SmartStop’s H. Michael Schwartz Wins 2016 Silver Stevie, Executive of the Year

By Alex Hassel, Storage.com

In 2015, H. Michael Schwartz and his team negotiated a self storage deal so big that he’s getting national attention for it across all industries.

Schwartz, who’s chairman and CEO of SmartStop Asset Management, Inc., a diversified real estate company, was recently named the winner of a Silver Stevie in the Executive of the Year category of this year’s American Business Awards.

Last year, Schwartz and his team handled the sale of SmartStop Self Storage and its 170 self storage properties to Extra Space Storage, Inc., the second largest storage operator in the U.S. At $1.4 billion, the merger marked the largest self storage transaction in a decade and the third largest of all time.

“I am truly honored to have won this award and to be listed among the top business organizations and individuals in the United States,” says Schwartz. “I couldn’t have won this award without my executive team’s expertise, loyalty, and determination.”

The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards. All organizations in the U.S., no matter what industry, whether big or small, public or private, or for-profit or nonprofit, can submit nominations.

Schwartz will receive his award on June 20, 2016 at the Grand Marquis Hotel in New York.

“The judges were extremely impressed with the quality of entries we received this year,” says Michael Gallagher, President and founder of the Stevie Awards. “The competition was intense, and every organization that has won should be proud.”

More than 250 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners.

“Mr. Schwartz is definitely worthy of this top honor,” said one of the Stevie Award judges. “His incredible business success story, from start to finish, is quite an accomplishment.”

More than 3,400 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in nearly every industry were submitted for consideration this year in a wide range of categories, including Startup of the Year, Executive of the Year, Best New Product, Service of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Live Event of the Year, App of the Year, and many others others. Schwartz was nominated in the Executive of the Year category for Real Estate.

Photo courtesy of the Stevie Awards.

Alex Hassel is News Reporter for Storage.com. If you’d like to pitch Alex a self storage industry news story, email alex.hassel@storage.com or call 402-779-7328.