Winner: RLJ Lodging Trust CEO Thomas J. Baltimore

Why: The longtime CEO of one of the country's largest lodging REITs, Thomas decided this month to ditch his post for a gig heading up Hilton's new REIT spinoff.

Thomas co-founded RLJ with Bob Johnson—the co-founder of BET and the country’s first African-American billionaire—and his tenure at the lodging REIT put him at the top of Hilton CEO Chris Nasseta's list to lead the hotel giant's new creation.

Thomas will make his move on May 16, five days after stepping down from RLJ—the company he co-founded—to spearhead the untried (and yet unnamed) Hilton spinoff, earning him the title of Bisnow's April Player of the Month.

Honorable Mentions:

• Sidewalk CEO Daniel Doctoroff—he's hatched a plan to get Google's parent company, Alphabet, into the real estate business by venturing into the uncharted world of "smart city" tech.
  
  

• Fundrise CEO Ben Miller—his company's groundbreaking eREIT just announced 9.7% annualized returns for Q1, proving crowdfunding can be a serious way to make cash in real estate.
  
  

• Hightower CEO Brandon Weber—the tech CEO piqued all of our interest this month when he alluded to his firm's next big project, which has the potential to let asset managers use big data to "play moneyball" in commercial real estate. (Stay tuned to Bisnow for the details on its next endeavor.)

This is the fourth in a monthly series of articles recognizing the big players in commercial real estate. Please send your nominations for a local Player of the Month to us here.