Joe Bonin

ECP Commercial's La Mesa headquarters is filled with bright, enthusiastic young people, the youngest of whom is Chairman Joe Bonin's 14-year-old son on a stint during winter break. The air hums with their respect and admiration for the man who guides and encourages them on their career paths.
Bonin's easy confidence and self-assuredness is likely a result of finding what he was meant to do early in life. Originally from Buffalo, N.Y., he was, at 17, the youngest hire in the history of the John Burnham Co. Working for Alan Nevin, he managed the first apartment-to-condominium conversion in the state of California.
Bonin was 25 when he received his B.S. in Real Estate from National University in 1986, the same year he and two partners purchased Owley-Gibson and formed East County Properties. The partners split in 1990 and ECP Commercial is an iteration of that company, which Bonin now runs with Robert Phillips and Jay Jackson.