Geoffrey B. Koblick ’73

Jeff Koblick pledged Cal Beta SAE in Fall of 1973. While there he worked as House breakfast and lunch cook and served as Pledge Trainer for a couple of outstanding pledge classes. He graduated in 1976 with a BA in Economics and went on to get his JD from UC San Francisco Hastings School of Law in 1979. Soon thereafter he married Phyllis Uehisa, a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta House (next door to SAE), who he met at a “Little Sisters” party at the SAE House. They now have two daughters, Allison, a sophomore at Cal, and Christina, a senior at Branson High School.

In 2002, Koblick heard the Cal Beta SAE Fraternity House at 2722 Bancroft Way was shut down due to code violations and the fraternity was down to 6 members. Brian Rogers and Bill Rodgers had raised $100,000 from many Alums to keep the House going while a plan was agreed upon for how to move forward. Somehow Bill Rodgers contacted Koblick, and because of his real estate background, Koblick decided to get involved with renovating the House.

Along with Bill Rodgers, Ted Bartlett, Will Bartlett and Brian Rogers, Koblick then helped secure a $1.1M loan from Mechanics Bank for remodeling the House. Architect Perry Haviland and Ted Bartlett helped with the plans for the remodel effort and Russ Lococo was the contractor. The House was remodeled in a 4-5 month time frame so we could be open for the Fall 2003 semester.

Chris Pawlik and Danny Gold were instrumental in recruiting new members and many boarders to fill the House the first year. Then Koblick met Ross Biestman walking around the upstairs hallway of the House one August night. Ross, whose father Mark had pledged Cal Beta SAE in 1976, joined the House and quickly became president and recruited several outstanding new members, many from the national champion Cal Rugby team, and the House was soon full of Active Members by Fall 2004. Koblick has helped manage the House ever since then.

When not helping at SAE, Koblick is a Real Estate Investment Fund Manager, and is the Manager of Magna Real Estate, LLC, a $45M real estate investment fund. Magna Real Estate invests in and manages commercial properties, including professional office buildings, apartments, and retail shopping centers in the Bay Area.

Back in 1983, prior to getting involved in the real estate business, Koblick founded a software company called IMSI with a couple of other Cal Beta SAE’s, Bob Mayer and Dr. John Deane. They grew the company to $60M in revenues and took it public on the NASDAQ.

Koblick is an avid swimmer and has swum the “Trans Tahoe” many times with a team of other old Cal guys (one a KDR alum and one a SNU alum). He has coached numerous youth sports over the years as his daughters were growing up. In addition to serving on the House Corporation for Cal Beta SAE Educational Institute., Inc., he is a Board member of the Marin General Hospital Foundation and the Ross Valley Youth Soccer League.