Essex Property Trust Inc. elected Amal Johnson to the board of directors, expanding the board's size to 10 directors, on Feb. 20.

Johnson is a director of Author-it Software Corp., which provides a platform for creating and distributing single-source technical content.

The board of the residential real estate investment trust also amended the company's bylaws to allow a stockholder or group of up to five stockholders, holding at least 1% of the company's share for at least one year, to amend the company's bylaws by affirmative majority vote.