Mary Hogan Preusse, founder and principal of Sturgis Partners and board member at Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM), VEREIT (NYSE: VER), Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), and Host Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HST), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITwise: 2019 Law, Accounting & Finance Conference in San Antonio.
Hogan Preusse discussed the ESG concerns that REIT boards should be considering and how active they should be in setting the strategy to address them, noting that a company’s culture, governance best practices, and carbon footprint are among the top issues that boards should watch.
“Taking ESG extremely seriously and knowing it’s top of mind for many key investors [is important],” she said. “Also, it’s just the right thing to do.”
Hogan Preusse, who serves as one of the co-chairs of Nareit’s Dividends Through Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee, added that limited access to universally available child care is one of the main obstacles to achieving greater diversity across management and boards.