San Francisco, Ca., USA - December 28, 2012, San Francisco, Ca., USA - Prologis, Inc., an owner, operator and developer of industrial real estate, announced that Walter C. Rakowich, co-CEO and member of the executive committee on the board of directors, will retire from both positions, effective December 31, 2012.
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Mr. Rakowich served as chief executive officer of Prologis from November 2008 until the merger with AMB in 2011. Prior to this, he served as president and chief operating officer from 2005 to 2008, and from 1998 to 2005 he was a managing director and chief financial officer. Previous to this, Mr. Rakowich held the position of senior vice president and director of the company's mid-Atlantic region, where he was responsible for expanding the reach of Prologis to the leading logistics markets in the Midwest and Atlantic states.
Prior to joining Prologis, Mr. Rakowich was a partner with real estate provider Trammell Crow Company, where he worked for nine years; before that was a senior audit and tax consultant for Price Waterhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr. Rakowich has recently been appointed to the board of Host Hotels & Resorts. He also serves on the real estate advisory boards of the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University and the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, as well as on the global leadership council at Colorado State University.
In 2010, the Penn State Alumni Association named Mr. Rakowich a Penn State Alumni Fellow, a lifetime designation and the highest award given by the association, recognizing outstanding professional accomplishment. Mr. Rakowich served as a member of the executive committee and currently serves on the board of governors for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), the primary industry group for REITs in the United States.
Mr. Rakowich received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his Bachelor of Science, with distinction, in accounting from Pennsylvania State University.
Hamid R. Moghadam will assume the role of CEO and chairman on January 1, 2013.
Mr. Moghadam is chairman of the board of directors and co-chief executive officer of Prologis. Mr. Moghadam co-founded the company’s predecessor, AMB Property Corporation, in 1983 and led the company through its initial public offering in 1997 and its merger with Prologis in 2011.
Mr. Moghadam has held a number of leadership roles within the real estate industry. Currently, he is a trustee of Urban Land Institute and a board member of its executive committee. In the past, he served as the chairman of National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and the Real Estate Investment Trust Political Action Committee (REITPAC), a director of Plum Creek Timber Company and a founding member of the Real Estate Roundtable.
Mr. Moghadam is a trustee of Stanford University and served as chairman of Stanford Management Company. Mr. Moghadam is also a past winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has been named CEO of the Year on eight separate occasions by four separate industry publications. He has also received numerous lifetime achievement awards from industry organizations, including NAREIT and NAIOP. ■