Auction.com Announces Promotions

The nation's leading online real estate marketplace, Auction.com, has recently moved two individuals up within the company – Lee Leslie has been named EVP and chief legal officer, and EVP Gordon Smith has been tapped for the position of general manager in the company's commercial real estate division.

Leslie had been serving as interim general counsel for Auction.com for four months. He joined Auction.com in 2014, bringing 20 years of legal and real estate experience with him. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of HouseTech Real Estate, an online real estate services firm that now operates as a subsidiary of Auction.com. He also previously served as chief legal officer at LendingTree Loans and LowerMyBills.com. He holds a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law, an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

"I am excited to be part of Auction.com during such an important time in this company’s growth and our industry’s evolution toward a new way of transacting real estate," Leslie said. "These past few months have given me powerful insight into the way Auction.com brings speed, transparency and fairness to the way real estate is bought and sold."

Moving forward, Leslie will oversee all legal, regulatory, intellectual property, and corporate transactional and governance matters for Auction.com, working closely with CEO and co-founder Jeff Frieden.

"Lee has been a terrific addition to the Auction.com executive team," Frieden said. "His legal expertise, combined with his years of experience in launching and growing real estate and lending companies, has already proved invaluable in our ongoing efforts to expand the nation's top online real estate marketplace."

Gordon Smith has been serving as the head of Auction Finance, the division of Auction.com that facilitates financing for commercial and residential real estate investors. He has 25 years of experience in real estate sales, finance, and operations. Frieden said he believes Smith is the ideal choice to oversee both business units he is heading for Auction.com.

"Gordon has a unique combination of deep real estate sales experience combined with a track record of significantly improving the operations and management teams of multiple portfolio companies," Frieden said. "He has quickly become a key contributor to the growth and evolution of the broader Auction.com offering."

In his new position as GM of the commercial real estate division, Smith will oversee all of Auction.com's work in commercial real estate sectors. The Auction Finance division which Smith currently heads, which facilitates access to the company's preferred lenders and helps bidders access the pool of funds they need to participate, will become part of the company's commercial division.

"Bringing these two business units together reflects increasing demand from our commercial clients for a frictionless financing solution," Smith said. "I’m excited to be part of the new and innovative ways Auciton.com is serving the needs of the commercial marketplace."

Smith's past positions include managing director with Fortress Investment Group, director for the Global Principal Finance Group at Union Bank of Switzerland, and director at BlackRock Financial Management. He is a past board member of CW Financial Services, Intrawest, Abercrombie & Kent, Annington Homes, and Mapeley. Smith has an MBA and a bachelor's degree from Santa Clara University in California.