RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust Completes Executive Leadership Appointments

TORONTO, April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (“RioCan” or the “Trust”) (TSX: REI.UN) today announced that the Trust has completed the transition of its Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) from Edward Sonshine, the founder of RioCan, to Jonathan Gitlin who is appointed as President and CEO. Mr. Sonshine has taken on the role of Non-Executive Chairman of RioCan’s Board of Trustees. This is the final step of RioCan’s CEO succession plan announced in March of 2019. Concurrently, Andrew Duncan assumed the position of Chief Investment Officer (“CIO”), a new role at RioCan. In this position, Mr. Duncan expands his leadership of RioCan’s extensive development program to integrate that of the Trust’s strategic investment initiatives, which were led by Mr. Gitlin prior to his promotion to President and CEO. The seamless transition of duties has enabled RioCan’s consistent focus to create unitholder value and the execution of its strategy to be Canada’s leading major market, mixed-use focused REIT.

“It has been a privilege to serve RioCan as CEO for more than 27 years,” said Edward Sonshine, Non-Executive Chairman of the Board. “Working alongside such a talented, dedicated team has been the highlight of my career, and I am confident that under Jonathan’s leadership, RioCan will build on the strong foundation we have established together. I look forward to being aboard in an advisory capacity and watching RioCan achieve its next generation of success.”

“We will all sincerely miss Ed’s leadership, and personally, I could not be more pleased that we will continue to benefit from his advice as Non-Executive Chairman. I have worked closely with Ed to define our strategies while building a best-in-class portfolio that will pave the way for our future as Canada’s dominant urban mixed-use REIT.” said Jonathan Gitlin, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The promotion of Andrew to CIO is a further example of the smooth integration process and ongoing evolution of RioCan. Our tenants, partners, unitholders and all of RioCan will benefit from the strong and talented professionals across the organization led by our visionary leadership team.”