Public Storage Advances Board Refreshment | Business Wire

Glendale, California -

)-Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) (hereinafter referred to as the "Company") today announced that it has appointed Michelle ("Meka") Millstone-Shroff and Rebecca Owen (Rebecca Owen) to serve on its board of directors (hereinafter referred to as the "Board") ), and appointed David Nasek as the chief independent trustee. In addition, Public Storage announced the establishment of the Long-term Planning Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors (hereinafter referred to as the "Committee"), which focuses on public storage's long-term planning, strategy, growth, capital allocation priorities and capital structure management.

Before taking these actions, the company had substantial contact with its shareholders, including the funds recommended by Elliott Investment Management, LP ("Elliott"). Regarding today’s announcement, Public Storage and Elliott have also reached a cooperation agreement. Elliott has withdrawn its nominee from the board of directors and related nomination and cumulative voting notices, and will support the nomination of trustees of the board of directors at the upcoming annual general meeting of Public Storage. Public Storage and Elliott also signed an information sharing agreement to promote ongoing dialogue in preparation for the company's previously announced Investor Day to be held on May 3, 2021.

In connection with the appointment of trustees today, the lead independent trustee Gary E. Pruitt has retired from the board of directors.

Regarding the new long-term planning committee, Joe Russell, President and CEO of Public Storage, will chair the committee, which will initially include: Leslie Heisz, Michelle Millstone-Shroff, Shankh Mitra, David Nethercut, Rebecca Owen, and Joe Russell

The appointment of Ms. Millstone-Shroff and Ms. Owen as independent trustees will promote the renewal of the company's board of directors and further develop a diversified board with the best skills, experience and personal qualities, so as to provide the best service to the company's shareholders. When appointing high-quality independent trustees Shankh Mitra, David Nethercut and Paul Williams in December 2020, the board also considered Elliott's opinion on the benefits of board enhancement and the skill set of potential candidates.

"We welcome Meka and Becky to the board of directors and look forward to working with them to take action to promote long-term value creation," said Ronald L. Havner, Jr., chairman of the board. "Today's action will speed up the overall process that our company is undertaking to refresh the board of directors and further improve corporate governance. We are pleased to cooperate with Elliott and other shareholders on these actions. We also expect the new committee to be in Joe Based on the progress made by his team since assuming the position of CEO, he reinvested in his existing portfolio, implemented new technologies to enhance customer experience, promote organic growth, accelerate external growth, and expand third-party management ."

Mr. Russell said: "At the public storage company, we value the opinions of our shareholders and welcome them to invest in realizing our common goal of long-term value." "The company has a strategic focus on growth and is implementing a clear Strategy to promote sustainable value creation. We are reinvesting in our existing product portfolio and providing innovative technologies to improve customer experience and reduce costs. We are in sufficient conditions to take advantage of our growth opportunities, and the board and management team will Continue to work together to increase shareholder value."

"Public storage has the best platform in the self-storage industry, and we, like the board of directors and management team, firmly believe that the company can leverage its leading franchise rights," said Johannes Weber, product portfolio manager at Elliott. "We believe that the changes announced today will enable the company to achieve significant growth, and we are very happy to help the company identify improvements in corporate governance and have constructively cooperated with the board of directors and management to achieve this goal. We look forward to the company's "Investor Day" and its strategy to promote sustainable value creation."

Mr. Hafner continued: "On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank Gary for his many contributions to public storage during his tenure." "We thank him for his leadership and wish him every success in his future work."

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to Public Storage, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal advisors.

Michelle Millstone-Shroff, 45, has served as an independent consultant for various businesses since November 2018, and a senior consultant for a top global management consulting company since April 2019.

Ms. Millstone-Shroff previously served as the Chief Customer Experience Officer of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) ("Bed Bath & Beyond"), a series of domestic commodity retail stores, and served as President and Chief Operating Officer. A subsidiary of Buybuy BABY ("BABY"), a subsidiary of Bed Bath & Beyond, a leading retailer of infant products in the United States. She also served as the chief operating officer of BABY. Before Bed Bath & Beyond, Ms. Millstone-Shroff worked at McKinsey & Company, focusing on retail and consumer-oriented companies.

Ms. Millstone-Shroff has served as Neiman Marcus Group Inc. (New York Stock Exchange: NMG.A) since September 2020, and has been a private technology company Nanit and Party City Holdco Inc. (NYSE: NMG.A) since December 2019. PRTY) board member. ) Since February 2019.

Ms. Millstone-Shroff holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Strategic Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Since the 58-year-old Rebecca L. Owen founded the company in January 2019, he has been the chairman of the board of the commercial real estate investment and management company Battery Reef, LLC.

Prior to this, Ms. Irwin held various positions in the private investment company Clark Enterprises, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Clark Enterprises") and its subsidiaries, including serving as the senior vice president, chief legal officer, and chief investment officer of Clark Enterprises. President of CEI Realty, Inc. and CEI Realty, Inc.

Prior to working with Clark Enterprises and its affiliated companies, Ms. Owen worked as a commercial real estate and corporate lawyer at the law firms of Sheehey Furlong & Behm and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (f/k/a Shaw Pittman Potts and Trowbridge). Ms. Owen has been a member of the board of directors of Carr Properties, a private real estate investment trust, since 2013, and has been a member of the real estate investment advisory committee of institutional real estate investment company ASB Capital Management, LLC since January 2017.

