Simon Baker knows all too well how the real estate industry is becoming more global. As CEO of realestate.com.au, Baker oversees a business that has a footprint in countries with an 11-hour time difference.
Realestate.com.au is an online real estate portal for Australia. Baker joined the company in 2001.
Prior to leading realestate.com.au, Baker was chief business development officer at News Interactive, chief technology officer in a U.S. start-up and spent five years with McKinsey & Co., providing strategic and organizational advice to senior management at major Australian companies.
Baker will speak during Real Estate Connect in New York City, Jan. 11-13, 2006.
Here are his answers to a set of questions posed by Inman News:
Panel or session at Connect: The Web Lead Machine: What Consumers are doing on the Internet.
What style of home do you live in today and when did you buy it?
I have four homes: a town house in Sydney, a flat in Melbourne, a hotel room in London and an airline seat. The scary thing is that I think I spend more time in the airline seat!
What worries keep you awake at night?
Managing a global business. The U.K. is 11 hours time difference from Australia. There is almost no time in which one of our businesses isn’t working hard.
What’s the strangest thing you ever packed in a suitcase?
A tricycle for my son. Luckily, it came in a box.
What was your first job?
Sales with IBM.
Which daily newspaper do you read and which section do you read first?
What’s a newspaper?
Where did you spend your last vacation?
Holidays…what are they? But for the record I think it was France.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
Taking a business that was within three weeks of closing and turning it around into a $320 million operation across three countries with a market leading team.
What kind of music do you listen to?
Bare Naked Ladies and Frank Sinatra. Don’t ask!
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