west-coast
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Angela Kleiman and the value of staying close
After running investments, finance, and operations at Essex Property Trust, Angela Kleiman took the CEO’s chair in 2023. Her West Coast strategy turns on a practical question: what can neighboring apartment buildings do better together?
Mechanics Bank got bigger. The bet is staying close.
A Richmond bank built around working people became a four-state franchise. Its next test is making that larger footprint feel personal.
Essex Property Trust: The value of staying put
Essex built an apartment business around places where building is difficult. Its West Coast focus explains both the appeal of the company and the risks that come with it.
Kilroy’s billion-dollar waiting room
Kilroy Realty builds places companies want to be. Its waterfront lab campus reveals the expensive gap between signing a lease and switching on the lights.
Alaska Airlines is redrawing the map
An airline built to cross roadless country is learning to cross oceans. The Hawaiian acquisition puts Alaska’s local instincts to a much bigger test.
Radiate Hospitality
Radiate Hospitality is a Palo Alto-based hotel and real-estate management company that develops, renovates, and operates a portfolio of boutique and branded hotels across the West Coast. Formerly known as BPR Properties, the firm runs 11 hotels with roughly 988 rooms - from the Autograph Collection Hi-Lo Hotel in Portland to the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto - guided by a mission of 'passionately creating a sense of belonging.'
The Bay Club Company
The Bay Club Company is a membership-based active lifestyle and hospitality company headquartered in San Francisco. Founded in 1977 with the nation's first co-ed fitness club, it now operates a growing collection of resort-inspired clubs organized into regional campuses across the West Coast - the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Pacific Northwest. Built on four points of focus - fitness, sports, family, and hospitality - the company serves a community of 135,000-plus members with tennis, swimming, squash, golf, pickleball, group exercise, family programs, dining, and spa services. Backed by KKR, Bay Club is in an aggressive expansion phase, acquiring regional operators to scale toward 50-plus clubs and over 200,000 members.
Tom Davis
Tom Davis is a General Partner at Canapi Ventures, a fintech-focused venture capital firm with over $1.29B in total funding. Based in San Francisco, he leads the firm's West Coast operations and sits on its investment committee, focusing on early- to growth-stage investments in financial technology and B2B software. With nearly two decades spanning Morgan Stanley investment banking, General Atlantic, and Centana Growth Partners, Davis brings rare fluency across the capital stack - from traditional banking relationships to cutting-edge fintech infrastructure. He joined Canapi in November 2023 to open their first San Francisco office, signaling the firm's push deeper into Silicon Valley's fintech ecosystem.
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is the most decorated rapper in Grammy history, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the architect of West Coast hip-hop's cultural dominance. Born in Compton, California on June 17, 1987, he rose from Section 8 housing to headlining the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history (133.5M viewers, Feb 2025). His 2024 Drake beef produced 'Not Like Us' — a diss track that won five Grammys including Record and Song of the Year — and his surprise-dropped GNX album cemented his status as rap's reigning voice. Co-founder of pgLang, fiancé of high school sweetheart Whitney Alford, and father of two, Lamar remains one of music's most private and intellectually rigorous artists.