James J. Houlihan is a graduate of Manhattan Preparatory School (1970) and of Fordham University School of Business (CBA 1974). Mr. Houlihan is a licensed Real Estate Broker and represents the fourth generation in a family business founded in 1891 by his great-grandfather. Mr. Houlihan is a partner at Houlihan-Parnes Realtors, LLC of White Plains, New York, a multi-faceted commercial real estate firm and has managed its daily operations since becoming a partner in 1987. Mr. Houlihan is an active partner in Metro Property Group, LLC, a commercial property management company located in Westchester County, as well as a partner in HP Capital, LLC – a mortgage service company, and GHP Office Realty, LLC, an entity involved in the principal acquisition and management and leasing of office buildings. Mr. Houlihan is also on the Board of Directors for Q10 Capital, LLC, which is a national leader in commercial real estate capital.

Since 1973, Mr. Houlihan has been active in many areas of the commercial real estate industry throughout the United States with a main emphasis on the metropolitan New York area. Mr. Houlihan has been retained by many leading financial and not-for-profit and educational institutions as both a consultant and agent to consult, manage, lease, acquire, renovate and sell real estate.

Mr. Houlihan is the past President of the Apartment Owners Advisory Council of Westchester (1984-1986) and has served as a Chairman of the Board of Directors as well. He is the past Chairman of the prestigious Sales Brokers Committee of the Real Estate Board of New York. In 1999 Mr. Houlihan was a winner of the “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Award” from the Real Estate Board of New York and runner up for their 2006 award.

Mr. Houlihan has served as Chairman of the Great Hunger Memorial Committee of Westchester County that created a monument commemorating “An Gorta Mor”, the period known as The Great Hunger in Ireland (1845-1851). Mr. Houlihan has been honored as a recipient of the prestigious “Ellis Island Medal of Honor” in 2000 for his varied humanitarian efforts. He was also named to Irish America’s magazine “Top 100” list in 2001 and to their Top 100 Business list annually from 2006 through 2009. He received the Irish Arts Center’s “Spirit of Ireland” award in 2001 and the Irish American Building Society award in 2007.

Mr. Houlihan frequently speaks to industry groups and has also lectured at Columbia University, New York University, Fordham University and the New School for Social Research.

Mr. Houlihan has served on the Westchester County Parks Department Board. He was the Committee Chairman for the successful fundraising effort for The Rising, a memorial dedicated to the 109 Westchester County residents who lost their lives on the tragic day of September 11, 2001. The Westchester County Board of Legislators honored him with the first ever Chairman’s Medal of Gratitude in 2004. Westchester County Parks Department honored Mr. Houlihan with their “Best Friends Award” in 2010.


Mr. Houlihan curates the acclaimed exhibit “The Fighting Irishmen: A Celebration of the Celtic Warrior”. It originally opened in the fall of 2006 at the Irish Arts Center, and continued at the South Street Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan in 2007, at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College in 2008, Ulster American Folk Park in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 2009 and at the GAA Museum at Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland in 2010.
Mr. Houlihan serves on the Executive Committee of the President’s Council of Fordham University and the Board of Directors of the Irish Arts Center. Mr. Houlihan, his wife Pat, and their five children, currently reside in Bronxville, New York.