Tech Entrepreneur Stephen Ehikian to Oversee Federal Real Estate Portfolio

Fresh after taking the reins on Monday, the Trump administration has appointed new leaders of the General Services Administration (GSA) and its Public Buildings Service — two federal agencies tasked with managing, or in this case potentially disposing of, the U.S. government’s massive real estate portfolio.

Software entrepreneur Stephen Ehikian was appointed acting administrator and deputy administrator of the GSA, replacing Biden appointee Robin Carnahan, who had served in that role since 2021. Ehikian most recently served as vice president of AI for cloud-based software company Salesforce, and has degrees from Yale and Stanford. 

The GSA manages the federal government’s real estate portfolio, spanning some 360 million square feet of owned and leased space across the country. Under Carnahan, the GSA had systematically reduced that portfolio in a downsizing effort that began during the Obama administration and since 2015 has resulted in the disposition of about 1,000 buildings, totaling some 24 million square feet. 

Ehikian plans to “accelerate the adoption of technology throughout the government, drive maximum efficiency in government procurement” and work with Elon Musk’s non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency to achieve those goals, according to a statement announcing Ehikian’s appointment. 

“Under the Trump-Vance administration, I will return the GSA to its core purpose of making government work smarter and faster,” Ehikian said in a statement. “Moving forward, GSA will be laser-focused on driving an efficient government and enabling our sister agencies to provide better service to taxpayers at lower costs.”

The administration also tapped former investment banker and manufacturing executive Michael Peters to be commissioner of the Public Buildings Service. Peters mostly recently served as vice president of corporate strategy for Honeywell International, with previous roles as chief operating partner at dental services provider KOS Services (where he managed the company’s real estate portfolio and oversaw development of new space) and as an investment banker for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Credit Suisse (CS).

Peters replaces former Public Buildings Service Administrator Elliot Doomes, who had served in that role since late 2023 after nearly 20 years of public buildings-related work in Congress. Doomes spoke with Commercial Observer last week ahead of Trump’s inauguration — and his own resignation — about the GSA’s office downsizing policy. 

While nothing has yet been made official, the Trump administration is allegedly considering selling two-thirds of the government’s office portfolio and canceling three-quarters of its Washington, D.C., leases with private landlords, the Wall Street Journal wrote earlier this week. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.