DALLAS, TX, Nov. 14—At its annual convention, REITworld, Nareit today presented its 2017 Industry Leadership Award to Ronald L. Havner, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Public Storage, and its 2017 Industry Achievement Award to Nareit Executive Vice President, Research and Investor Outreach, Michael Grupe.
Nareit presents its Industry Leadership Award annually to a REIT executive who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the growth and betterment of the industry. The award is presented in memory of Edward H. Linde, the late CEO of Boston Properties. In announcing the winner of this year’s award, Nareit’s 2018 Chair Thomas J. Baltimore, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO of Park Hotels and Resorts, said that Public Storage was the first self-storage REIT, and Havner played a key role in establishing not just the company, but also the sector, as an important part of the REIT marketplace.
“Under Ron’s leadership, that new concept – the self-storage REIT – turned out to be very rewarding for Public Storage’s shareholders,” Baltimore said. “From the end of 2002 – the year he became CEO – through the third quarter of this year, Public Storage delivered a cumulative total return of 975 percent.”
Baltimore also noted that, in 2014, Havner served as Nareit’s Chair, a role in which he provided valuable leadership for the organization’s policy and investor outreach programs.
The Nareit Industry Achievement Award presented to Grupe is given annually to professionals serving the REIT Industry whose acumen and integrity have helped heighten awareness and understanding of the value of REITs and publicly traded real estate. The award is presented in memory of E. Lawrence Miller, the former CEO of one of the industry’s first REITs, Bradley Real Estate Trust.
Grupe has headed Nareit’s Research and Investor Outreach Group for the past 20 years. Under his leadership, the group has produced important research on the investment benefits of REITs that has helped build understanding of their value as a core element of investment portfolios.
In presenting the award, Timothy J. Naughton, Chairman and CEO of AvalonBay Communities and Nareit’s 2017 Chair, said “That research was an important factor in Nareit’s effort to get S&P to open its indexes to REITs in 2001 – an achievement that helped move REIT investment into the mainstream.”
Naughton also recognized the successful, multi-year campaign overseen by Grupe to establish real estate as a stand-alone, headline sector in GICS, the Global Industry Classification Standard.
“Mike built Nareit’s Research and Investor Outreach Group into the highly effective platform for telling the REIT story that it is today,” Naughton said.