PEBBLE BEACH — Bill Perocchi will retire as CEO of Pebble Beach Co. and David Stivers will succeed him as CEO effective July 1 while Perocchi continues as co-chairman of the board of directors along with Brian Ferris and Heidi Ueberroth, the company announced Monday.
Perocchi said Stivers has played an important role in many areas of the company over the past 21 years
“I’ve known David for 27 years that we’ve worked together, 21 of which were at Pebble Beach, and David is incredibly smart,” he said. “He has a tremendous work ethic and he’s extremely passionate about Pebble Beach. He’s got the dual ability of being able to get into the details on things and at the same time think strategically.
“I don’t think we’ll miss a beat with David at the helm and I think he’ll even bring some new and fresh thinking to the resort and we have a great management team supporting them all.”
Stivers, the current president of Pebble Beach Co., has led sales and marketing, reservations, retail, strategic planning, technology, legal, real estate, and owner relations for the company. He was heavily involved in all special events, including serving as chairman of the 2019 U.S. Open.
“David has been involved in virtually every important strategic decision since the beginning of our ownership,” Ferris and Ueberroth said in a prepared statement.
Stivers is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he played football and baseball, and Harvard Law School. He began his career as a corporate lawyer at Latham & Watkins in Orange County. Before joining Pebble Beach Co. in 1999, Stivers served as a senior executive at Doubletree Hotels and Promus Hotels. He has been married for 31 years to his wife, Jean. They have four adult children.
Stivers said his two main focuses moving forward will be continuing to guide Pebble Beach Co. out of the pandemic in the short term and in the long term looking at the five-year strategic plan the company had put together before the pandemic hit a year ago.
“So we’ll dust that off and look at each one of those opportunities and see which ones we think make the most sense for us moving forward,” he said. “One of our biggest and most important values is to keep improving.”
Stivers pointed to possible renovations at Spanish Bay, which he said could use more meeting space, as an example of part of the long-term plan.
Pebble Beach Resort’s renovated short course, designed with the help of Tiger Woods and located on the former site of the historic Peter Hay Golf Course, will open for play April 16. Stivers said the company’s phones were ringing off the hook with people looking to book tee times last week after the opening date was announced.
“We are really excited with how that turned out with the partnership and guidance of Tiger Woods and his design team,” Stivers said. “I think he’s really created something that’s special.”
Ground will be broken shortly on a restaurant and large patio area adjacent to the putting green.
Stivers said he has big shoes to fill as Perocchi retires but he looks forward to continuing building on the great culture that Perocchi and the rest of the senior team have developed over the years.
“He’s probably the smartest guy in the room all the time, he’s hard-working, he’s passionate, he’s committed, but probably the most important thing about Bill is that he has a tremendous amount of empathy,” Stivers said. “You see that in his connection with our employees. You see that with the involvement that he and his wife Nancy have with the local community, and that’s really been in my opinion the biggest reason for his success, is that he really cares about people.”
Perocchi has served as chief executive officer since the company was acquired almost 22 years ago by an investment group led by Arnold Palmer, Richard Ferris, Peter Ueberroth and Clint Eastwood from Lone Cypress Co., a Japanese partnership between Taiheiyo Club Inc. and Sumitomo Credit Services Ltd.
Janine Chicourrat, who now serves as the Portola Hotel & Spa managing director and the Monterey County Hospitality Association board chair, worked her way up in Pebble Beach Co. under Perocchi. During her time at Pebble Beach, Perocchi named her the first female general manager in the history of the company.
“He was tough but he was fair and most importantly he was always honest,” Chicourrat said. “To have those three qualities in a boss is ideal, so I was very, very fortunate to be able to learn from him. He definitely teaches you a lot when you work for him.”
Chicourrat said Perocchi’s work in helping others in the business community and the overall Monterey Peninsula community stands out.
“The Boys & Girls Clubs really helped save him as a child and he recognizes the fact that you need to give back,” she said. “When he first got here, he became heavily involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs and just gave back. His wife and his children all worked and helped with the Boys & Girls Clubs and outside of that he recognized the value of the United Way.”
Chicourrat said Perocchi would encourage all Pebble Beach Co. employees, even if they had little to spare, to volunteer and help out in the community.
Like Chicourrat, Monterey Couty Supervisor Mary Adams has worked with Perocchi in multiple roles. Before being elected to serve District 5 on the Board of Supervisors, she spent 14 years as president and CEO of United Way Monterey County. She said he is a very humble person.
“I remember meeting him the first time after he took over and I had just started at United Way and I met him at the Boys & Girls Clubs,” she said. “The minute I met him I could tell this is a really good man, honestly, and enjoyed the working relationship we had for years while always admiring his leadership skills, not just in the community but just how he managed people. He was just so impressive.”
Adams said she has relied on Perocchi’s leadership through multiple crises since she was elected. Just recently, Adams said she took a trip to the vaccination clinic at Spanish Bay and saw Perocchi and Stivers helping volunteer at a table.
“They were right there and they knew the employees’ names and the employees know them,” she said. “To see the good time that they were having doing work to help move this whole vaccine process along, it spoke volumes.”
Perocchi said most of the company’s employees have come back to work since things reopened for the resort Feb. 1 and 70% of them have been vaccinated. Business has picked up considerably since Feb. 1 and the company’s future bookings are looking even better.
Under Perocchi’s leadership, the company hosted three U.S. Opens (2000, 2010 and 2019) and two U.S. Amateurs (1999 and 2018) at Pebble Beach Golf Links. He also guided the company through major challenges after 9/11, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Over that time, the company invested over $500 million on resort improvements and has been involved in community activities and charitable causes. Some of the new improvements in recent years include redoing all of the rooms, adding the Fairway One and Visitors Center buildings and the new practice facility.
“Bill was instrumental in helping us purchase Pebble Beach 22 years ago, and has had tremendous success as CEO since then. He is widely respected by our ownership group, community and employees,” said founding partners Richard Ferris and Peter Ueberroth. “Possibly his greatest accomplishment has been navigating the Company through some extremely difficult challenges and having our resort emerge even stronger each time. We are grateful for Bill’s leadership, determination, and vision during his tenure.”
While Ted Balestreri, CEO of the Cannery Row Co. and co-founder of the Sardine Factory restaurant, sees Perocchi as one of his competitors, he said while Perocchi is understated and approachable, he is also one of the hardest working, most dedicated CEOs he’s ever met.
“He lived and breathed Pebble Beach,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He was completely dedicated to making Pebble Beach a better place.”
Perocchi said he looks forward to taking some time off in retirement and spending more time helping local nonprofits with his wife while making more visits back to the Boston area.
“During normal time, being CEO of a world-class golf resort, one of the best golf resorts in the world, is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-per-week job,” he said. “That’s during normal times and last year’s been anything but normal. So I’m probably looking forward to recharging my batteries a little bit while continuing my involvement in Pebble Beach as co-chair and importantly continuing to be involved in the community.”
