RICHARD SOKOLOV | A profile Simon exec says Valley is home

The executive flies to his office in Indianapolis each week.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- The president of the largest mall operator in the country is quite happy to make his home in Boardman.
Richard Sokolov, president and chief operating officer of Simon Property Group, spends most of his work time at company headquarters in Indianapolis but said he and his wife, Susan, have no intention of moving there.
"This is where our friends are, and this is our home," said Sokolov, who gave presentations on mall development Thursday at Youngstown State University.
Career history
Sokolov, 53, a Philadelphia native and former Baltimore real estate lawyer, came to Boardman in 1982 when he joined the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp., which once was one of the nation's leading developers of malls and shopping centers.
DeBartolo Corp. later put most of its real estate holdings into a public company called DeBartolo Realty Corp., which was sold to Simon in 1996. Sokolov, who had been president of DeBartolo Realty, became president and chief executive of Simon.
"The Simon family has been very kind to allow me to maintain my residence here while working for them," he said.
He and his wife didn't want to move to Indianapolis in 1996 because they like the area and they had three daughters in Boardman schools.
One daughter graduated five years ago, while twin daughters graduated this year. Sokolov said he and his wife will still remain in the area.
"This is where we made our life," he said.
Busy schedule
That life includes a lot of travel for Sokolov. Simon has offices in Southwoods Executive Center in Boardman, but Sokolov said he's there only a couple days a month, plus weekends.
He spends between two and four days a week at company offices in Indianapolis, and he also travels to other parts of the country. He keeps an apartment and car in Indianapolis.
As the highest ranking executive who isn't a member of the Simon family, Sokolov earned $1.9 million last year, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Simon has about 50 employees in the Boardman office, including leasing, legal and payroll workers.
DeBartolo Corp.
Across Market Street from Simon's offices are the headquarters of The DeBartolo Corp., which is led by Denise DeBartolo York, daughter of the late Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. The company owns the San Francisco 49ers.
DeBartolo York and her brother, Eddie DeBartolo, split the family holdings two years ago. Eddie DeBartolo received millions of shares of Simon stock and now has returned to real estate development with a new company, DeBartolo Property Group, which is based in Tampa, Fla.
shilling@vindy.com