The Board of Trustees of Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT) announced the appointment of Paul T. McDermott as the company’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. He will also serve on the WRIT Board of Trustees. Mr. McDermott will succeed George F. McKenzie, who has served as President and CEO of WRIT since 2007. In January 2013, Mr. McKenzie announced his intention to retire pending the appointment of a successor.
McDermott comes to WRIT from The Rockefeller Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., where he served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director and headed up the domestic acquisitions team for Rockefeller Group Investment Management Corp. His responsibilities also included product development and portfolio strategy, as well as interfacing with private equity clients.
Prior to joining The Rockefeller Group, he served from 2006 to 2010 as Principal and Chief Transaction Officer at PNC Realty Investors, where he led the company’s acquisition, disposition, development and capital markets efforts nationally, across multiple asset classes. Between 2002 and 2006, he held two primary officer roles at Freddie Mac – Chief Credit Officer of the Multifamily Division and Head of Multifamily Structured Finance and Affordable Housing. From 1997 to 2002, he served as Head of the Washington, DC Region for Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, then the largest real estate advisory firm in the nation.
