Real Estate Almanac

Organized Real Estate Executives

The top 20 Realtor association/MLS executives list, a subset of the Swanepoel Power 200 ranking, acknowledges staff executives or elected officers of a Realtor association, council, board, etc. MLS organizations and other subsidiaries executives are also included here as the businesses are usually intertwined.
Executives Legend
The color legend to the right illustrates the various backgrounds for the top executives in the residential real estate industry.

21

CEO, 
Austin Board of Realtors
Recognized as an innovative association leader, Chenevert manages the Austin Board of Realtors. which has over 13,000 members. In this role, she coordinates the association’s Unlock MLS (formerly ACTRIS), which has approximately 20,000 subscribers. She is also board chair of MLS Technology Holdings, a four-MLS collaboration which owns Remine.

22

CEO, 
Chicago Association of Realtors
Mills Clement oversees the Chicago Association of Realtors, which has over 17,000 members. She is actively involved in advocacy for fair housing and antiracism in the real estate industry. Previously, she served as president and CEO of the Commercial Brokers Association.

23

Dain has led NorthstarMLS, which has over 20,000 members in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, since 2022. Before joining the MLS, Dain served as president and general manager for MLS software provider Remine and as CEO of MARIS, an MLS serving Missouri and Illinois. In 2023, NorthstarMLS announced an agreement to use SSO technology developed by the nation’s largest MLS, CRMLS, with the possibility of more collaborations between the two organizations.

24

CEO, 
Real Estate Standards Organization
As CEO of the nonprofit Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO), DeBord oversees real estate data standards development and implementation in the industry. In this role, he has become one of the chief players in streamlining the use of real estate data across different users by promoting data standards. In 2023, he expanded the organization’s presence with new partnerships announced in Canada, Egypt, Romania, Czech Republic, and Central and South America.

25

Co-Founder and CEO, 
National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
Acosta is co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), the nation’s largest Hispanic business organization with over 40,000 members across 100 chapters. He also co-founded L’Attitude Ventures, a Latino-focused $100M venture firm, where he serves as partner. In 2023, the 30-year veteran of the housing industry joined the Board of BaseCap Analytics.

26

CEO, 
Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors
Cooper serves over 13,000 members and subscribers in Kansas and Missouri as CEO of the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors and the Heartland MLS. Over his two-decade real estate career he worked as a lobbyist for state and local Realtor associations in Nevada and New Hampshire before serving as the CEO of the North Alabama Multiple Listing Service and Huntsville Association of Realtors.

27

DeCatsye has led the 22,500-member Canopy MLS, which serves Realtors in North and South Carolina, since 2001. She also manages the Canopy Realtor Association, the trade organization which owns the MLS, as well as a housing foundation and real estate institute. Having earned her J.D. in 1988, DeCatsye began working with Canopy as its in-house counsel in 2000. She is also a member of the Broker Public Portal’s board of managers.

28

President and CEO, 
UtahRealEstate.com
Bjelke serves as CEO of UtahRealEstate.com, Utah’s largest MLS, which serves approximately 19,000 members. In 2023, he coordinated a data share with the New Mexico MLS to increase exposure. Bjelke is also a founder of MLS collaboration group MLS Aligned and serves on the board of directors for the Council of Multiple Listing Services.

29

President, 
National Association of Real Estate Brokers
In 2023, Johnson Rose became president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, which has approximately 20,000 members who focus on developing Black real estate professionals and on improving the homeownership opportunities of Black Americans. A real estate broker since 2002, Johnson Rose has led her family’s company, George E. Johnson Properties as CEO since 2019. She began her career as a project management consultant at Accenture and has a PhD in Organizational Leadership.

30

CEO, 
Council of Multiple Listing Services
Evans leads the Council of Multiple Listing Services, the largest professional organization dedicated to the MLS industry. The association, with over 225 MLS member organizations and a collective 1.7 million subscribers, helps guide the industry by providing a voice to help the multiple listing service industry. Previously, she served as executive director of EnergyFit Nevada.

31

CEO, 
Women’s Council of Realtors
As CEO of the Women’s Council of Realtors, Stinton leads the Chicago, Illinois-based organization’s efforts to support and empower a nationwide community of over 12,000 members. Stinton took over as CEO of the council in September 2023 after spending nearly 16 years at the National Association of Realtors, most recently as its director of leadership and sustainability.

32

Interim CEO, 
National Association of Realtors
Wright stepped in to lead NAR as interim CEO when Bob Goldberg stepped down in November 2023. Prior to this role, she helmed the Chicago Sun-Times as CEO, leading the noted newspaper through a digital transformation. She will lead the association while it conducts a comprehensive search for a permanent CEO.

33

CEO, 
LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance
Weyandt has led the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance since he helped found the organization in 2020. The group advocates for fair housing for all while educating professionals and providing opportunities to celebrate and elevate members and allied partners. Weyandt previously served on the Minnesota Realtors Diversity and Inclusion Committee and is a past president of the National Association of Gay & Lesbian Real Estate Professionals’ Minnesota chapter.

34

Grasso became president and CEO of MLS PIN in 2022. In this role, he leads the nation’s 11th largest MLS with over 45,000 members. In 2023, he helped navigate MLS PIN to a proposed settlement of a high-profile compensation lawsuit against the MLS. He previously led the 15 offices of Coldwell Banker Realty’s Boston region.

35

CEO, 
Northern Virginia Association of Realtors
CEO of Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) since 2015, Ryan oversees a staff of 32 and serves over 13,000 Realtors in the Northern Virginia region. In 2022, Ryan served as chair of NAR’s Association Executives Committee. Prior to joining NVAR, he led the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

36

As CEO of OneKey MLS, Haggarty leads an organization that provides MLS services to over 46,000 subscribers in New York. He played a key role in the formation of OneKey by helping facilitate the merger of the Hudson Gateway and Long Island Multiple Listing Services.

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