Bio

Donald C. Wood

Chief Executive Officer

Don has been with Federal Realty since 1998, where he is a trustee and has served in positions from chief financial officer to chief operating officer to president before being named its chief executive in 2002. Prior to joining Federal, Don spent 8 years at New York-based ITT Corporation, where he served in various capacities, including deputy controller and chief financial officer of wholly-owned subsidiary Caesars World, Inc. The first 7 years of his career were spent at accounting firm Arthur Andersen, leaving in 1989 to work for client Donald Trump as the vice president of finance for the then newly acquired Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, NJ.

Don is active charitably through his work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) among others.

Don received his Bachelor of Science degree from Montclair State College in 1982, where he graduated with honors and subsequently received his CPA from the state of New Jersey. He is a past chair of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), has served as a member of the executive committee of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), and on the board of Quality Care Properties (NYSE:QCP), a Maryland healthcare REIT. He is also a member of the U.S. Capital Chapter of the World President’s Organization (WPO) and was previously named “Entrepreneur of the Year in Real Estate” by professional services firm Ernst and Young.

Show Notes

• Public company model contrasting to private ownership- REIT model democratized the ownership of real estate (5:00)
• Emergence of REITs really resurged in the early 1990s (5:40)
• In 1998 when he arrived the company was still “small” relative to other REITs and public companies in general (6:15)
• Came in as CFO to Federal (6:45)
• Marry left side of balance sheet with the right side (7:10)
• REIT is a tax entity- dividend is at least 90% of Net income, very little retained earnings (7:50)
• Best year ever was in 2019- single biggest premise that rules the company is an increasing stream of cash flows (9:15)
  • How to make the lows a bit higher and the highs as high as they could be (10:10)
  • Federal has been able to manage through all the cycles and keep a 54 year increasing dividend record (10:40)
  • 18 months ago was the biggest challenge when earnings dropped off considerably when the pandemic began (11:00)
  • Built the company to withstand disruptions

    Further episodes of Icons of DC Area Real Estate

    Further podcasts by Coe Enterprises

    Website of Coe Enterprises