Baird & Warner Names Lucy Baird Chief Stewardship Officer

Baird & Warner, Chicago’s largest independent real estate brokerage, is setting up Lucy Baird to carry on the dynasty at the family owned firm.

The company announced in a press release Friday that Lucy Baird, the daughter of president and CEO Steve Baird, was named chief stewardship officer and vice chair of the board.

The company also promoted Laura Ellis from chief strategy officer and president of residential sales to chief revenue officer, according to the press release.

Baird & Warner has leaned into its independence and family ownership in recent years as large real estate firms have consolidated much of the competition, especially in the Chicago area. Baird & Warner has the claim to being among the oldest real estate firms in the country, founded in 1855 in Chicago. Five successive generations of the Baird family have helmed the company over 170 years.

Baird & Warner was the fourth largest brokerage in Cook County by transaction volume in The Real Deal’s 2025 top brokerages ranking.

Steve Baird said in the press release that the moves reflect a long-term view of the company, setting it up for continued independence into the future.

Lucy Baird is the sixth generation of the Baird family to have a major role with the firm. She has been involved with the company for 10 years, both as the firm’s company historian as well as overseeing its philanthropic arm, Good Will Works, according to the press release. Taking on the new role is “a natural progression from my work at the helm of our charitable and volunteer initiatives,” she said in the press release.

Lucy and Steve Baird were not immediately available for an interview on Friday.

Steve Baird, 73, has been with the firm since the 1980s, and became president in 1991. He has no immediate plans to retire, Ellis said.

“He’s going to be around for the foreseeable future,” she said. “He’s putting things in place, and setting everything up so that the company will endure for future generations of his family.”

Ellis’s promotion expands her oversight from residential brokerage to all of Baird & Warner’s sales-related business lines, including its mortgage and title operations. Baird & Warner owns a mortgage firm called Key Mortgage Services, and has in-house title and insurance ventures as well.

“This gives me the opportunity to focus on integrating all of our businesses into a system or a process that benefits buyers and sellers and renters and landlords,” she said. “That creates a really good experience as people move through the real estate transaction.”

Ellis said the firm’s integrated services are designed to keep agents at the center of the transaction, rather than ceding roles to separate mortgage lenders or other parties who may not have the same duty to clients.