Walt Rakowich

Walter C. Rakowich is the former CEO of Prologis, a leading provider of distribution facilities and services with over $5 billion in assets and operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Walt was Co-CEO of Prologis and member of the board of directors from June 211 through December 212 and CEO of Prologis from November 28 through June 211. He was a member of the Prologis board of trustees from January 25 through June 211.

Prior to becoming CEO, Walt was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Prologis from January 25 through November 28. He joined Prologis in 1994. From December 1998 to January 25, he served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer for Prologis. Prior to this position, he was the Senior Vice President/Director of the company’s Mid-Atlantic region where he was responsible for expanding the reach of Prologis to the leading logistics markets in the Midwest and Atlantic states.

Prior to joining Prologis, Walt spent nine years as a partner and principal with real estate provider Trammell Crow Company in Los Angeles. Before that, he was a senior audit and tax consultant for Price Waterhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Walt earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BS, with distinction, in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University.

He currently serves on the board of directors of Host Hotels & Resorts, where he is the company’s audit committee chair and member of the governance committee; Iron Mountain Inc., where he is chairman of the audit committee and member of the governance and investment committees; and Ventas Inc., where he is chairman of the audit committee. He also serves on the advisory council of Gender Fair. He has served as a member of the executive committee and the board of governors for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), the primary industry group for REITs in the United States.

Walt was appointed to The Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees in 214 and serves as chairman of the university board’s audit and risk committee. In 21, the Penn State Alumni Association named him a Penn State Alumni Fellow, a lifetime designation and the highest award given by the association, recognizing outstanding professional achievement. He also has served on the real estate advisory boards of the Smeal College of Business at Penn State, The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, and The Kellogg Graduate school of Management. In addition, he served on the Global Leadership Council at Colorado State University.

Walt currently serves as chairman of the board of Colorado UpLift and is a member of the board of the Alliance for School Choice in Education (ACE) and of PIVOT, three non-profits focused on educating at risk children in the inner city.

Walt has made several appearances on CNBC, CNN, Fox, Bloomberg, and National Public Radio and has been quoted in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Institutional Investor, and Forbes magazine, on behalf of the real estate industry and Prologis. He is the author of Transfluence: How to Lead with Transformative Influence in Today’s Climates of Change (Post Hill Press, September 22).