Malin Burnham (born November 12, 1927) is an American sailor, real estate developer and philanthropist from

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Burnham was chairman of John Burnham & Company Insurance and Burnham Real Estate, the family business he joined in 1949, until 2008 when Burnham Real Estate was acquired by global real estate services firm

Cushman & Wakefield Cushman & Wakefield Inc. is an American global Commercial property, commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest commercial real est ...

. He continued to serve as vice chairman and chairman emeritus at Cushman & Wakefield until 2022. Burnham was also an active board member of 16 companies over his career. Throughout his career, Burnham has dedicated himself to many civic and philanthropic endeavors. He chaired and co-founded numerous organizations, most providing direct benefit to the San Diego region. Some of his most significant contributions include his work to bring the USS ''Midway'' to San Diego, the establishment of Sanford Burnham Prebys, one of seven fundamental research institutes in the United States, and in 2021 the founding of the Burnham Center for Community Advancement, a nonprofit think-and-do tank designed to help move the San Diego region forward. In April 2023, Burnham and his wife Roberta announced a $20 million donation to the Burnham Center for Community Advancement, the couple's largest charitable donation ever given to a single entity. Burnham is also a world-recognized sailor. At age 17, he became the youngest skipper to win a World Championship in the International Star Class. In 1987, he played a leading role in bringing the

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

to San Diego. Burnham was named “Mr. San Diego” in 1998 and “Philanthropist of the Year” in 2000.

Early life and education

Malin Burnham was born in San Diego, California on November 12, 1927, and graduated from Point Loma High School in 1945. He intended to enlist in the Navy to serve during World War II, having yet to receive a draft notice, but the war with Japan came to an end soon after his graduation. Burnham then attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where he was a walk-on on the sailing team. He became the first member of his family to graduate from college in 1949, receiving a B.S. in Industrial Engineering.

Sailing

Growing up in the

Point Loma Point Loma ( Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community in San Diego, California, United States. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the ...

neighborhood of San Diego, Burnham had a strong interest and talent in competitive sailing. At the age of 17, he won the Star World Championship in 1944 (crewing for Gerald Driscoll) and won it again 1945 (together with

Lowell North Lowell Orton North (December 2, 1929 – June 2, 2019) was an American competitive sailor and Olympic gold medalist. He competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where he received a gold medal in the Star class with the boat ''Nort ...

). Burnham also won four Lipton Cups and three San Francisco Challenge Cups as skipper, racing competitively nationally and internationally for 45 years. Burnham was involved in the

competition for three decades. In 1977, he was helmsman and skipper of ''Enterprise'', an S&S-designed 12-metre yacht, in America's Cup defender trials. In 1980, he sailed frequently as helmsman of the trial-horse boat for Dennis Conner's winning ''Freedom'' campaign. In 1983 he did the same for the ''Liberty'' campaign. In 1987, he helped bring the America's Cup to San Diego when he founded and served as President & CEO of the Sail America Foundation, which funded and provided logistical support for Dennis Conner's winning ''Stars & Stripes'' ''c''ampaign. In 1988 and 1992 he chaired San Diego Yacht Club's successful defenses of the America's Cup. San Diego hosted the America's Cup in 1988, 1992 and 1995. Burnham was named to the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2002 and was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2022, the position of assistant sailing coach at

was endowed as the Malin Burnham Assistant Sailing Coach.

Career

After graduating from Stanford, Burnham returned to San Diego and began working for Burnham Real Estate in 1949. Founded in 1891 by Burnham's grandfather, Burnham Real Estate grew to become one of the region's largest and most diversified full-service real estate companies. Burnham was chairman of the company until it was acquired by global real estate services firm

in 2008. After the 2008 acquisition, Burnham continued his real estate work as vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield until his retirement in 2022. Over his career, Burnham has been an active board member of 16 companies and played a role in the founding of three publicly traded companies. Beginning in 2014 he led a group of San Diegans seeking to acquire the ''

U-T San Diego ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

'' newspaper from Doug Manchester and run it as a nonprofit entity.

Philanthropy

Burnham is known for his extensive civic and charitable activities in the San Diego region, and is known to carry business cards that read "Community Before Self." ''Community Before Self'' is also the title of Burnham's autobiography.

