Robert Thornburgh, SIOR’s Chief Executive Officer, is responsible for the management of the Society’s business and executing the directives set by the SIOR Board of Directors and its governance committee.

Thornburgh, a long-standing commercial real estate specialist and trailblazer based out of Los Angeles, California, brings more than 25 years of exemplary industry knowledge and leadership experience, with a strong focus on integrity and a transformational, service-oriented style of leadership. He comes to SIOR from Kidder Mathews, where he was a shareholder and regional president of brokerage for many years.

During much of his professional career, Thornburgh served as the CEO at Heger Industrial, a prominent real estate firm with a 60-year legacy in the Los Angeles market. Additionally, he has also served as SIOR Global President and sat on the SIOR Board of Directors. His knowledge and commitment to SIOR are longstanding and valuable assets. He has also been consistently recognized across the commercial real estate industry for his emphasis on innovation and his passion to help others achieve their goals. In 2020, he was honored as a “Best Boss” by ALM Media.

Thornburgh began building an early foundation for a career path in real estate. Prior to leading Heger Industrial, he worked with R3 Investment Group in the 1990s – an investment company he still owns to this day. In 2017, Heger merged with Kidder Mathews. As part of the merger, Thornburgh joined the company’s executive leadership team where he was influential in expanding the firm’s presence across the West Coast. His passion for business began at Pepperdine University where he received his MBA.

He proudly holds four of the most respected designations within the commercial real estate industry – SIOR, CCIM, CPM, and FRICS. This is a distinction that less than one percent of all global commercial real estate practitioners maintain.