Prior to this, Ms. Irwin served as WillScot Corp. (NASDAQ: WSC), Jernigan Capital, Inc. (New York Stock Exchange: JCAP) and Columbia Equity Trust, Inc. (formerly New York Stock Exchange: COE) Members of the board of directors. Since January 2017, Irving has also served as a board member of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club and Horizons National Student Enrichment Program Inc. from 2006 to 2020. Ms. Owen received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Bachelor of Economics from Hamilton College.

Public Storage is a member of S&P 500 and FT Global 500. It is a real estate investment trust fund that mainly acquires, develops, owns and operates self-storage facilities. As of September 30, 2020, we have: (i) interests in 2,504 self-storage facilities located in 38 U.S. states, with approximately 171 million square feet of net rentable square feet in the United States; (ii) Shurgard Self Storage approximately 35% of the common equity SA (Euronext Brussels: SHUR) owns 239 self-storage facilities in seven Western European countries. The net rentable square feet operated under the "Shurgard" brand is approximately 13 million, (iii) approximately 42% of the PS Business Park common stock, Inc. (NYSE: PSB) owns and operates approximately 28 million square feet of rentable commercial space on September 30, 2020. Our headquarters are located in Glendale, California.

Additional information about Public Storage can be found on the company's website PublicStorage.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Except for historical facts, all statements in this press release are forward-looking statements, and "expects", "believes", "expects", "should", "estimates" and similar expressions can be identified by using the following words. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause our actual results and performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Factors and risks that may affect future performance and performance include, but are not limited to, the factors described in Part 1 Item 1A "Risk Factors" in the latest 10-K annual report submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (Securities and Exchange Commission) Risks ((SEC), and other documents filed with the SEC on February 25, 2020, including: general risks related to real estate ownership and operation, including changes in demand, risks related to the development, expansion and acquisition of self-storage facilities, Potential liability for environmental pollution, natural disasters and adverse changes in property taxes, real estate and zoning laws and regulations; risks related to the economic downturn of the countries and localities in which we operate, including risks related to current economic conditions and customer economic conditions ; Risks associated with the COVID pandemic or similar events, including but not limited to illness or death of employees or customers, negative impact on the economic environment and self-storage customers, which may reduce the demand for self-storage or reduce our ability to charge Rent and/or take potential regulatory measures to (i) if we are determined not to be a “essential business” or close our facilities for other reasons, (ii) restrict our ability to increase rent or limit the rent we can collect (Iii) Restrict our ability to collect rents or evict tenants who are in arrears; even after the initial restrictions that were taken due to the relief of the COVID pandemic, there is a risk that these measures may be reinstalled during future waves of infection or other pandemics; Due to economic uncertainty and a significant increase in the number of unemployed in the past 30 days, we may encounter the risk of changes in the way long-term customers move out. As long-term customers are replaced by new customers with lower prices, this may lead to lower occupancy rates and rent "Decline." During the recession in 2009, we observed this trend. However, so far, we have not seen any major changes in the way long-term customers move out; due to the COVID pandemic, there has been an impact on debt and equity capital. The risk of negative impact on the cost and availability of the company, which may have a significant impact on our capital and growth plans; the competitive impact of new and existing self-storage and commercial facilities and other warehousing alternatives; our existing Self-storage facilities may be at a disadvantage in competing with new development facilities with visual and customer appeal; risks associated with increasing reliance on Google as a customer acquisition channel; we successfully evaluated, financed, and integrated into our existing operations And the difficulty in managing our ability to directly acquire or acquire property acquired through the acquisition of entities that own and operate self-storage facilities; risks associated with international business, including but not limited to unfavorable foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in tax laws, and possible damage to us Local and global economic uncertainties that adversely affect revenue and cash flow; risks associated with our participation in joint ventures; legal and regulatory environment and the impact of national, state and local laws and regulations, including but not limited to those involving environmental issues , Taxation, our tenant reinsurance business and labor regulations, including risk regulations related to the impact of new laws and regulations; the risk of increased tax expenditures may be related to our failure to qualify for real estate investment trusts, or to our taxable real estate investment There are challenges in determining the taxable income of trust subsidiaries; the risks that may arise from the California voting initiative (or other equivalent actions) in November 2020, the proposal may cancel the protection of our real estate in Proposition 13 and Leading to a substantial increase in our assessed value and property tax bills in California; changes to the US federal or state tax laws related to the taxation of REITs and other companies; security breaches or malfunctions in our networks, systems, or technology may affect our operations or Our business, customer and employee relations adversely affect, or result in fraudulent payments; risks associated with self-insurance of certain business risks, including property and accidental injury insurance, employee health insurance, and workers’ compensation liabilities; difficult to cost reasonable Raising funds; delays and cost overruns in our projects to develop new facilities or expand existing facilities; ongoing litigation and other legal and regulatory actions may divert management time and energy, require us to pay compensation and expenses or restrict us Business operations; economic uncertainty caused by war or terrorism. These forward-looking statements represent only the date of this press release. All our forward-looking statements, including the statements in this press release, are entirely limited by this statement. We expressly disclaim any obligation to publicly update or otherwise modify any forward-looking statements, whether due to new information, new estimates or other factors, events or circumstances after the date of these forward-looking statements, unless expressly required by law. In view of these risks and uncertainties, you should not rely on any forward-looking statements in this press release, or forward-looking statements that may be made by management from time to time in oral or written form, and cannot be used as predictions of future events, nor Can be used as a guarantee for future performance.

Ryan Burke

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