Real Estate Almanac

Organized Real Estate Executives

The top 20 Realtor association/MLS executives list, a subset of the Swanepoel Power 200 ranking, acknowledges staff executives or elected officers of a Realtor association, council, board, etc. MLS organizations and other subsidiaries executives are also included here as the businesses are usually intertwined.
Executives Legend
The color legend to the right illustrates the various backgrounds for the top executives in the residential real estate industry.

1

CEO

National Association of Realtors
Goldberg maintained a steady hand at the helm of NAR, which he has led since 2018. The association’s research and data continues to serve as key reference material for the housing market. But its regulatory challenges continued in 2022 with several high-profile commission-related lawsuits still underway as well as an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice its policies related to brokerage compensation structure.

2

Carter leads the nation’s largest MLS in CRMLS, which has over 110,000 members, and is the country’s most powerful and influential MLS executive. A member of the MLS think tank MLS Roundtable, he has played a key role in introducing new developments in the MLS, including an effort to pioneer novel ways for MLSs to monetize data with REdistribute and in ways to invest in technology directly with venture firm CRMLS spearheaded Venture MLS.

3

Donnellan leads the nation’s second largest MLS in Bright MLS, which serves more than 103,000 members in the Mid-Atlantic region, with a steady, clear focus on innovation and serving members. In 2022, he orchestrated a partnership with CRMLS to monetize MLS data with REdistribute. In addition, he is positioning Bright to become a data and research thought leader – it hired a chief economist and a data scientist in 2022.

4

President and CEO

Houston Association of Realtors
The charismatic leader of the nation’s second largest local Realtor association in the Houston Association of Realtors, Hale is also one of the most well-known and respected association leaders in the nation. He leads the over 40,000-member association, which has members across Texas and operates HAR.com, the only local Realtor association site that regularly ranks among the nation’s 25 most visited real estate websites.

5

General Counsel and Chief Member Experience Officer

National Association of Realtors
As NAR’s general counsel and chief member experience officer, Johnson ensures NAR’s programs, policies and activities comply with the law. She has played an increasingly important role in recent years as NAR manages the class-action antitrust commission lawsuits that name NAR as a defendant and in the ongoing investigation with the U.S. Department of Justice around its policies related to compensation. The lawsuits and investigations are ongoing. Johnson joined NAR in 2007 and became general counsel in 2014.

6

President

National Association of Realtors
Parcell comes to the president as broker-owner of Equity Real Estate Utah. In his over two-decade real estate career, he has sold more than 3,200 homes and been involved with NAR in various capacities including as the association’s vice president of government affairs in 2018. In addition, he served as the Realtor Party RPAC Fundraising Liaison in 2017, Regional Vice President for Region 11 (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming) in 2016, and Realtor Party Director in 2015.

7

Chief Advocacy Officer

National Association of Realtors
McGahn leads NAR’s significant advocacy efforts as chief advocacy officer. In 2022, she led the association’s advocacy efforts around a continued recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and making housing more accessible, available, and affordable. Before joining NAR in 2018, McGahn served as counselor to the U.S. Treasury Secretary and staff director for House Financial Services Committee.

8

CEO

Miami Association of Realtors
Kinney heads up the nation’s largest local Realtor association in the 50,000-member Miami Association of Realtors. In this position, she also manages the nation’s fifth largest MLS in Miami Realtors. A savvy leader, she has grown the association greatly since becoming CEO in 1993, when it had just 5,000 members.

9

CEO

Toronto Regional Real Estate Board
DiMichele leads the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TTREB), the world’s largest local Realtor board with over 67,000 members. In addition to leading the over-100-year-old association, DiMichele also has served on the board of directors for CMLS, as chair of the Ontario Real Estate Association’s Association Executive Committee and is a member of the MLS Roundtable.

10

With over three decades in the industry, Cowen leads the nation’s third largest MLS in Stellar MLS (formerly My Florida Regional MLS), which serves over 76,000 subscribers in central and southwest Florida, an increase of over 8,000 from the previous year. Cowen also serves on MLS think tank The MLS Roundtable.

11

President and CEO

Midwest Real Estate Data
Jensen leads one of the country’s largest MLSs in Chicagoland’s MRED, which has nearly 50,000 members. Jensen serves on the board of the Broker Public Portal, as chairman of the real estate data standards nonprofit Real Estate Standards Organization. In 2022, the organization announced the addition of the Central Illinois Board of Realtors.

12

Chief Economist

National Association of Realtors
Yun heads NAR’s economic department as chief economist, creating economic forecasts and providing housing market analysis for the trade group. In his role, he also supervises and is responsible for a wide range of research activity for the association including NAR’s Existing Home Sales statistics, Affordability Index, and Home Buyers and Sellers Profile reports.

13

CEO

The Canadian Real Estate Association
As CEO of Canada’s largest real estate trade association in CREA, Bourque represents over 155,000 real estate brokers and agents in over 75 real estate boards. With decades of experience in public policy, Bourque was previously CEO of the Railway Association of Canada.

14

Crawford has led First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS), the nation’s fourth largest MLSs with nearly 56,000 subscribers, since 2019 as CEO. In 2021, he helped lead FMLS into a partnership with three other MLSs who acquired the MLS technology startup Remine. Previously, Crawford served as the CEO of the Real Estate Standards Organization.

15

Consalvo runs one of the nation’s largest MLSs in Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS), which has nearly 41,000 members. He is also a founding member of MLS Aligned, the first major noncontiguous MLS venture with ARMLS, Beaches MLS, Metro MLS, Utah Real Estate, Regional MLS (Oregon), Northern Nevada Regional MLS and MLS Listings (California).

16

CEO

Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors and Beaches MLS
Hall serves as the CEO for Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors (the nation’s third largest local Realtor association with over 40,000 members) and BeachesMLS, which serves over 41,000 subscribers. In 2022, she helped make BeachesMLS a member of REdistribute, a new initiative by MLSs to monetize their data. In her position, she helps manage five regional boards across South Florida and Treasure Coast.

17

SVP

National Association of Realtors
Birschbach manages NAR’s venture capital division Second Century Ventures (SCV), its international real estate technology accelerator Reach, the Realtor Benefits Program and NAR’s relationship with Move, operator of realtor.com. SCV owns equity in over 100 companies that impact the businesses of over 600,000 real estate practitioners on an annual basis. Previously, he served as vice president of strategic investments at NAR.

18

CEO

California Association of Realtors
Sebree runs the nation’s second largest state Realtor association in CAR, which has over 212,000 members. CAR continues to be an association heavyweight, involved in advocating for many key housing-related issues in California. Sebree succeeded long-time CAR leader Joel Singer in the position in late 2021. He came to CAR from his role as CEO of Missouri Realtors.

19

CEO

Texas Association of Realtors
As CEO of the Texas Association of Realtors, Kessler leads the nation’s third largest state Realtor association comprised of over 70 local Realtor associations representing over 147,000 members. Before taking the reins in 2010, Kessler served as CEO for the San Antonio Board of Realtors and the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors.

20

CEO

Ontario Real Estate Association
Hudak runs Canada’s largest provincial real estate association in OREA, which represents over 92,000 members across 38 real estate boards. Previously, he served for 21 years in the Ontario legislature, including as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. In 2022, OREA continued to call for more action related to increasing housing inventory and improving affordability.

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