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Category Archives: Preferred Unit Ownership
Announcing MRED’s 2020 Board of Managers
Posted by on January 8, 2020
MRED is proud to attract many of the best and brightest real estate professionals to its Board of Managers. This collaboration of experience and thought leadership allows MRED to pave the way forward as a cutting-edge MLS.
MRED’s Broker Preferred Unit Owners (PUOs) have the unique opportunity to nominate any candidate to represent their company on MRED’s Board. The members of one of three categories (based on annual transaction count) may vote on the nominees in their respective category. The following individuals were recently elected to the MRED Board of Managers to fill five open seats through election by their peers:
Sue Miller – Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group
Miller is the Designated Managing Broker of Coldwell Banker The Real Estate Group in McHenry, Illinois and has been licensed in real estate for 32 years. During that time, Miller has previously been active on MRED’s Board in addition to serving on MRED’s Compliance User Team (CUT) group. Miller is the current Illinois REALTOR® President-Elect and is also an active member of the National Association of REALTORS®. She has served as President of Heartland REALTOR® Organization twice.
Molly Ryan – Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago
Ryan has worked as General Counsel at HomeServices of Illinois for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group and Fort Dearborn Land Title Company. Ryan was also recently named a “Most Notable General Counsel” by Crain’s Chicago Business and has served several terms as a River Forest Public Library Trustee as well as President of the Library Board. This election marks Ryan’s fourth term on MRED’s Board of Managers, having served as Board Secretary for three previous terms.
Lynn Madison – Lynn Madison REALTOR®
Madison owns Lynn Madison Seminars, a full-service real estate training and development company. Madison often speaks at national real estate events and has led classes in more than 30 states. Madison was the President of the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS® in 2016, currently sits on two National Association of REALTORS® committees, and has previously served on MRED’s Board.
Sue Wiskowski-Fair – Realty Executives Premiere
Wiskowski-Fair has been in the real estate business for more than 40 years, having been President of the Realty Executives Franchise system in the Chicago area. She was President of the Wisconsin Association of REALTORS® prior to moving to Illinois 30 years ago. Wiskowski-Fair is the current Treasurer of the Board and is Vice-President of Career Development for Realty Executives Premiere. She has served in numerous leadership positions of the Realtor Association at the State and National levels. She is an active agent and Managing Broker.
Jeff Gregory – Realty Executives Success
Gregory is the Owner and Managing Broker of Realty Executives Success. He has 7 years of experience on MRED’s Board of Managers, including 4 years as Board Chair and 1 year as Treasurer. Gregory also served as MRED’s Acting CEO for eight months and chaired the search committee that found MRED’s current CEO, Rebecca Jensen. Additionally, Gregory has served on numerous committees for Illinois REALTORS® as well as the National Association of REALTORS® and is an RPAC Hall of Fame Member.
Other 2020 MRED Board Members include: Fran Broude, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage; Chad Gilbert, RE/MAX Suburban; Dave Naso, Keller Williams; Drussy Hernandez, Fulton Grace Realty; Paul Wells, RE/MAX of Barrington; Michael Emery, Urban Real Estate; Royal Hartwig, The Royal Family Real Estate; Al Rossell, Jack Carpenter Organization; Chris Studebaker, CEO of the REALTOR® Association of the Fox Valley; Jim Haisler, Heartland Realtor® Organization; Art Carter, California Regional MLS.
MRED’s Board also appointed Jeremy Crawford to serve in 2020 as a Strategic Manager. He will join returning Strategic Manager Art Carter on the Board.
Jeremy Crawford – President/CEO, First Multiple Listing Service
Crawford is the President/CEO of First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS), a broker-owned MLS which serves more than 42,000 real estate professionals in Georgia across 2,100 broker member offices. Crawford’s experience includes 7 years with the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO), 4 years of which he served as its CEO and 3 years he served on its Board. Crawford also previously served as an executive for a well-known MLS and MLS vendor.
Art Carter – CEO, California Regional Multiple Listing Service
Carter oversees the strategic direction of the largest MLS in the country at more than 86,000 real estate professionals and 34 associations across California. Carter was named one of Inman News’ 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders in 2016 as well as one of the Top 20 Association/MLS Executives in the Swanepoel Power 200.
MRED would like to extend a special thank-you to outgoing Board Members Luigui Corral, Broker Owner of RE/MAX American Dream, and John Matthews, Senior Vice President of Residential Sales of Baird & Warner, for their dedication and service to MRED. A special thank you to John Matthews for his 9 consecutive years on MRED’s Board and serving as Board Chair in 2019.
