NAR Announces New Leadership Organization

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has announced some sweeping changes to its internal organizational structure and senior management team to more effectively and efficiently serve its members.

In a release NAR said that the new structure, comprised of 10 newly reorganized groups across NAR's two offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., results from the merger of several teams as well as the expansion and creation of several groups aimed to enhance services to and engagement with members.

The changes are as follows:

• NAR's Government Affairs and Community and Political Affairs divisions have merged into a new Political Advocacy group, led by newly promoted Chief Advocacy Officer and SVP Bill Malkasian.
• NAR General Counsel and SVP Katherine Johnson will take on an expanded role overseeing all functions related to Legal, Information Services, Association Leadership Development, and Association and Multiple Listing Service Governance.
• Communications, Marketing, and Meetings/Events have been merged into one group called Marketing, Communications, and Events, led by SVP Matt Lombardi to enhance the way NAR communicates with members.
• A new Strategic Business Innovation & Technology group, led by recently promoted SVP Mark Birschbach, will drive industry innovation and bring benefits to members through strategic relationships with a broad range of business and technology players.
• Commercial and Global Services will continue under the leadership of SVP Janet Branton. The group focuses on delivering service and value to members working in the global and commercial arenas.
• A newly formed Member Development group, led by newly named SVP Marc Gould, will drive an integrated education strategy for Realtors. Gould will continue as dean of student services for Realtor University, oversee NAR's Center for Realtor Development, Leadership Academy and the Commitment to Excellence and member financial wellness programs.
• The Marketing Research and Predictive Analytics teams will be merged into NAR's Research Group to centralize research and data collection and analysis and will be led by Chief Economist and SVP Lawrence Yun.
• Human Resources and employee engagement remains under the oversight of SVP President Donna Gland.
• NAR's enterprise technology infrastructure, ecommerce and staff facing Information Technology services, security and support remain under the leadership of CTO and SVP Mark Lesswing. The group will also represent NAR on several technical industry standards organizations.
• The association's Finance group, overseeing budgets, financial analysis and real estate management will continue to be led by CFO and SVP John Pierpoint.
• A new Leadership Resources team will be led by Director Erin Campo, who reports directly to the CEO and oversees the operations of NAR's elected leadership.

"This restructuring to the internal organization is the most sweeping change in the association's history, and I'm confident it will drive greater innovation, put more focus on member engagement and satisfaction, achieve a more holistic communications and marketing strategy, and improve the association's nimbleness and decision-making," said Bob Goldberg, CEO at NAR.