ATLANTA-Bob Keator, a former marketing executive at Birmingham, AL-based Colonial Properties Trust and Chicago-based Equity Residential, has changed jerseys and is the new vice president of marketing for locally based Lane Management LLC. The company is the property management arm of multifamily real estate firm Lane Co.

Keator comes to Lane with 20 years of varied sales and marketing background. He is a former sales manager with IKEA USA Inc., the Helsingbord, Sweden-based home furnishings firm; a former account manager with Paolin & Sweeney, a Mount Laurel, NJ public relations-advertising firm now called Winning Strategies; and a former advertising director for the Melting Pot, a Tampa, FL-based restaurant chain.

On assuming his new post, Keator says "growing the [Lane] brand in an important long-term goal" for him and his department, "as well as seizing every opportunity to growing occupancy and resident retention through the use of technology and the Internet."

Lane Management president Bob Landis calls Keator "a world-class marketing talent." Officials at Colonial Properties Trust and Equity Residential couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline for comment on Keator's performance at their firms.