Veris Residential Inc. is based at the company’s flagship Harborside campus in Jersey City — Courtesy: Veris Residential
By Joshua Burd
Veris Residential Inc. has named a new chief investment officer and general counsel to succeed two longtime executives at the former Mack-Cali Realty Corp.
Jeff Turkanis, the former head of U.S. Residential at Oxford Properties Group, will assume the CIO role in place of Ricardo Cardoso. Taryn Fielder, the former general counsel at WashREIT, will hold the same post at Veris Residential, succeeding Gary Wagner.
The new hires are effective April 4 and 18, respectively, and will support the Jersey City-based company’s focus on its multifamily portfolio, according to a news release. Cardoso and Wagner are leaving the real estate investment trust to pursue other opportunities.
“We are pleased to welcome Jeff and Taryn to Veris Residential as we continue to strengthen our team with top professionals who have significant experience working across private and publicly traded residential real estate,” Veris Residential CEO Mahbod Nia said. “Jeff’s intricate knowledge of the residential sector and impressive track record of sourcing and executing strategic investments, coupled with Taryn’s breadth of experience that includes providing strategic advice for a variety of complex real estate transactions, will be invaluable as we continue our transition to a pure-play multifamily REIT.
“Importantly, I would like to thank Ricardo and Gary for their decades of dedicated service to Veris Residential and wish them all the best as they explore the next chapter of their careers.”
News of the hires comes four months after Mack-Cali rebranded to become Veris Residential. In announcing the move, the company said it had all but completed its transition out of the office sector and to a full-fledged operator of luxury multifamily properties, while noting that it would complete an extensive internal reorganization and double down on environmental, social and governance best practices.
Turkanis’ real estate investment experience includes more than $15 billion in transactions concluded primarily across the office and residential sectors, the news release said. He has focused predominantly on the multifamily residential sector for the past eight years, Veris said, closing more than $4 billion in transactions during that time.
As CIO, Turkanis will be responsible for overseeing the sale of non-strategic assets, identifying potential value enhancement opportunities within the REIT’s existing portfolio and sourcing new investment opportunities. Prior to his more than decade-long tenure at Oxford Properties Group, he held roles at Putnam Investments and Fortress Investment Group.
Turkanis earned a bachelor of business administration from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA in real estate from Columbia Business School.
Fielder, for her part, has significant experience providing legal counsel for capital market transactions, as well as securities, corporate governance and regulatory compliance matters, the news release said. Prior to WashREIT, she served as senior vice president and general counsel for ASB Real Estate Investments and was assistant general counsel for the publicly traded REIT DiamondRock Hospitality Co.
Earlier in her career, Fielder worked in the real estate group at Hogan Lovells and practiced corporate and real estate law with Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett LLP. She earned a bachelor’s summa cum laude from Eckerd College and her JD from Harvard Law School.
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