A new member of the Tejon Ranch Company (TRC) team has been named to help transition the 270,000-acre ranch into the planned 23,000-home Centennial city near the juncture of Interstate 5 and Highway 138; a rambling 35,000 acre “mountain village” resort with upscale commercial center and seven hotels with multiple golf courses across the I-5 from Lebec; and the Tejon Industrial Complex at the northern base of the I-5 Grapevine.

Teri Bjorn has been named to the position of Vice President and General Counsel. Bjorn served on the Bakersfield Planning Commission from 1987 to 1992, and chaired a joint City/County commission to hear and approve a new general plan for the metropolitan area.

She recently completed a term as a community member of The Bakersfield Californian’s editorial board, Barry Zoeller, V.P. of TRC Corporate Communications, wrote in a January 16 press release.

Bjorn is known as a lively and colorful figure in Bakersfield, “a dynamite dancer and a master storyteller, who specializes in real estate….” a friend reported.

Mountain Community environmental “watchdog” Jan de Leeuw said he hopes she “is more responsive to local concerns than her predecessor [Dennis Mullins, who departed this summer].”

As General Counsel, Bjorn will serve as Tejon Ranch Co.’s chief legal representative, handling all legal matters from real estate transactions to corporate governance issues related to Tejon Ranch’s status as a publicly traded company.

Robert A. Stine, President and CEO for TRC said, “She has a keen mind, and with her legal experience and expertise, she will be a valuable member of our senior leadership group.”

According to the TRC press release, Bjorn has more than 27 years of legal experience, specializing in transactional real estate and land use law.

Biographical items in the release state that she earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French language and literature from the University of Iowa. She received her law degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. In 1984, she became the first woman partner in a law firm in Kern County, then became the first woman partner at Clifford & Brown, where she practiced for 18 years. Before joining TRC, she was Of Counsel in the Bakersfield office of the Sacramento-based law firm of Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard.

Bjorn is a member of the American Bar Association, the California and Oregon Bar Associations, the Kern County Bar Association, and the Kern County Women Lawyers Association.

This is part of the January 26, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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