DDR Names New Executives

David Lukes, DDR’s new president and CEO

Beachwood, Ohio—DDR Corp., a shopping center owner and manager, is continuing its executive shifts, recently announcing that recently announcing that a team of former Equity One executives will take over leadership of the company. David Lukes has been named president and CEO of the company. He will replace Tom August, who had just taken over the job last July, and will also join the DDR board of directors. The firm also added Michael Makinen as executive vice president and COO, taking over the latter role from William Ross, who was brought on from Forest City Realty Trust last December. Matthew Ostrower has also been hired as executive vice president, CFO and treasurer. The CFO position had been vacant for nearly a year, after David Oakes was appointed from CFO to CEO in February 2015, before his termination in July 2016.

“One of DDR’s key objectives over the past year has been to ensure long-term management succession,” Terrance Ahern, chairman of the board, said in the news release.

“As a result, the board and Tom were in agreement and very pleased when the opportunity arose to have David, Mike and Matt join DDR. We believe that with the addition of David and his team, the company is well positioned to continue to successfully navigate today’s dynamic retail and capital markets environment.”

David Lukes currently has the fourth CEO job at DDR since 2010. He served as CEO of Equity One from June 2014 to March 2017. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of Sears Holdings Corp. affiliate Seritage Realty Trust. Lukes also served as president and CEO of Olshan Properties, as well as COO of Kimco Realty Corp.

Makinen will occupy the same position as he had at Equity One from July 2014 to March 2017. Before joining Equity One, he served as COO of Olshan Properties. He also served as head of real estate and development with several major retailers.

Matthew Ostrower was formerly executive vice president, CFO and treasurer at Equity One between 2015 and 2017. Previously, Ostrower held several roles at Morgan Stanley, including associate director of European research and head of U.S. REIT Equity Research. Ostrower was also a member of the board of Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust from 2010 to 2015.

Recently, Equity One officially merged with Regency Centers Corp.

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