D. JEFFREY CLEVEN

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D. JEFFREY CLEVEN Suddenly at his residence on September 17, 2015 in LaSalle, Ontario. Jeff is survived by his wife Kim of LaSalle, Ontario; daughters Nola and Liz of Winnipeg; his brother James and his daughters, Jacqueline Oltrop (Jason) and Catherine; sister Susan Hoplock (Julian Benson) and her daughters, Jill Harley (Hugh) and Rebecca Merriman (Damien). Jeff grew up on Kingston Row in Elm Park in south Winnipeg and was predeceased by his father Harald Cleven in 1956 and his mother Mary Cleven in 2005. Jeff and Kim met while working together at Civil Service Superannuation Board. She was his wife and best friend. They enjoyed living together in Vancouver, Winnipeg and most recently, upon Jeff's retirement, in LaSalle, Ontario along the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit. Jeff was a born leader at an early age and established lifelong relationships with many friends because of it. As a teenager Jeff was a counsellor at Camp Stephens and following school he took a position in Toronto with Great Northern Capital and Abbey Glen where he worked until 1976. He subsequently returned to Winnipeg to continue his journey in the real estate development sector with Sam Linhart. Jeff was extremely proud of his career with Sam. At the age of 29, he was charged with the responsibility for developing and leasing of many of the original Canadian and US office and industrial assets of Lakeview Properties Ltd. Jeff took ownership of everything that crossed his path and possessed a great work ethic and practical and analytical approach to everything. It served him well as he went on to take responsibility for the conception and development of other office and industrial assets for Lakeview and subsequently Lincor throughout Canada and the United States. After a brief stint with Great West Life and their US real estate portfolio in the 1980s, Jeff and Sam Linhart regrouped and reconstituted Lincor as Merit Properties Ltd. During his time with Sam Linhart, Jeff was responsible for the development and leasing of the Investors Group head offices at One Canada Center, 400 St. Mary, 200 Graham Avenue, and 330 St. Mary to mention a few. Prior to the sale of the Merit real estate assets to O and Y, Jeff began another career with the Manitoba Government Employees' pension plan (CSSB) as a consultant and then went on to a full time position building a sizeable and strong portfolio of real estate investments for Manitoba government pensioners and stakeholders. As a trailblazer Jeff believed in rolling up his sleeves on all of his transactions and looked behind everything to insure that he got what he expected. His people skills and confidence helped him identify the most progressive real estate asset managers and he was acutely focused on those partners that were like minded to him. He worked alongside some of the country's best real estate companies including Morguard, Montez Corporation, Carterra, Grosvenor International, Real Star and Shindico. A mercurial person in many respects he enjoyed a good work ethic and the kind of street smarts that gave him a strong track record of successful personal and business outcomes and relationships across Canada and the US. Jeff always saw the good in everyone and will be missed by all those who worked with him and whose lives he touched. A celebration of Jeff's life is being planned and an announcement will follow in the coming weeks .

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 03, 2015