B ill Cummings is an American real estate developer and philanthropist with a remarkable story of building a commercial property empire in suburban Boston. He began his career by acquiring a small fruit juice company in 1964, which he later sold to create the capital for his first real estate purchase. In 1970, he bought his first building and founded Cummings Properties.

Over the next five decades, he built his company into one of the largest commercial real estate firms in Massachusetts, with a portfolio of over 11 million square feet of office, lab, and industrial space. His strategy was to buy, build, and hold properties for the long term, focusing on the suburban market north of Boston. In a move of extraordinary generosity, he and his wife, Joyce, became among the first billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge, and they have since transferred ownership of the vast majority of their real estate portfolio to their charitable foundation, the Cummings Foundation. The foundation now receives most of the rental income from the properties and has become one of the largest philanthropic organizations in New England.