As part of a major restructuring that should result in new operational efficiencies, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has merged its government affairs and community and political affairs divisions into a new political advocacy group that will be led by Bill Malkasian, who has been promoted to chief advocacy officer and senior vice president.
In addition, NAR has formed a new member experience group that will focus on ensuring Realtor associations and members are highly engaged and satisfied with the association and its many services and offerings.
Also, as part of the restructuring, Katherine Johnson, NAR’s general counsel and senior vice president, will take on an expanded role overseeing all functions related to legal, information services, association leadership development, and association and multiple listing service governance.
In addition, NAR’s communications, marketing and meetings/events departments have been merged into a single group – marketing, communications and events – that will be led by Matt Lombardi, senior vice president. This group will bring significant enhancements to the way NAR communicates with members, ensuring consistency, continuity, rapid response and accuracy in branding, design and messaging, the association says in a release.
What’s more, the marketing research and predictive analytics teams will be merged into NAR’s research group to centralize research and data collection and analysis. This group will be led by Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice president.
Other changes include the formation of a new strategic business innovation and technology group, which will be led by Mark Birschbach, who was recently promoted to senior vice president.
In his new role, Birschbach will drive industry innovation and bring benefits to members through strategic relationships with a broad range of business and technology players. He will oversee NAR’s Realtor Benefits Program, the Center for Realtor Technology, Second Century Ventures, REach accelerator, top-level domains, and NAR’s relationship with Move Inc., operator of realtor.com.
Additional changes include the establishment of a member development group that will drive an integrated education strategy for Realtors.
“This reorganization reflects the promise I made when I was named CEO last August to create better efficiencies in engaging with and serving the association’s members,” says Bob Goldberg, CEO of NAR, in the release. “This restructuring to the internal organization is the most sweeping change in the association’s history, and I’m confident it will drive greater innovation, put more focus on member engagement and satisfaction, achieve a more holistic communications and marketing strategy, and improve the association’s nimbleness and decision-making.”
For more on the changes, click here.