member of Wood Partners, an Atlanta-based company that develops, constructs and acquires multi-family rental communities. He earned a master’s degree from Kenan-Flagler in 1972 and received the school’s MBA Alumni Merit Award in 2001.

“Great faculty members like Dave Hartzell have a deep and lasting impact on their students while also helping us attract the next generation of business leaders, so we know our gift is making a difference,” Wood said.

The support of Bell and Wood is crucial to recruiting and retaining top faculty and students while providing top courses and programs, said Kenan-Flagler Dean Steve Jones.

“Steve Bell and Leonard Wood demonstrated their passion for excellence and for real-estate education when they made this very significant gift to UNC Kenan-Flagler,” Jones said. “Professor Hartzell personifies the impact we want to have in the classroom and on students’ lives. I am grateful to have the Bell-Wood chair to recognize his outstanding contribution to our real-estate curriculum.”

Bell and Wood are advocates for the Center for Real Estate Development (CRED) at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at Kenan-Flagler. Launched in 2001, CRED focuses on education, research and outreach in real-estate development to help business leaders create and manage in ways that ensure positive impact and sustainable results.

UNC’s real-estate program, the only one offered from a top-ranked business school that is based in development, began in 1976.

-30-

Note: Hartzell can be reached at (919) 962-3160.
Photo URL: http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/Faculty/search/detail.cfm?person_id=35.

UNC Kenan-Flagler contact: Allison Adams, (919) 962-7235, aadams@unc.edu
News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, lisa_katz@unc.edu