The Chairman of the REA Group, Richard Freudenstein, today announced the appointment of Greg Ellis as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Ellis is currently Marketing Director Asia Online Services for Microsoft. He will take on the new role on Monday, 8 September.
Richard Freudenstein:
The Board is delighted that Greg has agreed to lead the REA Group through the next, crucial, stage of its development. We are confident he will fully realise the strategic vision we have for the company.
The REA Group has transformed itself into the second largest online real estate advertising company in the world, largely on the strength of its Australian operations.
Greg has the online and international experience necessary to grow the business from where it is today to an even larger and more successful future. This is excellent news for the real estate agents whom we help succeed and to the consumers who rely on our websites.
Greg Ellis
There is an excellent team in place at the REA Group and they have achieved great things. I am looking forward to joining them so that we can accomplish even more together.
My Comments: Firstly I would like to welcome Greg. Coming into a role in a company that already has complete market share will be nothing new to Greg, however it will be the expectations under which he is employed by the board that we will follow with interest.
I will be interested to see what changes he brings to the CEO role and how REA are perceived by agents, this is one of REA”s weak points and they need to improve relationships with agents especially after the email fiasco, which basically drove home the point and about REA being results driven rather than core customer focussed.
I wish him well and I am sure we all will judge him on his long term vision and results.