Robert J. Abernethy is President of American Standard Development Company and Self Storage Management Company as well as Managing Director of Metropolitan Investments, LLC. For well over two decades, Mr. Abernethy served as the Director of Public Storage where he additionally served as Chairman of the Audit Committee. Since 1988, he has been a member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. He is a member of the Self Storage Association’s Hall of Fame and was Director of the Self Service Storage Association where he served as the National Vice President, Regional President, Secretary, and Treasurer. He is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of Lambda Alpha International. He has been licensed as a California General Building Contractor since 1975.
In addition to currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors at the Truman Center for National Policy, Mr. Abernethy is a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University as well as a trustee of Davidson College and Loyola Marymount University. In July 2010, Mr. Abernethy became a member of the US Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. He currently serves as a member of the Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital's Advisory Council for the Center for Synergy, Innovation and Bioengineering and the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows. He is a member of the Harriman Society; Harvard Partners; Human Rights Watch; the UCLA Chancellor’s Cabinet; the UCLA Arts Board of Visitors; and serves on the Advisory Council of The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies - Washington and Bologna. He serves on the Executive Committee and as Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council and the Pacific Council on International Policy, and is a member of the Chairman’s Forum of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Board member of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship; the Brookings Institution; the RAND Center for Global Risk and Security; the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles; the Music Center of Los Angeles County; the Hollywood Bowl; and the Peabody Conservatory.
Mr. Abernethy received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University; a MBA from Harvard Business School; certificates in Real Estate and Construction Management from UCLA; and was formerly employed by Hughes Aircraft Company as Controller of its Technology Division.