Laura Clark

Talk about big shoes to fill: Put Clark down for two pairs when she assumes the corner office at the industrial REIT founded by Southern California commercial real estate stalwarts Howard Schwimmer and Michael Frank, who are both stepping down as co-CEOs in April. 

She’ll work between the C-suite and new chairman Tyler Rose. The pending promotion is the latest in a quick rise for forty-something Clark, who joined Rexford as CFO in 2020, and more recently served as COO. Clark held various leadership roles at Regency Centers, a publicly traded retail REIT, and earlier in her career, she held roles in institutional sales and equity research at Green Street Advisors. She was named to the top job at Rexford after hedge fund Elliott — which wanted to see improved operational efficiency, refocused capital allocation and enhanced governance and oversight — built an active stake. Clark appeared to be on track to succeed the CEOs, but there’s no question that Elliott’s involvement sped up the process, a Greenstreet analyst wrote. 

Clark, under Rose, is charged with changing Rexford’s capital allocation strategy — to maximize returns by selling assets and reinvesting capital into high-yielding assets and share repurchases. During the latest earnings, the company said it had only planned dispositions, a change from its buy-happy days.