Executive Team

Jeffrey E. Witherell is our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board and has held these positions since the formation of the company. Mr. Witherell oversees all aspects of our business activities, including the acquisition, management and disposition of assets. Mr. Witherell has been involved in real estate investment, development and banking activities for over 25 years. He, along with Mr. White, formed Plymouth Industrial REIT in 2011. From April 2008 through 2011, Mr. Witherell was engaged in the formation and operation of Plymouth Group Real Estate and Plymouth Real Estate Capital LLC, a FINRA registered broker/dealer. From April 2000 to March 2008, Mr. Witherell was employed as an investment executive with Franklin Street Properties Corp., a publicly traded REIT, and its subsidiary, FSP Investments LLC. During that time, Mr. Witherell was involved in the acquisition and syndication of 34 separate property investments, structured as single asset REITs, in 12 states, which raised in the aggregate approximately $1.2 billion. From 1999 to 2000, he was affiliated with IndyMac Bank where he was responsible for closed-loan acquisitions. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Witherell was COO for GAP LP, a real estate investment firm where he was responsible for the acquisition and subsequent development of several real estate investments in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wyoming and Nova Scotia, Canada. From 1994 to 1996, he founded and served as president of Devonshire Development, Inc., a Massachusetts based real estate development firm, where he was responsible for the acquisition and subsequent development of several real estate ventures. From 1990 to 1994, he was vice president of property management at New Boston Management, Inc., a Boston based real estate management firm. His responsibilities included property management and property disposition services. From 1987 to 1990, he was vice president of development for Kirkwood Development, an Oklahoma City based real estate development firm. His responsibilities included the development and construction of twelve development projects throughout New England. From 1982 to 1987, Mr. Witherell was employed at Dewsnap Engineering, a Boston based civil engineering and land surveying firm, where he was responsible for performing land surveying, permitting, design, and construction management services. Mr. Witherell graduated from Emmanuel College in Boston with a Bachelor of Science degree in business, earned his MBA from Endicott College and is a member of several real estate organizations. He is a board member of AdventCare Inc., a Massachusetts based nonprofit organization that owns and operates skilled nursing facilities. In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board at the Ohio State University Center for Real Estate. Mr. Witherell was selected as a director because of his ability to lead our company and his detailed knowledge of our strategic opportunities, challenges, competition, financial position and business.

James M. Connolly is an Executive Vice President. He has served as the Director of Asset Management since May 2011. As such he has direct responsibility for overseeing the on-going operating activities of our properties.

Mr. Connolly is an experienced real estate asset management executive with a significant background in property level and portfolio wide operations. From 1998 to May 2011, Mr. Connolly was employed with Nortel Corporation, where he held positions as Global Leader Real Estate Asset Management from 1998 through December 2003, Director of Real Estate Finance from January 2004 through December 2008, Director of Real Estate for Europe, Middle East and Africa from December 2008 through March 2009, and Director of Real Estate Asset Management from April 2009 through May 2011. His responsibilities included asset, property and facilities management functions across Nortel's global portfolio of office, industrial, and distribution properties. In addition, he managed internal and external personnel on a national and global basis. Prior to Nortel, Mr. Connolly was affiliated with Bay Networks from 1996 to 1998 and Raytheon from 1986 to 1996 where his responsibilities with those companies included facility finance and property administration.

Mr. Connolly holds a BSBA from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA in Real Estate Financial Management from Northeastern University, and is a member of several real estate organizations including NAIOP.

Mr. Saladino is the Executive Vice President of our company and has held that position since February 2022. Before that time, he had served as the Company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer since 2020. Previously, Mr. Saladino served as Chief Accounting Officer of New York City REIT and American Finance Trust, both publicly-traded REITs, from 2017 to 2019 and Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller of the High Companies from 2015 to 2017. Prior to the High Companies, Mr. Saladino served as Vice President of the Ryland Group, a publicly-traded new home builder, and worked for Ernst & Young LLP in its real estate practice, focusing primarily on publicly-traded REITs. Mr. Saladino is a certified public accountant and received a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, a Master of Science degree from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Blakesley serves as our Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Blakesley joined the company in 2017 as Vice President of Compliance and Reporting. He was promoted to Senior Vice President of Compliance and Financial Reporting in 2019, until his most recent promotion of Chief Accounting Officer in 2022. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Blakesley worked for Iron Mountain Incorporated within their Global Real Estate Operations team, focusing on real estate accounting, financial planning and analysis and REIT compliance. From 2007 to 2012 he worked at Ernst & Young LLP, primarily focused on serving public and private REITs. He held various positions within Ernst & Young LLP, including most recently as Assurance Manager. Mr. Blakesley is a certified public accountant and received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Bryant University.

