The A.D. Makepeace Company Board of Directors has unanimously elected Joseph W. O’Connor, a leader in real estate investment, as chairman of the Board.

O’Connor replaces Thomas A. Steele, who retired after 15 years of affiliation with Makepeace. He served as chairman of the Board of Directors since 1998, and plans to spend more time at his home in Nevada and with his grandchildren.

At the company’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting in May, Board member and former company president Christopher Makepeace thanked Steele for his years of service to the company, and his analytical approach.

“That discipline helped us to make better decisions and created the foundation of growth that we stand on today,” noted Michael P. Hogan, president and CEO of the A.D. Makepeace Company.

As Steele’s wife, Mary, looked on, Steele was presented with a college chair engraved with the Makepeace company logo, and a framed photo of a Makepeace cranberry box filled with berries.

O’Connor has been active in real estate since 1970 and is recognized as one of the investment community’s leaders in the field of real estate investing. In 1981, he founded Copley Real Estate Advisors, which grew to become one of the largest and most successful real estate investment advisory firms in the country. Fifteen years ago, O’Connor founded Singleton Associates, which provides real estate counseling, investment, and financing structure advice to commercial and residential developers, investors, and tenants.

A graduate of The College of the Holy Cross and Harvard Business School, O’Connor was elected chairman of the Urban Land Institute in 2001. He is a member of the Real Estate Roundtable in Washington, DC. Other recent affiliations include the board of Harvard Management Company, the New England Aquarium, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate, and the Children’s Medical Center in Boston.

The A.D. Makepeace Company is the region’s largest cranberry grower and the largest private property owner in eastern Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, the company is currently developing some 300,000 square feet of office, commercial, and residential space in Wareham, 200,000 square feet of commercial space in Rochester, and the mixed-use village in Plymouth known as River Run. The company also recently acquired Read Custom Soils and is expanding its custom soils production and sales efforts throughout New England.