TOP 10 Real Estate
Newsmakers of 2008
Newsmakers are defined as those people that during the previous calendar year (2008) made headlines as individuals, as a result of their actions and leadership of the companies or associations they are involved with. Newsmakers are more about the people than the company.
1. Bill Foley
As the founder and CEO of Fidelity National Financial (FNF), the country’s second largest title company, Foley made many bold moves during 2008 including the acquisition of three more title brands: Commonwealth, Lawyers and United, to become the largest title company in the world. The FNF stable already operates the Fidelity Title, Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Title and Alamo title brands. FNF has also successfully created Cyberhomes as one of the most significant consumer facing portals in real estate.
2. Sheila Bair
Bair was appointed Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to serve a five-year term until June 2011. She spearheaded the administration’s efforts to resolve many of the problems caused by the housing market, spoke out for homeowners, pushed for mass loan modifications and pressed lenders to modify the terms of troubled loans to prevent foreclosure.
3. Henry Paulson & Ben Bernanke
As Secretary of the Treasury and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board these two men stepped into the leadership role of presiding over the government’s intervention into the nation’s financial crisis by creating the program that is the beginning of what will hopefully drive the U.S. economy through the recession. As 2008 was a political transition year their successors will continue the task and either benefit from or be burdened by decisions already made.
4. Gary Keller
As the driving force behind Keller Williams Realty (KW) and the author of five real estate books, Keller has been the visionary in growing KW into one of the largest and most recognizable real estate franchise brands in the country with over 75,000 associates and partners. Even during the last few tough years, KW has bucked the trend and continued to grow. His new book SHIFT was published in 2008 was also very timely.
5. Laurie Janik
As General Counsel for the National Association of REALTORS® Janik led the tireless battle against the Department of Justice, resolving the litigation over the display of listings from the MLS on brokers' Virtual Office Websites (VOW) sites, validating NAR's long-standing Internet Data Exchange (IDX) policy and strengthening the membership rules governing multiple listing services.
6. Ken Louis
As CEO of Bank of America, Louis has built BofA into the number one bank in the United States, which was highlighted in 2008 by the acquisitions of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide. Now the leader on almost every front in the financial world, Bank of America will be the single largest lender of mortgages and therefore a key contributor to the future growth of the housing market.
7. Saul Klein
As president and co-founder of Internet Crusade, Klein has been around a long time. However, his appointment as CEO of Point2 Technologies and the subsequent nationwide syndication of MLS information has launched him into the MLS nexus. He has also tirelessly promoted the e-Pro certification program and helped build the second largest online real estate community – RealTown.
8. Charles McMillan
The 2009 President of the National Association of REALTORS® is from Irving, Texas and is the director of Realty Relations and broker of record for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Dallas-Fort Worth. McMillan is the first African American to serve as President in NAR’s 100 year history and is a strong proponent of “not standing still”, but rather embracing change. Combined with the strong leadership from NAR CEO Dale Stinton, NAR has the potential in 2009 to lay the foundation for an exciting future.
9. Pete Flint & Sami Inkinen
As founders of Trulia these two leaders, in spite of the current financial difficulties and the market downturn, continued to go against that flow and have raised funding in the amount of $33 million, which solidifies Trulia as a dotcom company that could survive the economic and/or Web 2.0 downturn to become one of the new paradigm companies that will shape the future.
10. David Michonski
As Chairman and CEO of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy in Manhattan during the last year, Michonski became a national name with his timely television interviews in which he represents and discusses the real estate industry, especially in the troubled economic time in which the industry finds itself. He was also founding president for the Manhattan Association of REALTORS® and the Manhattan Multiple Listing Service.
