Former Kimco Realty Corp. Exec. Calls Exit "A Sudden Departure"

Citing a nondisclosure agreement, Barbara M. Pooley, the former chief administrative officer and executive vice president of the New York-based real estate investment fund, declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding her Jan. 13 resignation from the firm, which left her with $1.75 million in salary for the next 30 months and $115,000 in bonus payments, among other amenities.

“It was a mutual separation,” Ms. Pooley told The Commercial Observer after phoning in from her Manhattan apartment. “Unfortunately it’s all bound by that agreement. It’s very difficult to talk.”

Yesterday The Commercial Observer reported on Ms. Pooley’s lucrative severance package, which records on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s website show included $25,000 to pay for three months’ rent at her Manhattan apartment, vesting stocks valued at just under $1 million and a company-issued iPad.

A spokesman for Kimco Realty declined to comment on the details surrounding Ms. Pooley’s sudden departure.

Ms. Pooley had worked at the firm from 2007 to 2010, after a career spent working as a Certified Public Accountant and long stints working in finance, investor relations, and human resources. She left the first just a year after being named the top investor relations professional in the REIT industry in Institutional Investor magazine’s 2011 All-America Executive Team.

Now faced with an uncertain, albeit well-compensated, future, Ms. Pooley said she had no immediate plans for her next career move.

“I will probably take some time off and figure out what my next move is in the short, not-too-distant future, I hope,” she told The Commercial Observer.

Staff writer Daniel Edward Rosen can be reached at drosen@observer.com