David Hilliard

2023 Alumni Service Award

David Hilliard has dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy over the years — as a student and alumnus — to Carnegie Mellon University. His generosity, both in time and financial support, promotes student and alumni success and positively contributes to the university culture.

David serves on the Andrew Carnegie Society Board and Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean’s Board of Advisors. These roles provide the opportunity for him to share his invaluable leadership experience and help guide programs and initiatives for both students and alumni. As a past CMU Alumni Association Board member, David applied his professional leadership expertise to build and strengthen connections between alumni and the university and each other. Along with his board activities, David can be found attending and frequently hosting Los Angeles-based alumni events, offering career advice to students, and showing his Tartan pride cheering on Buggy every year at Spring Carnival. Along with his fellow 1973 volunteer classmates, he helped to organize one of the most successful 50th reunion celebrations ever.

Since 1991, David has served as president and co-founder of Symphony Development, a California firm that develops and manages premium off-campus student housing as well as multi-family, mixed-use and retail properties with an eye toward sustainability. David’s environmental focus was sparked by a tour of Carnegie Mellon’s Stever House, the first LEED certified on-campus residence in the country. Taking his passion back to Los Angeles, Symphony developed the first LEED Platinum certified off-campus student residence in the country at the University of Southern California.

Prior to co-founding Symphony Development, David founded and led his own international institutional real estate and bank advisory firm, Hilliard Properties. He also held the role of first vice president and Los Angeles regional manager with the real estate industries group of Security Pacific Bank. In this position, David managed a $1 billion commercial and construction financing portfolio.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dietrich College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.