Shankh Mitra, David Neithercut, and Paul
Williams Bring Significant Financial, Real Estate Investing, and
Corporate Governance Expertise and Leadership Experience
Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) announced today the appointment of
three new members to its Board of Trustees, effective January 1,
2021, including:
- Shankh Mitra, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment
Officer and director of Welltower Inc.
- David Neithercut, former President and Chief Executive
Officer and current Board member of Equity Residential.
- Paul Williams, President of the National Association of
Corporate Directors (NACD) Chicago Chapter.
The Company also announced that three current Trustees, Uri P.
Harkham, B. Wayne Hughes, Jr., and Daniel C. Staton, have decided
to retire from the Board effective December 31, 2020. Following
these changes, the Board will have appointed five independent
Trustees within the last 18 months.
“We are pleased to welcome Shankh, David, and Paul to the
Board,” said Ronald L. Havner, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Public
Storage. “With deep real estate investing experience, corporate
governance expertise, and proven track records as public company
leaders and board members, they will bring valuable perspectives
and skillsets that complement those of our current Trustees.
Further, these highly-qualified new Trustees bring diverse
backgrounds and experiences, and they have a demonstrated focus on
sustainable value-creation, which will support the Board’s and
management’s strategy to promote the long-term resilience of our
business and enhance shareholder value. I would like to thank our
Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee for its continued work
and diligence, and I am confident these new Trustees are the right
additions to our Board. I would also like to thank Uri, Wayne, and
Dan for their years of service as Trustees of Public Storage. Over
the past two decades, these retiring Trustees have helped shepherd
Public Storage to truly extraordinary growth while maintaining
financial discipline and an incredibly strong balance sheet. We
wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”
“The Public Storage Board continuously reviews our Board
composition to ensure that we are aligned with the interests of our
stakeholders, and today’s announcement follows engagement and input
from our shareholders,” added Mr. Havner. “With the addition of
Shankh, David, and Paul, the Company has added five independent
directors in the past 18 months. We will continue to take actions
that we believe will enable the successful execution of our
strategy to deliver long-term value for our shareholders,
customers, and employees.”
“The Board and management team remain focused on our key
strategic initiatives, enabling us to build on our strong
foundation and drive innovation across our platform,” said Joe
Russell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Public Storage.
“I look forward to working with Shankh, David, Paul and the entire
Board to achieve these objectives as we continue to create
long-term value for Public Storage shareholders.”
New Independent Directors
Shankh Mitra
Mr. Mitra said, “Public Storage has built a nationally
recognized brand and unmatched scale in the self-storage industry.
In today’s environment, innovation and efficiency are more
important than ever, and I strongly believe Public Storage is
well-positioned to leverage these competitive advantages to capture
the opportunities ahead. I look forward to bringing my expertise to
the Board to help advance Public Storage’s strategic initiatives
and drive value for its shareholders, employees and loyal
customers.”
Mr. Mitra is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment
Officer of Welltower Inc., and serves on the Company’s Board of
Directors. Since joining Welltower in 2016, he has also served as
Senior Vice President, Finance, Senior Vice President, Investments,
Executive Vice President, Vice Chairman, and Chief Operating
Officer before assuming his current role. Prior to joining
Welltower, Mr. Mitra was a Portfolio Manager, Real Estate
Securities, at Millennium Management, where he managed an
accomplished team of investment professionals responsible for
bottom-up underwriting of commercial real estate companies and
portfolios, security selection, quantitative portfolio and risk
management. He also held Senior Analyst positions at Citadel
Investment Group and Fidelity Investments after beginning his
career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Mitra received an M.B.A. from
Columbia Business School specializing in Applied Value Investing
and a bachelor's degree in Engineering from Jadavpur
University.
David Neithercut
Mr. Neithercut said, “I have long respected Public Storage’s
leadership in both the self-storage sector and real estate
generally. As a veteran of the REIT space, I recognize the strength
of Public Storage’s business and financial foundation, as well as
the talent of the management team and Board. I am excited to work
alongside my fellow Trustees to further the Company’s focus on
long-term resilience and execute on its strategic growth
initiatives.”
