Tim Arndt still remembers the urgency in the air when AMB Property Corporation decided to merge with Prologis at the height of the financial crisis. It was, as he describes, “a merger of equals,” but Arndt tells us that, in the end, it was the legacy management of AMB that would lead the newly formed Prologis.
The “equal” nature of the deal belied a deeper reshuffling of leadership, with AMB’s team rising to steer the new entity and subsequently Arndt finding himself on the CFO path.
Read MoreFresh from this integration, Arndt tells us, he learned one of his most valuable lessons: staying agile and raising your hand for new opportunities is critical when your environment is in flux. He found himself immersed in evolving structures, from investor relations to strategic funding, honing a flexible leadership style that balanced risk management with forward-thinking vision.
Today, as CFO of Prologis, Arndt credits this experience for shaping his strategic mindset. By leaning into the complexities of merging companies—where cultures, processes, and people collide—he discovered that strong financial leadership isn’t just about spreadsheets and metrics; it’s about stewarding a newly formed organization toward stability and growth.
“Stay curious. The curious mind explores all dimensions of challenge or an opportunity and seeks to understand the why. This rigor will help you arrive at the best decision, both for your firm but also personally and professionally.” —Tim Arndt, CFO, Prologis
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CFOTL: Tell us about this company—what does it do, and what are its offerings today?
Arndt: So we are a REIT, a real estate investment trust (…if any of your listeners are unaware, it’s a type of tax structure where you don’t pay corporate income tax because you deduct anything you pay out in dividends). It (started) in the ’80s, allowing smaller groups of investors to collectively invest in real estate. Early on, it was viewed almost like a fixed-income or dividend investment, but these days it’s very different. I mean, that’s still how it works, but in our case, we’re (a) pretty big entrepreneurial enterprise doing a lot of different things.
“In any event, we’re set up as a REIT, but we own logistics real estate—warehouses, distribution centers, and facilities around the globe. Think of Amazon, UPS, or third-party logistics providers. They lease our warehouses (typically) for five years. We do that across thousands of buildings in 20 countries, and we’re at about $200 billion in assets under management.
“We’re also different from many REITs because we don’t just own real estate and collect rent. We develop around four to five billion dollars’ worth of new logistics facilities every year. Plus, we have a private capital—or private equity—sleeve in our capital stack, meaning about a third of our assets are owned under an asset-management flag. That lets us spread our capital, leverage private equity, and earn fees, making it (more) accretive. This goes back to our founding 40 years ago and is somewhat unique among public REITs.
“As we grow, we’re engaging in new verticals. We have 1.3 billion square feet of logistics space, which means 1.3 billion square feet of (rooftop) area—perfect for generating solar power. That’s been a bigger focus in recent years, so we stood up a sizeable internal energy team. One fun fact is that nearly 3% of global GDP passes through our warehouses, so we really do have a unique pulse on the economy.
Prologis | www.prologis.com | San Francisco, CA