Click here to learn more about MRED Preferred Unit Ownership.
MRED would also like to thank North Shore–Barrington Association of REALTORS® CEO Steve Volkodav for his years of service to the local real estate marketplace and on MRED’s Board of Managers. Steve was recently named the new CEO of the Pike’s Peak Association of REALTORS® in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Steve began his time with NSBAR in 2000 and became its CEO in 2013. He is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago and was named as one of three national honorees in June of 2018 to be inducted into NAR’s Almon R. (Bud) Smith Leadership Society.
Chris Studebaker, CEO of the REALTOR® Association of the Fox Valley, will be filling the vacated Association Executive seat on MRED’s Board. Chris began as RAFV CEO in 2014 and previously served as the Executive Director of the REALTOR® Association of Southwestern Illinois.
Meet MRED’s newest Board members
Posted by on December 19, 2018
We’re excited to announce five new members on our Board of Managers. Chad Gilbert, Ruth “Drussy” Hernandez, David Naso, and Royal Hartwig were each individually selected for Board seats through election by their peers. The existing Board also added Luigui Corral by unanimous vote to fill a vacated seat during its most recent meeting.
The election took place as part of our unique initiative that allows brokerages to own their MLS. MRED brokerages that become a Preferred Unit Owner have the opportunity to run for and elect 13 of the 15 voting seats on the MRED Board of Managers, attend and vote at PUO meetings, and co-create MRED’s annual Strategic Plan.
MRED PUOs are broken down into three categories based on brokerages’ number of transactions in a year. Category 1 consists of the top 10 brokerages in MRED’s coverage area based on that transaction data, with Category 2 being brokerages ranked 11-160, and Category 3 covering the remaining firms. This allows every MRED firm to be represented on the Board, no matter its size or location.
Gilbert was elected as a Category 1 representative, Hernandez and Naso are from Category 2, and Hartwig will represent Category 3.
We’d also like to thank the outgoing members of the Board: Jeff Gregory, John Murray, Tom Poulos, and Molly Ryan for their years of dedicated service.
The following new Board Members will take their seats at the start of 2019:
Chad Gilbert – Co-Owner of REMAX Suburban and Precision Title Company
Chad has successfully led RE/MAX Suburban for more than 3 years after a successful sales leadership career in the public and private sector for over 15 years. RE/MAX Suburban is the largest RE/MAX company in Illinois and one of the largest in the United States. His focus continues to be on the strategic growth of the company and support for the Realtors. He received the prestigious Broker Owner of the Year award in 2017 from RE/MAX, LLC. In 2017, Chad purchased Precision Title Company to continue to expand its service offerings.
Ruth “Drussy” Hernandez – Managing Broker, Compass
Hernandez has been a participating representative at MRED as a Preferred Unit Owner since 2010 and a past member of the Board of Managers. She is also a current Board of Director member of the Chicago Association of Realtors as well as a participant in other committees within the association. Hernandez has more than 30 combined years of real estate experience.
David Naso – Managing Broker, Keller Williams Lincoln Park
Naso has served the membership of the Chicago Association of Realtors in various roles during the last 6 years, having served on Professional Standards and Forms and Contracts committees, and has been a Director for the Association since 2015. He manages an office of 190 agents, overseeing compliance of MLS data and acting as the liaison for his agents’ MRED matters. Naso has been selling real estate for nearly a decade.
Royal Hartwig – Managing Broker / Owner, The Royal Family Real Estate
Royal has 14 years of real estate experience, starting his career with Coldwell Banker, where he was named rookie of the year and soon became his office’s top agent. In 2015, Royal opened up his own real estate brokerage called The Royal Family Real Estate. Royal and many agents in his office rank in the top 1% of Realtors in terms of number of home sales per year. He is also a member of The Schaumburg / Hoffman Estates Rotary Club and serves on the club’s Foundation Board.
Luigui Corral – Managing Broker Owner, RE/MAX American Dream
Corral is a real estate industry veteran, serving as a Broker Owner at RE/MAX, Wheeling for nearly 12 years. Currently, Corral is the Managing Broker Owner at RE/MAX American Dream in Round Lake Beach. He’s been named as one of the top 250 Latino Agents in the United States for 6 consecutive years and was President of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals® (NAHREP) for 2 years.
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