It’s the dawn of a new era at Realogy Corp., the $3.5 billion real estate corporation that has a new CEO for the first time in 21 years.
Just days into his tenure, chief executive Ryan Schneider has announced a series of management changes designed to accelerate the company’s growth, Realogy said Friday.
In a statement, the successor to longtime CEO Richard Smith signaled a more integrated company going forward, compared to the highly-segmented business lines currently in place. “The intent of these organizational changes is to drive better results while accelerating the pace of change required to transform our company,” Schneider said.
Among the changes, Ryan Gorman was named president and CEO of NRT — the company that owns the Corcoran Group, Citi Habitats and Sotheby’s International Realty. In that capacity, Gorman will run day-to-day operations for company-owned brokerages under the Coldwell Banker banner. Gorman, previously NRT’s chief strategy and operating officer, replaces Bruce Zipf, who will now serve as executive adviser to Schneider.
Separately, John Peyton, president and CEO of Realogy Franchise Group (RFG), will now oversee the Corcoran and Sotheby’s brokerages.
In a statement, Realogy outlined several other imminent changes, including a search for a new CEO for Cartus Corp., its relocation division, to replace Kevin Kelleher, who is now executive adviser to Schneider. And it plans to announce a new chief technology officer in the coming days.
Inman News first reported the C-suite shakeup.
Realogy tapped Schneider to be CEO last year, succeeding longtime chief executive Richard Smith, who vowed to turn Realogy into a “recruiting machine” to combat agent poaching. Schneider, who came from Capital One, has a track record of relying on data and tech strategies to boost earnings.
Realogy had $5.81 billion in revenue in 2016, but has seen earnings slide over the past year amid low inventory and competition for agents. In the third quarter of 2017, Realogy said revenue grew 2 percent to $1.7 billion. Net income slipped to $95 million from $106 million as a result of market forces and the hurricanes that hit Texas and Florida. [Inman] — E.B. Solomont