Mr. Neithercut served as Chief Executive Officer of Equity
Residential from January 2006 until his retirement in December 2018
and President of the Company from May 2005 to September 2018. He
was Executive Vice President—Corporate Strategy of the Company from
January 2004 to May 2005, and Executive Vice President and Chief
Financial Officer of the Company from February 1995 to August 2004.
Prior to joining Equity Residential, Mr. Neithercut served as
Senior Vice President of Finance for Equity Group Investments. He
serves on the MBA Real Estate Program Advisory Board at Columbia
University and as a trustee of Americold Realty Trust (NYSE:COLD).
Mr. Neithercut is a former Chairman and member of the Advisory
Board of Governors of the National Association of Real Estate
Investment Trusts (Nareit) and formerly served on the Policy
Advisory Board of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard
University. Mr. Neithercut received an M.B.A. from the Columbia
University Graduate School of Business.
Paul Williams
Mr. Williams said, “It is a privilege to be appointed to Public
Storage’s Board of Trustees, and I’m excited by the opportunity to
build on the Company’s long history of success. In addition to a
strong brand and deep customer loyalty, Public Storage has a
demonstrated commitment to empowering its employees and creating a
diverse and inclusive workplace. Today’s appointments underscore
the Company’s commitment to continually enhancing its corporate
governance, and I’m honored to contribute my skills and experience
to furthering Public Storage’s winning culture as a driver of value
creation.”
Mr. Williams is a seasoned public and private company director
with extensive corporate governance expertise and currently serves
as President of the National Association of Corporate Directors
(NACD) Chicago Chapter. He is the retired Vice President, Chief
Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Cardinal Health, Inc. and
served as Managing Director of Allegis Partners and as a Partner
and Managing Director of Major, Lindsey & Africa, LLC, an
executive recruiting firm, from 2005 until his retirement in 2018.
Mr. Williams has served as a member of the board of directors of
Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE: CMP) since 2009 and has
served on the board of directors of several funds in the American
Funds mutual fund family (part of Capital Group) since early 2020.
Mr. Williams previously served on the boards of directors of State
Auto Financial Corporation, Bob Evans Farms, Inc., and Essendant,
Inc. (f/k/a United Stationers Inc.). Mr. Williams is a member of
the Economic Club of Chicago. Mr. Williams received an
undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Harvard University and a J.D.
from Yale Law School.
Other Matters
Public Storage and Elliott Associates, L.P. (“Elliott”) have had
constructive discussions in recent weeks. In connection with those
discussions, Elliott confidentially submitted, before the
nomination deadline of December 12, 2020, the names of six nominees
for election to the Public Storage Board of Trustees.
Company Information
Public Storage, a member of the S&P 500 and FT Global 500,
is a REIT that primarily acquires, develops, owns and operates
self-storage facilities. At September 30, 2020, we had: (i)
interests in 2,504 self-storage facilities located in 38 states
with approximately 171 million net rentable square feet in the
United States, (ii) an approximate 35% common equity interest in
Shurgard Self Storage SA (Euronext Brussels:SHUR) which owned 239
self-storage facilities located in seven Western European nations
with approximately 13 million net rentable square feet operated
under the “Shurgard” brand and (iii) an approximate 42% common
equity interest in PS Business Parks, Inc. (NYSE:PSB) which owned
and operated approximately 28 million rentable square feet of
commercial space at September 30, 2020. Our headquarters are
located in Glendale, California.
