Roy March

Who they are

Roy March has spent nearly half a century at Eastdil Secured. He started as an intern in the late 1970s and has run the firm since 2006, around the time of its combination under Wells Fargo. The Promote calls him a certified 🐐. Tracing his career, it says, is like tracing the modern deal history of institutional real estate: Blackstone's buyout of Equity Office Properties, Anbang's purchase of the Waldorf Astoria, Harry Macklowe's GM Building, and Ivanhoé Cambridge at 3 Bryant Park. EOP also produced the industry's favorite piece of March lore, in which Blackstone's Jon Gray cut March's famous hair in the boardroom after the deal closed. March has described that period's frenzy as being like a short-order cook.

He has been equally busy rearranging Eastdil's own capital stack, a firm tradition dating back to founder Ben Lambert. In 2019 March and Mike Van Konynenburg (Mike VK) led a management buyout of most of Wells Fargo's stake, backed by Temasek and Guggenheim at a valuation just north of $400M. In 2025 the firm hired BDT & MSD to line up new capital, and in March 2026 Savills agreed to buy Eastdil for about $1.1B in enterprise value. Under the deal VK becomes CEO and March becomes executive chairman.

What that title means in practice is the open question. March went unmentioned on the Savills earnings call, though a source stressed that he would stay heavily involved with clients. He still works on marquee assignments, joining Will Silverman and Gary Phillips on the $1B-plus sale of 590 Madison. His ties to that building go back to Eastdil's 1998 marketing of it for Odyssey Partners. With a C-suite Rolodex that spans the globe, he made Commercial Observer's 2026 Power 100 at #47, which The Promote noted was interesting given VK's new title.