C-suite shakeup: Gary Keller is back at the helm at Keller Williams

Gary Keller is returning as CEO of his namesake brokerage Keller Williams, replacing John Davis.

Davis, who held the role for almost two years, will “no longer hold any official responsibilities or roles” at Keller Williams headquarters, Inman reported. Josh Team, who served as chief innovation officer, will be promoted to president.

Davis was with Keller Williams for more than 20 years. He took over as CEO in April 2017 and has headed the company’s growth initiative since it launched in 2011. Since the end of 2011, the company’s agent count in the U.S. and Canada has skyrocketed 128 percent to 159,631 at the end of last year. Over the same period, sales volume has grown to $315 billion from $97 billion.

Davis also worked on the company’s effort to building a consumer-facing platform and introduced Kelle, Keller Williams’ AI-powered virtual assistant.

On Monday, another national brokerage also saw a shakeup in its C-suite. Century 21 CEO Nick Bailey announced he would be stepping down. He held his role for nearly two years, but did not say if he was moving to another firm.

Keller, who’s been acting as chairman of the board of directors, has become more public recently. In July, he took the stage at Inman’s conference in San Francisco. He co-founded the firm with Joe Williams in 1983 — and served as CEO from its founding until 1995. [Inman] — Meenal Vamburkar