Pogoda Cos., a self-storage operator and broker headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich., has hired John George as vice president of operations and Ken Neiman as northeast regional manager.

George has more than 15 years of self-storage experience working with many real estate investment trusts. His industry career began in 1994 with Storage USA, where he was instrumental in the companys growth to more than 650 facilities nationwide. When Storage USA was sold to General Electric in November 2002, George was promoted to divisional vice president of the Northwest, supervising six district managers in seven states. He later worked with Extra Space Storage Inc., and in 2006 took a position with U-Store-It Trust Inc., where he was the divisional vice president of the West, overseeing the operation of 132 facilities. John has expertise in all facets of self-storage operation, including revenue management, expense control, and producing growth in occupancy and profit.

Neiman has more than 15 years of direct retail-management experience through various companies, including some in the self-storage industry.

Founded in 1987 by Maurice Pogoda, Pogoda Cos. includes Pogoda Management Co. and The Pogoda Group Inc. The former is one of the nations 25 largest self-storage management firms. The latter provides real estate brokerage services, specializing in self-storage facilities and manufactured housing communities.

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