A leading retail real estate investment firm headquartered in Los Angeles has promoted two senior retail executives to the company's C-suite.

Westwood Financial has named Lauren Ball as chief operating officer and Juyuan Wei will serve as the firm's chief financial officer, effective immediately.

In their expanded roles, the two will support CEO Mark Bratt in steering the strategic growth of the company, according to a corporate statement announcing the moves. Ball and Wei bring nearly four decades of combined experience as they join the firm's executive management team.

"These well-deserved promotions come at a time when Westwood is achieving record performance with the portfolio showing steady annual growth and a fully engaged team of employees," said Bratt. "A good portion of our ongoing success is due to these leaders’ impressive depth of knowledge in their respective fields, excellent work ethic and strong leadership skills."

Ball joined Westwood as a senior vice president and head of leasing in 2021, and since then has helped bring the firm's 127-property, multi-state retail portfolio to 96.8% leased at the end of 2022, its highest level in company history, while same-store net operating income has grown 5.6% year over year.

In her new role, Ball will oversee a team of leasing, construction, legal, marketing and property management professionals and support the stability and profitability of an 8.9 million-square-foot retail portfolio.

Before joining Westwood, Ball was vice president of leasing at Site Centers, where she and her team oversaw a portfolio of shopping centers totaling 18 million square feet across the Southeast. Throughout her career, Ball has completed more than $1 billion in transactions throughout the country.

Wei joined Westwood in 2018 and most recently served as senior vice president of finance and accounting. Since 2021, he has raised $160 million in debt for the company's credit facility and shifted $115 million of variable debt to fixed as interest rates climbed.

In his new role, Wei will play a role in planning, business development and risk management to ensure the continued success of its retail portfolio. He will oversee a team of accounting, capital markets, finance, tax and investor relations professionals.

Before joining Westwood, Wei was a senior finance manager for the Irvine Co., where he oversaw real estate strategy, financial analysis and development planning for a 60 million-square-foot office and retail portfolio.

Hospitality management and ownership group Meyer Jabara Hotels has appointed Jay Sarkar as its chief financial officer in Danbury, Connecticut.

In his new role, Sarkar will manage accounting for the company's 31 hotels in addition to overseeing the management company's finances and working alongside the investment and development teams to grow its portfolio of hotels.

"In today’s economy, average daily rates and revenues are up; that’s the good news," said MJH President Justin Jabara in a statement. "The bad news is the cost of goods, capital projects, interest, and labor are up too. To keep Meyer Jabara Hotels financially strong and growing, we brought in an expert in hotel finance."

Sarkar brings more than 30 years of hotel finance experience, most recently serving as CFO for StepStone Hospitality in Rhode Island and as CFO at Alena Hospitality in Florida. He's also held regional controller and various finance positions with Pyramid Hotel Group in Illinois, Adams Mark Hotels in Indiana and Starwood Hotels & Resorts in New York. Sarkar is a licensed certified public accountant and received his MBA from the University of Phoenix and bachelor's degree in accounting from Mercy College.

Will Poole has joined Savills as a managing director with its industrial team in Los Angeles.

In his new role, Poole will advise clients on selling and leasing industrial properties across the market, with a focus on the South Bay area.

Poole brings more than five years of experience representing landlords, tenants, buyers and sellers, most recently with Lee & Associates. Before entering commercial real estate, Poole played professional football with the NFL's Miami Dolphins.

Dominic Martinez has been promoted to senior vice president of investment sales in Northmarq's St. Louis, Missouri, office.

In his expanded role, Martinez will continue working with Managing Director Parker Stewart on commercial real estate sales transactions throughout the region and coordinate with the debt and equity team.

Martinez joined Northmarq in 2021 as an associate vice president of investment sales and has focused on evaluation, advisory, marketing and sales of multifamily properties throughout the Midwest, especially in secondary and tertiary markets. Before that, Martinez was an associate director at Berkadia in Kansas City and an assurance associate at PwC. He is a licensed CPA and earned his master of accountancy degree from the University of Missouri.

S.L. Nusbaum Realty Co. has promoted Maggie Spillane to vice president.

In her expanded role, Spillane will continue to provide landlord representation and leasing services for a variety of shopping centers throughout the Hampton Roads region of southeast Virginia.

Spillane joined the brokerage firm's shopping center leasing department in 2020. Before that, she worked as director of commercial real estate with McKinley Cos., where she oversaw operations of a 1.5 million-square-foot retail and office portfolio, including ground-leases, construction, budgeting and negotiating new and renewal lease deals.

Alis Manoogian, an assistant vice president of investment sales at Farbman Group, a full-service commercial real estate company in the Midwest, was elected president of Michigan's chapter of the Certified Commercial Investment Member organization. She is the first female president in the chapter's history.

In her new role, Manoogian will lead the Michigan chapter by serving as its spokesperson, set the chapter's agenda, collaborate with its board of directors and drive its growth. She has been active in CCIM Michigan since 2018, and began serving on the chapter's board in 2021.

Manoogian said in a statement that she hopes "that by being in this role, I’m able to serve as an example for young women who want to seek leadership opportunities in commercial real estate to obtain a CCIM credential."

Manoogian said she sees a significant opportunity for growth in the industry by decreasing the gender gap among commercial real estate professionals. She noted that women make up just 36% of employees in the field, a number that has remained stagnant for the past 15 years.