Additional information about Public Storage is available on the
Company’s website at PublicStorage.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. All statements in this press release, other than statements
of historical fact, are forward-looking statements which may be
identified by the use of the words “expects,” “believes,”
“anticipates,” “should,” “estimates” and similar expressions. These
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties, which may cause our actual results and performance
to be materially different from those expressed or implied in the
forward-looking statements. Factors and risks that may impact
future results and performance include, but are not limited to,
those described in Part 1, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in our most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 25, 2020 and in our
other filings with the SEC including: general risks associated with
the ownership and operation of real estate, including changes in
demand, risk related to development, expansion and acquisition of
self-storage facilities, potential liability for environmental
contamination, natural disasters and adverse changes in laws and
regulations governing property tax, real estate and zoning; risks
associated with downturns in the national and local economies in
the markets in which we operate, including risks related to current
economic conditions and the economic health of our customers; risks
associated with the COVID Pandemic or similar events, including but
not limited to illness or death of our employees or customers,
negative impacts to the economic environment and to self-storage
customers which could reduce the demand for self-storage or reduce
our ability to collect rent, and/or potential regulatory actions to
(i) close our facilities if we were determined not to be an
“essential business” or for other reasons, (ii) limit our ability
to increase rent or otherwise limit the rent we can charge or (iii)
limit our ability to collect rent or evict delinquent tenants; risk
that even after the initial restrictions due to the COVID Pandemic
ease, they could be reinstituted in case of future waves of
infection or if additional pandemics occur; risk that we could
experience a change in the move-out patterns of our long-term
customers due to economic uncertainty and the significant increase
in unemployment in the last 30 days. This could lead to lower
occupancies and rent “roll down” as long-term customers are
replaced with new customers at lower rates. We observed such a
trend during the recessionary circumstances of 2009; however, to
date we have not seen any material change in the move-out patterns
of long-term customers; risk of negative impacts on the cost and
availability of debt and equity capital as a result of the COVID
Pandemic, which could have a material impact upon our capital and
growth plans; the impact of competition from new and existing
self-storage and commercial facilities and other storage
alternatives; the risk that our existing self-storage facilities
may be at a disadvantage in competing with newly developed
facilities with more visual and customer appeal; risk related to
increased reliance on Google as a customer acquisition channel;
difficulties in our ability to successfully evaluate, finance,
integrate into our existing operations and manage properties that
we acquire directly or through the acquisition of entities that own
and operate self-storage facilities; risks associated with
international operations including, but not limited to, unfavorable
foreign currency rate fluctuations, changes in tax laws and local
and global economic uncertainty that could adversely affect our
earnings and cash flows; risks related to our participation in
joint ventures; the impact of the legal and regulatory environment,
as well as national, state and local laws and regulations
including, without limitation, those governing environmental
issues, taxes, our tenant reinsurance business, and labor,
including risks related to the impact of new laws and regulations;
risks of increased tax expense associated either with a possible
failure by us to qualify as a REIT, or with challenges to the
determination of taxable income for our taxable REIT subsidiaries;
risks due to a November 2020 California ballot initiative (or other
equivalent actions) that could remove the protections of
Proposition 13 with respect to our real estate and result in
substantial increases in our assessed values and property tax bills
in California; changes in United States federal or state tax laws
related to the taxation of REITs and other corporations; security
breaches or a failure of our networks, systems or technology could
adversely impact our operations or our business, customer and
employee relationships or result in fraudulent payments; risks
associated with the self-insurance of certain business risks,
including property and casualty insurance, employee health
insurance and workers compensation liabilities; difficulties in
raising capital at a reasonable cost; delays and cost overruns on
our projects to develop new facilities or expand our existing
facilities; ongoing litigation and other legal and regulatory
actions which may divert management’s time and attention, require
us to pay damages and expenses or restrict the operation of our
business; and economic uncertainty due to the impact of war or
terrorism. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the
date of this press release. All of our forward-looking statements,
including those in this press release, are qualified in their
entirety by this statement. We expressly disclaim any obligation to
update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements,
whether because of new information, new estimates, or other
factors, events or circumstances after the date of these forward
looking statements, except when expressly required by law. Given
these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on any
forward-looking statements in this press release, or which
management may make orally or in writing from time to time, neither
as predictions of future events nor guarantees of future
performance.
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Ryan Burke (818) 244-8080, Ext. 1141
Public Storage (NYSE:PSA)
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