Board

Richard Pivnicka

Richard, a native of Chicago, has been Vice President and General Counsel for Gerson Bakar & Associates for twenty years and is currently a Member of the Board of Directors and its Legal Advisor. The firm is one of the largest owners and managers of housing in California and is also the developer and owner of a diversified billion dollar portfolio of residential, office, industrial and retail properties which has included Carmel Plaza Shopping Center, and the joint venture which created the Levi Strauss' World Headquarters in San Francisco. Prior to joining Gerson Bakar, Richard was General Counsel for a major real estate developer, and was an Associate in a San Francisco-based law firm.

He holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame, an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco, where he served on the Law Review.

Richard served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. He has been a member of the Arthritis Foundation's Executive Committee and its Finance Committee, and was named to the Real Estate Committee of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which was charged with asset and portfolio management of the Church's real estate holdings. He received the Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce for Leadership.

Richard is active in the Urban Land Institute, the Bay Area General Counsel and Silicon Valley Groups, is a Trustee and former Vice Chair of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. He serves on the Board of Governors and Executive Committee of The Commonwealth Club of California, the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum, and on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Czech Greenways and Advisory Boards of the American Friends of the Czech Republic, the Prague Institute for Global Urban Development and NextBus.

In 1995, Richard was named Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic, and was elected Vice Dean of the San Francisco Consular Corps, which is composed of members representing 74 countries, the third largest diplomatic community in the U.S. In 1999, Richard was named Honorary Consul General of the Czech Republic.

Richard founded CzechTech, a high tech, venture capital people network in Silicon Valley, and recently authored an article, “Czech Republic: Investment in Freedom and the Future.” He was selected by GM for a 3 year road test of the EV1 electric vehicle; and as a participant in a US national security medical experiment at Stanford Hospital.