A view of Harborside 3 in Jersey City — Courtesy: Mack-Cali Realty Corp.
By Joshua Burd
Mack-Cali Realty Corp. has announced changes in two top management positions, hiring a new chief financial officer and executive vice president of leasing.
The real estate investment trust said it has named David J. Smetana as chief financial officer and Nicholas Hilton as executive vice president of leasing. They will succeed Anthony Krug and Christopher DeLorenzo, respectively, both longtime executives with the company.
Smetana brings more than 20 years of real estate experience across a variety of roles, Jersey City-based Mack-Cali said. Most recently, he spent 16 years as a managing director and REIT securities analyst on Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Global REIT Securities Team.
From 1997 to 2001, Smetana was a REIT investment banker at Morgan Stanley and was part of the company’s Real Estate Special Situations Fund. He received his bachelor’s in business administration in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a CPA certificate in Virginia.
Krug will continue to serve as CFO during a transition period in the first quarter before leaving Mack-Cali to pursue other opportunities.
Hilton most recently worked as a senior vice president at CBRE, having spent more than 13 years working with firms such as Mack-Cali, Bentall Kennedy, Royal Bank of Canada, Ernst & Young and The Boston Consulting Group, the REIT said. Hilton received his bachelor’s in English from Rutgers University.
“We are excited to add further depth to our executive management team,” said Michael J. DeMarco, Mack-Cali’s CEO. “David’s extensive knowledge of the real estate industry includes over 20 years of REIT experience, and we believe that he will bring significant experience and leadership in his new role as chief financial officer.
“Nicholas, who we’ve had the opportunity to work with while he was at CBRE, is one of the most talented brokers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. He is extremely knowledgeable about the waterfront and the New Jersey office markets and will help lead and enhance our leasing efforts across all of our office markets as we work to increase occupancy.”
Hilton will start in February, as DeLorenzo also departs after a transition period.
“I would like to thank Tony and Chris for their tremendous hard work and contributions to the strategic repositioning of Mack-Cali,” DeMarco said. “Our success to date has been a team effort in which they played an integral part. They will both remain not only colleagues but close friends, and I wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”
