Atlanta-based homebuilding giant PulteGroup Inc. hired industry veteran Matthew Koart as executive vice president and COO. The incoming executive, who starts work on May 18, will replace John Chadwick, who retired April 21. 

The hire follows the December 2022 firing of Brandon Jones, senior vice president for field operations, who was tapped to become COO on Jan. 1. Jones was terminated after an independent investigation found he violated the company’s code of ethical business conduct. The family of company founder William Pulte, who died in 2018, alleged Jones created a “sophisticated network of Twitter bots” to harass Pulte and his followers with fake user profiles.  

Before joining PulteGroup, Koart served as president of Koart Residential Inc., a company he founded that was engaged in residential real estate acquisition, entitlement, development and construction. Before that, Koart served as CEO of Shapell Industries, a California-based diversified real estate company. 

“With almost 30 years of residential real estate experience, Matt will be an outstanding addition to PulteGroup’s leadership team,” PulteGroup President and CEO Ryan Marshall said in a press release. “He has extensive expertise in both new home construction and land acquisition, entitlement and development. …Matt is an exceptional leader who will further develop our high-performing homebuilding operations and play an integral role in maintaining our culture of doing the right thing, caring for our customers, focusing on quality and being a company people are proud to work for.”