Hamid Moghadam thinks of life in 14-year cycles. In 1983, he cofounded AMB Property Corp. to invest in offices, industrial parks, and shopping centers and took it public 14 years later. In 2011, he merged the company with his biggest competitor to form Prologis, the world’s largest industrial property owner with $8.2 billion in revenue and 1.3 billion square feet of warehouses and logistics facilities in its portfolio. Now, 14 years after the merger that put Prologis on the path to be No. 463 on the Fortune 500 and one of the World’s Most Admired Companies, Moghadam is making another pivot: At the end of the year, he will hand the reins to president Dan Letter while staying on as executive chairman. In an interview with Fortune, part of a series of conversations with Fortune 500 CEOs, Moghadam reflects on succession, leadership, logistics, and why a chaotic trade environment boosts his business—even though, as he puts it, “I don’t like to make our money that way.”
The following has been condensed and edited for clarity.
