Dive Brief:

• Woody Stone will be promoted to president of U.S. Multifamily Asset Services for Cushman & Wakefield, the third largest apartment manager in the country, after current president Rick Graf retires on Dec. 31.
• Stone, who will report to president of the firm’s Americas Services division Marla Maloney, will be responsible for providing strategic oversight for the vision and long-term growth for the Chicago-based commercial real estate giant's multifamily platform. He will also manage assets for major institutional clients.
• Graf, who has 48 years of industry experience, held the top position at Dallas-based Pinnacle after he replaced company founder Stan Harrelson in 2008. The company, which was sold to Cushman & Wakefield in March 2020, operates 180,000 units across 32 states and Washington, D.C. 

Dive Insight:

Graf’s tenure at the helm of Pinnacle and later Cushman & Wakefield Multifamily Asset Services was marked by tremendous consolidation in the apartment industry with some companies, like Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar, amassing massive management portfolios.

Graf took a different approach with Pinnacle’s unit count staying relatively consistent. On the 2009 National Multifamily Housing Council Top Managers list, Pinnacle ranked No. 1 with 185,219 units under management — roughly 5,000 more than it has today. 

Pinnacle chose to focus on institutional clients, which represented 10% of its owners when Graf took over the company. As of early 2021, they constituted 75% of its clients. “I never really desired to be the largest,” he told the National Apartment Association. “Part of that culling process we went through was to reduce the size of the footprint. In 2008 and 2009, we reduced the size of the unit count, but our profitability went up.”

Since 1999, Graf has been active in industry trade groups, serving as president of the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas and later the Texas Apartment Association. He was chairman of the National Apartment Association in 2021 and is a former professor of real estate in the Dallas County Community College District.

Robert Pinnegar, president and CEO of the NAA, said that Graf helped shape and influence the rental housing industry through his more than 40 years in the business. 

“His years of commitment are marked with immeasurable professional accomplishments, all in addition to his dedication to volunteerism at all levels of the industry,” Pinnegar said in a statement shared with Multifamily Dive. “Most recently serving as NAA’s chairman in 2021, Rick helped the industry navigate the unthinkable obstacles of the pandemic and become even more prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the future.”

Maloney also complemented Graf’s leadership through the pandemic. “Rick has set the bar for success in multifamily management very high,” she said in a press release shared with Multifamily Dive. “He was a steady-handed leader during the pandemic and led his team to accelerate many new measures, like touchless technology and self-guided tours.”

New leadership

Stone, who has worked 14 years at Pinnacle and then Cushman & Wakefield, was most recently executive managing director, providing oversight of national operations and client services for the platform.

During his 20 years in the apartment business, Stone has led various departments including marketing, training, procurement, ancillary services and revenue management.

“Woody is a tremendous leader who will be able to leverage and build on Rick’s outstanding work to the benefit of our clients,” Maloney said in the release.

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