Prologis Names Successor to Hamid Moghadam

For the first time in 40 years, Prologis will have someone other than Hamid Moghadam calling the shots.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based industrial real estate company announced that its chief executive officer would be retiring from his position at the end of the year. Moghadam won’t disappear completely, as he’ll assume the title of executive chairperson.

Stepping in to fill Moghadam’s shoes is company president Dan Letter, who has risen up the ranks since joining Prologis predecessor AMB Property Corporation in 2004. Letter will also be joining the company’s board of directors.

In a statement, Moghadam said the transition had “been carefully planned to ensure Prologis’ continued success.” He pointed out how Letter is responsible for numerous business lines already, including global real estate operations, capital deployment, strategic capital and Prologis Essentials, its warehousing solutions platform.

“Given our scale, role in the supply chain and disciplined approach to our balance sheet, our future is very bright,” Letter added.

Letter became president of the company a couple of years ago. Prior to that, he was the global head of capital deployment. The Marquette University graduate started at AMB as a development manager in Chicago.

His rise echoes the ascendance of Prologis in the industrial real estate space. The company bills itself as the largest owner, developer and manager of logistics real estate, counting more than 1.3 billion square feet in its portfolio.

When The Real Deal profiled Moghadam two and a half years ago, the Iranian engineering student’s portfolio was worth $180 billion. He managed to supercharge his business during the pandemic and Prologis built a reputation as “Amazon’s landlord.”

In 2023, Prologis agreed to buy a 14-million-square-foot portfolio from the Blackstone Group for $3.1 billion. The deal came months after Prologis acquired Duke Realty in a $23 million deal, which was the largest commercial property deal since the onset of the pandemic at the time.

Prologis’ stock closed at $121.31 on Tuesday. As of 11:44 am ET on Wednesday, the stock declined to $120.61 per share.