The National Association of REALTORS® announced two new additions to their digital and IT teams. Roland Varesko will become NAR’s vice president of Digital Strategy, and Faisal Ghauri will become NAR’s vice president of IT. Both will join high-functioning teams whose key functions are focused on improving and increasing member engagement and satisfaction.
“Roland brings a wealth of experience to lead and improve digital strategy for our marketing, communications and events management team,” says Victoria Gillespie, NAR’s chief marketing and communications officer. “With Roland’s unique skillset, he will add depth to our digital capabilities and continue to strengthen members’ experiences with NAR through a variety of communication channels based on user preferences.”
With more than 20 years of digital marketing experience, Varesko will develop and deliver NAR’s digital presence and user experience across all digital touchpoints and platforms. Varesko has developed digital marketing strategies for national brands with divisions in more than 30 market areas. His work has won numerous awards for best-in-class digital marketing campaigns, websites, apps and touchscreen kiosks. Prior to joining NAR, Varesko was president of Ecendant Interactive where he specialized in strategic solutions for clients in various industries, from tech, real estate, architecture, medical and legal, to food and wine. Varesko officially joined NAR on July 23.
“My new role at NAR provides numerous exciting opportunities to use my expertise with user experience and digital platforms to help provide members and consumers with the best experience possible when they interact with our brand,” says Varesko. “I look forward to optimizing NAR’s digital presence and expanding on platforms developed by our current team to provide the greatest results for our members.”
To lead the overall security and business strategy of NAR’s IT systems, Ghauri will join NAR with more than 18 years of hands-on management, strategy, development and operations experience.
“Faisal is the ideal candidate to lead NAR’s IT systems,” says John Pierpoint, NAR’s senior vice president of Finance and chief financial officer. “His prior experiences successfully leading global teams and implementing new technology is unparalleled.”
Ghauri will be responsible for implementing new technologies and managing ongoing upgrades to current systems, all while ensuring the organization maintains compliance with applicable laws and regulations. During his career, Ghauri has led global and local strategic initiatives, enterprise architecture and enterprise-wide implementations in multiple industries with geographically dispersed teams. Most recently, he worked at Columbia Sportswear where he was responsible for their digital transformation as well as management of vendor relationships and contracts for all e-commerce systems. Ghauri’s start date is July 30.
“I’m looking forward to bringing my experience as a tech leader to NAR. There are many ways we can expand upon the use of technology to further streamline and enhance our offerings to members,” says Ghauri.
For more information, please visit www.nar.realtor.
