John Arrillaga (April 3, 1937 – January 24, 2022) was an American billionaire real estate developer and philanthropist who was one of the largest landowners in Silicon Valley.
Arrillaga was born on April 3, 1937, in Inglewood, California,[2][3] one of five children in a lower-middle-class home with his mother, Freida, and father, Gabriel, who traced his roots to the Basque region.
[6] He played on the university' basketball team and earned first-team all-conference[7] and third-team All American honors for the 1959-60 season.
[8] After he graduated from Stanford with a bachelor's degree in geography,[6] Arrillaga played basketball for Bilbao Águilas in Spain's Liga Nacional, and was the league's second highest point-scorer.
[9] Arrillaga established his career as a real estate developer starting in the 1960s, partnering with Richard Peery in acquiring California farmland which they converted into office space.
[6] Arrillaga and Peery converted thousands of acres of farmland into office space in cities such as Mountain View, San Jose, and Sunnyvale to meet the industry's needs.
He personally supervised the major renovation of Stanford Stadium in 2005–2006 with an insistence that it be completed in nine months, so as not to cause any disruption to the football season.