real estate developer bank executive
Seligman was born to a Jewish family in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Irving R. Seligman. His father founded Seligman & Associates, Incorporated. in 1954 which initially focused on building garages in Detroit but soon expanded into building single family homes in Detroit and Las Vegas.
He attended the Detroit Country Day School and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from University of Michigan.
In 1971, Seligman & Associates went public and in 1973, Seligman joined his father"s company as Vice President of Seligman of Florida, Incorporated. In 1976, he became Vice-President of Seligman & Associates, responsible for building single-family homes and managing owned multi-family properties. And in 1977, he became President, Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Seligman & Associates.
By 1985, Seligman had developed over 10,000 units.
In 1984, he founded the Sterling Savings and Loan Association which focused on residential mortgage lending and servicing. In 1987, the Seligman family took Seligman private.
In 1990, Sterling expanded into commercial real estate lending. In 1993, Sterling Savings and Loan was renamed Sterling Bank and Trust, Financial Stability Board. In 1995, the bank had $78 million in assets.
By 2015, Sterling had grown to $1.3 billion bank in assets with 18 branches in the San Francisco area and its headquarters in Southfield, Michigan.
In 2015, it pioneered the use of robotic greeters. In 1999, Seligman retired from Sterling to focus on real estate activities reallocating the bulk of the firms" portfolio to California by selling most of its Detroit area assets. He is a minority owner of the San Francisco Giants major league baseball team via his membership in an ownership group (San Francisco Baseball Associates Limited Liability Company) led by Charles Bartlett Johnson (which also includes Peter Magowan, Philip Halperin, Allan Byer, David South Wolff, and Larry Baer), that purchased the team from Bob Lurie in 1992.
Seligman is active in Jewish causes.
Seligman served on the Capital Planning Committee at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, was a board member of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, served on the board of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and served as a Committee Member with Birthright Israel.
