Lester Dean - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Lester Dean joined Dean Realty Co. in May 2008 as the company's chairman, president and CEO. The eldest son of Lester Dean, Sr., the company's founder, Lester grew up working with his father clearing the mine that is now the company's Downtown Underground, a 1.2 million square foot subterranean complex. He was involved in his father's commercial real estate pursuits assembling acreage to build Cambridge Business Park in Kansas and Missouri, the Downtown Industrial Park in Midtown Kansas City, Missouri, as well as other development tracts remaining in the portfolio today. Dean Realty Co.'s portfolio exceeds two million square feet of flex, office, industrial and subterranean commercial real estate space.

In the late 1980's, Lester served as a branch manager for Eugene D. Brown's commercial real estate division. By 1988, he started his own commercial real estate company, Commercial Realty Resources, Inc., which registered in the top ten within five years. He sold Commercial Realty Resources and acquired his first multifamily property, steadily assembling a portfolio of commercial properties over the next 22 years.

In 1989, Lester Dean, Jr. was the youngest person in North America to receive his CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) designation. His largest project took him to the British West Indies, Caribbean Islands, in 1999 to commence building infrastructure for a 1,000-acre series of five-star resorts and related retail and commercial development. He has over 25 years of experience in commercial real estate development, management, planning and consultation.

Lester began attending Board of Directors meetings for Dean Operations, Inc. in 2005, subsequently being elected to that Board and appointed Chairman of the Dean Realty Board in April 2007. In May of 2008, he was asked to lead the Realty company, where he heads a staff of 30 accounting, marketing, leasing, construction and facilities management professionals.