Jim Maginn, Watt Companies

Jim Maginn

Board Member

Jim Maginn is a Board Member at Watt Capital Developers.

In 1986, Jim Maginn joined Watt Companies as Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer. In this position, he was responsible for all of the development, permanent, and mortgage financing related to residential and commercial operations.

In the early nineties, he assumed the position of President of Watt Companies where he worked on restructuring the organization which included selling one residential subsidiary to Beazer Homes which subsequently went public, and forming a joint venture with Goldman Sachs with another residential subsidiary. This JV eventually evolved into John Laing Homes which built over 3,000 homes per year and generated over $1.1 billion in revenue. Mr. Maginn was a member of the John Laing Board of Directors until the company was sold in June 2006.

In 2003, he established a joint venture with Australia’s Centro Properties Group known as Centro Watt, which sought to build a significant national shopping center ownership and management platform in the United States. During the next four years, the venture acquired over 700 retail centers, with more than 155 million square feet, with properties located in 38 states and a total asset value in excess of $11.0 billion. After reaching the shared objective of building a strong U.S. retail platform, Watt successfully exited the JV as planned. Mr. Maginn was also the President/CEO of Centro Watt. In 2010, Mr. Maginn stepped down as President/CEO of Watt and Nadine Watt assumed his responsibilities. He and an associate started a division that focuses on investing directly in commercial and residential ground-up and redevelopment projects.

Before coming to Watt, he was Manager of Corporate Banking for California First Bank (Union Bank), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of Tokyo/Mitsubishi Group. In this position, he was also responsible for the U.S. business in the Far East and spent three years in Tokyo.

He received his B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy and MBA from UCLA. He is on the Board of Governors for ULI, treasurer/board member of the National Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance and a member of both ICSC and the California Business Property Association. He spent 20 years in the Navy, both active duty and reserves. He retired as a Navy captain.

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