Former Core exec joins MNS as president of brokerage services

Mark Ripka, the former chief business development officer at residential brokerage Core, who left the firm in November before being replaced by Reba Miller of R.P. Miller & Associates, has landed a high-profile position at Andrew Barrocas’ MNS, he told The Real Deal.

Ripka, who departed Core last year “on mutual and good terms,” according to a spokesperson for Core, is now president of brokerage services at MNS, a role in which he will oversee resales and rentals for the whole firm and improve systems and educational curriculum for the firm’s agents.

“It’s fairly similar to what I was doing at Core,” Ripka said, “but it’s a bigger job in that I’m much more of a creator of the vision and strategy for the company than I was at Core. The opportunity was appealing to me because I could express my voice in a way that I couldn’t at Core.”

Like Core, Ripka said the decision to leave the brokerage, headed by Shaun Osher, was mutual.

“I went to them discussing my concerns [in July] and started the conversation about how to go forward,” he said.  “[That triggered] a series of conversations. I have a lot of respect for what Shaun [Osher] and Jack [Cayre] have created with Core, and I am appreciative of having had the opportunity to contribute during my time there both as COO and then as chief business development officer. [But] Shaun and I have different leadership styles.”

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Barrocas said his decision to hire Ripka was based on his knowledge of areas of the market in which MNS is trying to grow.

“I felt [Mark] was a great fit for what we’re looking to do,” he said, “which is expand our resale and rental business. I felt confident that out of all the people I met, he was the right person to get us where we wanted to be. It’s a position that will give him the ability to be in the driver’s seat.”

Ripka previously worked as an agent at Brown Harris Stevens and later as a manager at Sotheby’s International Realty before joining Core for over three years.

Core acquired residential real estate brokerage R.P. Miller & Associates, a firm founded by industry stalwart Reba Miller in 1998, late last year, The Real Deal previously reported. Miller took the role of managing director of sales at Core in November, the company said, overseeing the firm’s agents and resale business.

A representative for Core was not immediately available to comment on Ripka’s new position.