Mark Goldberg exits W.P. Carey for Griffin Capital

Mark M. Goldberg, who held several senior positions at W.P. Carey over the past nine years, has joined Griffin Capital, another real estate investment firm, as CEO of its broker-dealer. In addition to heading Griffin Capital Securities, Mr. Goldberg will serve as executive vice president of Griffin Capital, which is based in El Segundo, Calif. Earlier in his career, Mr. Goldberg was CEO and president of AIG-Royal Alliance, executive vice president of SunAmerica Financial Network and president of AIG Securities, Tokyo. The departure of Mr. Goldberg comes on the heels of last week's announcement by W.P. Carey that it would exit the nontraded real estate investment trust business, where it had been a major player. "As regulations and other factors have led to significant changes to investment structures and fees, it became more clear to us as we worked to develop new investment funds that the types of investments that would satisfy liquidity and leverage requirements and the time and scale required to reach profitability did not align well with our core investment expertise," W.P. Carey CEO Mark J. DeCesaris wrote in a note to advisers. "As a publicly traded REIT, we determined that focusing our efforts and resources on growing our owned net lease portfolio would best support W.P. Carey's long-term strategic objectives." Founded in 1995, Griffin Capital is the sponsor or co-sponsor of several publicly traded and nontraded real estate investments.