Maëlle Gavet, Compass’ chief operating officer, is exiting the firm, as the turnover at the company continues to impact key leadership. The company is not replacing her, according to Robert Reffkin, CEO of Compass.
“Maëlle has been instrumental to Compass’ success, helping us grow to over 14,000 agents and 2,300 employees,” Reffkin says. “She scaled our operational teams to support our national expansion to over 130 cities and was instrumental in growing our product and engineering team to over 400 people today. I, along with the entire Compass family, will be rooting for her.”
In the past year, a bevy of executives have left the organization, either pushed out or resigned, including Chief People Officer Madan Nagaldinne and Head of Product Eytan Seidman. In 2018, Compass appointed Kristen Ankerbrandt as CFO, the second hire for the position in the span of a year, as well as hired Joseph Sirosh as CTO.
Gavet was appointed as COO in 2017, and was formerly with The Priceline Group.
“Growing Compass alongside Robert and our amazing employees and agents has been one of the most rewarding and energizing experiences of my life and I am incredibly proud of all that we accomplished,” Gavet says.
Compass is the No. 3 Power Broker in the U.S., earning $45 billion in sales volume in 2018. Last week, Rory Golod, Compass’ regional president in New York, addressed attendees at RISMedia’s 2019 Real Estate CEO Exchange, where he described the firm’s vision as “the single platform to power all real estate transactions, [and] we want to do it via agents.” Golod indicated it expects to garner $80 billion in sales volume this year.
In the past year, Compass has launched a litany of services, including Compass Concierge, and, more recently, Compass Bridge Loans, while being embroiled in lawsuits with Realogy, Zillow and others. Earlier this month, the company’s hub office opened in Seattle, in a bid to build out its technology.
Comment
I fail to understand how your organization or any other for that matter, can say “Compass has grown” or Compass has earned”. Compass has taken money from investors and simply bought agents with signing bonuses with that money. There is NO accomplishment in that. Ask any other reputable Broker or Manager who has spent years holding new agents by the hand and spoon feeding them every word of their listing presentations, open house procedures, viewed and reviewed every CAR form and contract day after day, month after month, and year after year until they knew what to say and do and could truly claim to be called a professional Realtor. All of us “traditional” Brokers take a lot of pride in doing all of that and much more, including listening to the stories about the deals that didn’t work out and coaching them back onto the field so they could make the next deal work. And they did! THAT, my friends, is something to be proud of.
I don’t see Compass having a culture that rich in what makes a true professional. As a matter of fact, their so-called disruptive strategy wreaks of Wall Street’s infamous Ivan Boesky or Carl Icahn – type behavior. Certainly NOTHING to be proud of. No wonder their people are bailing out…
Bob Majorino
Well stated Bob! As a start up without billions in the bank or even a single investor for that matter, and one who is truly disrupting the status quo in our market, we fell the same way. I said this very thing about Berkshire Hathaway in years past, and it applies to Compass now. They aren’t growing anything. They are buying out, acquiring, merging and taking over other brokerages, teams, and solo agents with their deep pockets and writing fat checks to buy agents, their market share and their book of business. How long until that gravy train runs out and investors want their dividends and contracts with agents run out and they move on to the next big thing?
I believe the “pendulum of truth” is swinging back toward investors actually expecting to make a profit on their investments but not necessarily a major home run, which is what it seems a lot of people are hoping for today. Take a look at “We Work” along with a number of others in which the ploy to build an entity which can be dumped on Wall Street like yesterday’s junk is coming under scrutiny. Some of these guys are going to come up short and possibly even subject to legal action because of fraud, misrepresentation, etc. In addition, real estate companies, on their own merit, do not generate a large enough multiple to be attractive to large (huge) investors, so now they are trying to “convince” the public into thinking they are tech companies – and NOT real estate companies – because a tech company status would make their IPO much more profitable. Do they really think people are that lame? Besides, if you declare yourself a tech company, why would you buy a real estate company in the first place? Call me stupid, but if your company name is on a sign in front of a whole bunch of houses across the country, you’re a real estate company.
You know…if it quacks like a duck…etc., it’s a duck!
Compass is one of the best real estate technology companies in US.
The days of the small mom and pop, or even regional brokers, are going the way of the dinosaurs. Deep pocket investors are taking over. It’s not their fault though. We live at at time when greed is good. So it’s reflected across all sectors of business. What will be interesting to see is what those investors will do when they realize the company has to “earn” its money, not just “buy” it.
I cant help but think that anyone complaining about Compass here is simply venting the pressure that they feel from them taking the market share. Whether it is sustainable or not is yet to be seen but if you them squeezing you out of the market it is natural to complain. After all, it might be you that might not make it…