Big changes came to the real estate industry’s most powerful trade group in 2014, with its longest- serving head announcing his departure. Shortly after Steven Spinola announced in June that he would be stepping down as president of the Real Estate Board of New York in 2015 after nearly three decades there, the trade group launched a search for his successor.
By December, REBNY named a new president: John Banks, vice president of government relations
at Consolidated Edison. James Whelan, a senior
vice president of public affairs at REBNY, and Ramon Martinez, deputy chief of staff to City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, had also been considered for the job.