Prologis, the global industrial real estate investment trust that's about to become even bigger later this year, announced a pair of major executive moves.
The San Francisco-based REIT said Dan Letter, 45, who now serves as its global head of capital deployment, is set to become company president effective Jan. 1. That same day, Chief Investment Officer Gene Reilly is in line to become vice chairman of the global real estate firm.
The moves come as Prologis, the world's largest owner and developer of warehouses and distribution and fulfillment centers with more than 1 billion square feet of space in operation, is close to finalizing a deal to acquire fellow industrial REIT Duke Realty Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at $26 billion.
Prologis said Letter also would take on the role of chief investment officer as part of the president position when Reilly becomes vice chairman. The company currently does not have a president.
"We had the role in the past, many years ago, so this is a new role for this time in our history," Prologis spokesperson Chintan Talati said in an email.
When Letter takes over as Prologis president, he's set to oversee the REIT's global capital deployment and operations teams that cover 19 countries on four continents. At that point, Prologis veteran Joseph Ghazal, who now serves as chief investment officer for Europe and is based in the Netherlands, will become the REIT's global head of capital deployment.
The high-ranking personnel changes are part of Prologis' succession planning process, Prologis said.
Letter has worked at Prologis and predecessor AMB Property Corp. since 2004. He has served in several roles including president of Prologis' central region. AMB acquired Prologis in 2011 and assumed the Prologis name upon integration of the two companies.
Letter "has been instrumental to our growth," Prologis CEO and co-founder Hamid Moghadam said in a statement.
Riley, 61, has served as Prologis' chief investment officer since March 2019 and held several positions since joining the company in 2003. From 2011-2019, he served as CEO of the Americas. He was one of the REIT's highest-paid executives in 2021 when he received total compensation of just over $10 million, according to Prologis' 2022 proxy statement.
Reilly has played a key role in Prologis' "growth and evolution over the past two decades" when the REIT dramatically increased its equity market capitalization, Moghadam said.