Ben Hakimian

Cathedral District Board of Directors

Ben Hakimian is the founder and CEO of Hakimian Holdings; a rapidly expanding retail shopping center investment firm headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. He has served on the board of BB&T Bank (now Truist Financial) since December of 2013 and prior to that served on the board of Prosperity Bank for 14 years.

Prior to Hakimian Holdings, Ben founded and built one of the largest recycled auto parts distributors in the Southeast United States; E Auto Parts. At the height of the business, he began investing excess earnings into commercial real estate in Jacksonville and in the surrounding Northeast Florida area. In 2006, he transitioned into a full-time commercial real estate investor. Today, he owns and operates over a million square feet of retail shopping centers in the region with plenty more growth on the horizon.

Ben studied engineering at the University of Nebraska at Omaha before venturing to build his life in Jacksonville, Florida in 1980. He now shares six children with his wife, Paige, to whom he has been married for 31 years. They raised their children with a heavy emphasis on education enrolling them in The Bolles School and Episcopal School of Jacksonville college preparatory schools with them going on to attend some of the top universities in the Southeast United States including Dartmouth College, University of Florida, Georgia Tech, The George Washington University, and Georgetown University.

Aside from family and business, Ben has passion for both education and healthcare. He serves as a Board Member of Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida since July 2017 mentoring up-and-coming student entrepreneurs in the business school and serves of the Board of Baptist Health Foundation since April of 2020.