Education and medical research

Burnham's donations and service to California State University, San Marcos, the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in San Diego, California, United States. Chartered in 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

, and

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

have contributed to the development of each institution's education, research, and community engagement missions. In 1996, the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation was renamed The Burnham Institute after Burnham joined with an anonymous donor to contribute $10 million. It was later renamed the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute after generous donations from T. Denny Sanford and Conrad Prebys. Along with former San Diego Padres owner John Moores, in 2004 Burnham founded the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego. He has continued to generously support the center, donating an additional $2.3 million in 2019. Most recently, Burnham committed $3 million to support UC San Diego's first downtown San Diego campus building at Park & Market. His donation created a new "Civic Collaboratory" within the building where the community can come together to focus on advancing the region.

Sports

In 1987, he helped bring the

to San Diego when he founded and served as President & CEO of the Sail America Foundation, which funded and provided logistical support for Dennis Conner's winning America's Cup campaign. In 1988 and 1992 he chaired San Diego Yacht Club's successful defenses of the America's Cup. Burnham has been a longtime member and supporter of San Diego Yacht Club and in 2010 the club named its new $8 million sailing center after the sailing enthusiast. In 1995, Burnham joined efforts to establish a

U.S. Olympic Training Center The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic Games, Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located i ...

Chula Vista, California Chula Vista ( ; , ) is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the Largest cities in Southern California, seventh-most populous city in Southern California ...

, which has benefited thousands of Olympians, Paralympians, community groups, and countless visitors from around the world. It is estimated that 369

Olympic medal An Olympic medal is awarded to successful competitors at one of the Olympic Games. There are three classes of medal to be won: gold medal, gold, silver medal, silver, and bronze medal, bronze, awarded to first, second, and third place, respect ...

s have been won by individuals who have trained at the center in San Diego. Burnham is also a former partner/owner of the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

and the San Diego Sockers.

Tourism

Burnham was the visionary and one of the leading voices in bringing the USS ''Midway'' aircraft carrier to San Diego's waterfront and recreating it into the USS ''Midway'' Museum. The museum welcomes over 1 million visitors a year and is the most-visited historic naval ship museum in the world. In 2013, Burnham was recognized for exemplifying the finest of American ideals with the Midway American Patriot Award, which recognizes individual acts and cumulative lifetime achievements. Burnham supported the capital campaign to make the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park a reality, which added an iconic cultural center to San Diego's embarcadero waterfront.

Board and committee service

Burnham has served on many regional boards and committees, including but not limited to: * Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the

, as co-endower * Downtown San Diego Partnership (formerly San Diegans, Inc.) * Institute of the Americas * Kyoto Prize Symposium * San Diego Foundation, as a founding member and Board of Governors member * San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce * San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation *

(Campanile Foundation and Fowler College of Business) * San Diego Strategic Roundtable, as a founder * San Diego Taxpayers Association * Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute * Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine * San Diego International Sports Council * San Diego Hall of Champions * Smart Border Coalition * Tri-Hospital Building Fund (Mercy, Sharp and Scripps) *

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

Rady School of Management The Rady School of Management is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of the University of California, San Diego, a public university in San Diego, California, United States. The school was established as the University of Califor ...

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...

of San Diego County * USS Midway Foundation *

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

Burnham has been awarded many honors because of his civic and philanthropic efforts, including the Midway American Patriot Award, Junior Achievement/San Diego Business Hall of Fame, Philanthropist of the Year, National Society of Fundraising Executives, Civic Entrepreneur of the Year, Mr. San Diego, and recognitions from the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and Rotary Club of San Diego.

Personal life

Burnham and his wife, Roberta, reside in

, a community of San Diego. Malin Burnham has four children, John, Cathe, Tom, and MaryBeth.

References

External links

Malin Burnham
executive profile,

Bloomberg Business ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnham, Malin American male sailors (sport) Star class sailors Businesspeople from San Diego Sailors (sport) from San Diego Philanthropists from California American businesspeople in real estate Living people 1927 births 1987 America's Cup sailors 1988 America's Cup sailors 1977 America's Cup sailors Star class world champions World champions in sailing for the United States 20th-century American sportsmen