John H. Gilliland
John H. Gilliland is president and founder of The Investment Real Estate Group of Companies, including Investment Real Estate, LLC, Investment Real Estate Management, LLC, Investment Real Estate Construction, LLC, and Moove In Self Storage.
Mr. Gilliland is a Pennsylvania native. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. During his tenure in California, he specialized in selling multi-family and investment real estate properties. Mr. Gilliland returned to his home state to work in the commercial real estate field.
Realizing the need for a specialist in the growing self-storage industry, Mr. Gilliland founded the brokerage firm of Investment Real Estate, LLC, in 1998. The brokerage firm is recognized as the leader in self-storage brokerage. In 2000, Mr. Gilliland established Investment Real Estate Management, LLC, a firm that provides self-storage clients with professional fee-based management services. In 2010, the third-party management contracts were sold to its two key employees. In 2004, Investment Real Estate Construction, LLC, was established to help clients through the design, permitting and construction of their self-storage projects. To date, IREC has built over two million square feet of self-storage.
Mr. Gilliland owns and operates a total of fifty-four self-storage facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa. He served as president of the Pennsylvania Self Storage Association from 2002–2006 and currently is a member of the Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and Northeast Self Storage Associations.
He was elected to the National Board of Directors of the Self Storage Association in 2003 and served as Chairman of the Board in 2007. In 2017 he served as Chairman of the SSA Foundation Board. Mr. Gilliland was inducted into the PASSA Hall of Fame in 2018 as a member of the inaugural class. In 2020, Mr. Gilliland received the honor of being inducted into the National Self Storage Association Hall of Fame. He is a PRO (Participating Regional Operator) Advisory Committee member for NSA (National Storage Affiliates).
Mr. Gilliland is a member of Vistage, a national organization of Chief Executive Officers. He also served as past Chair the Pennsylvania Board of the Volunteers of America, was an adult leader in the Boy Scouts of America, and is a member of Rotary International.
