General Investing >> Money Manager Interviews >> November 22, 2004
ROBERT B. BEIM is Managing Director of Woodside Asset Management. He
began his business career in 1970 with Arthur Andersen & Company in San
Francisco, working first in the small business division and later in the
tax division. He served individual and corporate clients, gaining
particular exposure to tax matters, financial planning and real estate
investments. He is a licensed CPA in the State of California. He left
Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1973 to pursue his interest in real estate
investments and joined Grubb & Ellis Company in Oakland. He worked in
the private placement division and later in commercial brokerage,
gaining significant experience in real estate matters. In 1975, after
two years with Grubb & Ellis, he and a business school classmate founded
Beim & James, a real estate investment firm. Beim & James developed,
acquired, leased and managed commercial properties in California, Oregon
and Arizona for a group of wealthy, individual investors seeking
diversification in their personal investment portfolios. Over the
following 14 years, Mr. Beim and his partner built a successful real
estate company and a loyal investor group. In 1989, he retired from Beim
& James and joined Woodside Asset Management as one of three managing
partners. This allowed him to pursue his broader interest in money
management and the other forms of investing that accompany it. Today, as
a Managing Director, he takes care of his own client group and is
responsible for the firm's real estate investments. He graduated from
the University of California at Berkeley in 1966 with a Bachelor's
degree in Biological Sciences. He then served in the U.S. Army for two
years as a Field Artillery Officer, and most of his tour of duty was
spent in South Korea. Following the military, he earned a Master of
Business Administration degree from the Stanford Graduate School of
Business in 1970, with a concentration in Finance and Investments. Mr.
Beim served on the Board of Directors of the Lucille Salter Packard
Children's Hospital at Stanford from 1979 to 1991, where he was Chair of
the Finance Committee and the Investment Committee. He was elected to
the Board of Trustees of the U.C. Berkeley Foundation in 1997 and
currently serves on its Executive Committee and is the Chair of its
Investment Committee. In addition, Mr. Beim was recently elected to
serve as a member of the UC Regent's Investment Advisory Committee. Profile
and your responsibilities there?
Mr. Beim: The firm was founded in 1987 with the mission of helping high-
net-worth