Mr. Coues has over thirty years of commercial real estate experience across several disciplines including acquisitions, dispositions, portfolio management and valuation, and serves as our Senior Vice President - Head of Acquisitions. He joined Plymouth in 2019 and has direct responsibility for all acquisition activity across the platform. 

Prior to Plymouth, Mr. Coues was employed with High Street Logistics Properties, a private equity real estate investment company, where he was an integral part of their operation from 2004 to 2018. From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Coues was a Senior Vice President of Acquisitions at High Street, acquiring over $125 million of income-producing industrial property along the east coast and mid-western United States. From 2009 to 2013, in the midst of the severe recession, Mr. Coues was a Managing Director/Principal at High Street responsible for working out/repositioning and resolving the firm's distressed investments. From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Coues was High Street's Chief Operating Officer/Principal overseeing a $1.3 billion, 15 million square foot industrial portfolio along the eastern half of the United States. 

Mr. Coues received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Anne Hayward, is a Senior Vice President and is the General Counsel of our company and has served in these positions since March 2011. Ms. Hayward is responsible for the overall legal operations and compliance of our company.

Ms. Hayward has more than 30 years of experience in the practice of law, specializing in project finance, securities, and real estate transactional matters. She has structured and documented a wide variety of complex commercial transactions and public and private equity and debt securities offerings. Prior to joining Plymouth, from November 2007 through February 2011 she was General Counsel at Shane & Associates, Ltd., a Boston-based privately held real estate development and management company. Prior thereto, from April 2004 to November 2007 she was employed by Atlantic Exchange Company, an I.R.C. Section 1031 exchange accommodator. From 2001 to 2004, Ms. Hayward served as Senior Counsel at Holland & Knight LLP, representing large corporate clients such as GMAC in structuring tax credit transactions and real estate development projects. From 1997 to 2001, Ms. Hayward was senior counsel at BankBoston, NA representing the bank's asset based financing subsidiary. From 1993 to 1997, Ms. Hayward was Associate General Counsel at American Finance Group, a Boston-based general equipment leasing company. From 1985 to 1993, Ms. Hayward was corporate/securities counsel at CSA Financial Corp., an equipment lease finance company concentrating in high technology assets. From 1976 to 1985 Ms. Hayward was an Associate at Gaston & Snow representing firm clients in '33 Act, '34 Act and '40 Act product structuring and compliance matters.

Ms. Hayward is a graduate of Skidmore College and New England School of Law. She is a member of the Massachusetts and Federal District Court Bars as well as a licensed real estate broker.

Mr. Heffernan has twenty-five years of progressive experience across all facets of real estate asset management and serves as our Senior Vice President - Asset Management. He joined the company in 2014 and has direct responsibility for over 10 million square feet of industrial properties. In addition, he provides strategic leadership functions across Plymouth’s entire portfolio.

From 2008 to 2013, Mr. Heffernan was employed with Cabot Properties within their Asset Management Department, overseeing a portion of the industrial assets throughout Cabot Industrial Value Funds II & III, concluding with the successful disposition of CIVFIII in October 2013. From 2005 to 2008, he was employed with BlackRock, Inc., serving as an Asset Management Analyst for all real estate classes, servicing private funds. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Heffernan was with General Investment & Development, serving as the Senior Property Accountant for all of the company’s industrial asset holdings, focused on budgeting, forecasting, general ledger maintenance and audit functions. From 1998 to 2002, he was employed with Cabot Industrial Trust, a publicly traded company, serving as a Property Accountant, with the responsibilities of general accounting related functions and objectives, including SEC audits and Joint Venture financial reporting.

Mr. Heffernan has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Business Administration in Real Estate Management, both from Bentley University.

Mr. Robinson has over 25 years of experience across a broad spectrum of real estate and finance related disciplines and serves as our Senior Vice President - Corporate Development. He joined Plymouth in 2022 and is responsible for a range of corporate initiatives including participating in investment strategy, joint venture formation, capital raising activities, and strategic transactions.

Prior to joining Plymouth, he was a Managing Director and co-head of real estate investment banking at Oberon Securities where he was involved in capital placement, financing, M&A, and strategic advisory. His previous experience includes Real Estate Investment Banking Group at Citigroup, REIT and CMBS ratings at Standard & Poor’s, as well as positions with Macquarie Capital and BRT Realty Trust.

Mr. Robinson previously served on the Board of Directors of Monmouth Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE: MNR) from 2005 until its sale in 2022. He currently serves on the Board of DIRTT Environmental Solutions (NASDAQ: DRTT) and is a Professor of Finance at the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, where he is also Director of the REIT Center.

Mr. Robinson received a Bachelor of Science degree with dual concentrations in Biology and Economics from the University of California, Riverside, and a Master of Science in Real Estate Finance from New York University.