TOLEDO, Ohio — Welltower Inc. (NYSE: WELL) has promoted Shankh Mitra from chief operating officer to CEO. He will replace Tom DeRosa, who is stepping down after more than six years in the role.
Mitra was also serving as chief investment officer, and will retain that title. No specifics were given as to why DeRosa was leaving.
“In April, we elevated Shankh to the roles of vice chair and COO with the intent that he would ultimately succeed Tom as CEO,” says Jeffrey Donahue, the company’s lead independent director. “Since the start of the pandemic, Shankh’s unyielding focus on portfolio performance and optimization has never been more evident. We have the utmost confidence in Shankh’s strategic vision and leadership and believe he is the right person to guide Welltower as it continues to successfully navigate the current environment.”
Welltower also announced that Kenneth Bacon, who has been serving as an independent director on the board since 2016, has been named chairman.
Mitra joined Welltower in 2016 and was promoted to CIO in 2018, adding the roles of vice chair and COO in April 2020. Prior to joining Welltower, he was a portfolio manager investing in real estate securities at Millennium Management, where he managed a team of investment professionals responsible for bottom-up underwriting of commercial real estate companies and portfolios, security selection, quantitative portfolio and risk management. He also held senior analyst positions at Citadel Investment Group and Fidelity Investments after beginning his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Mitra received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School specializing in applied value investing, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Jadavpur University.