Ahead of revealing fourth-quarter earnings, Realogy has tapped former Visa executive Melissa McSherry to serve as the company’s chief operating officer, it announced Thursday. McSherry will officially step into her role on Feb. 22, where she’ll lead the franchisor’s product, technology, enterprise marketing and customer experience initiatives.
“Melissa is a bold leader who inspires teams,” Realogy President and CEO Ryan Schneider said in a statement. “She strategically leverages technology and data to build products that enhance the customer experience and drive growth. Melissa will help lead the next chapter of Realogy’s transformation as we accelerate delivery of a more seamless, digitized transaction and harness the power of our strong momentum.”
Melissa McSherry | Credit: Realogy
Prior to joining Realogy, McSherry crafted high-growth business strategies based on digital transformation and artificial intelligence technology for Visa as its senior vice president and global head of risk and identity solutions. Before her tenure at Visa, the Sanford and Harvard alumna spent 12 years at Capital One leading teams across card partnerships, corporate strategy, decision/data science, technology and AI.
“Realogy is an industry leader with unmatched scale, deep data access, strong brands, and powerful agents,” McSherry said of her decision to join Realogy. “I have admired the progress the company has made in transforming how consumers buy and sell homes, and I am excited to partner with Ryan Schneider and the talented leadership team to further amplify Realogy’s success as, together, we deliver the next chapter for the company and our customers.”
McSherry’s hiring seems to fall in line with Realogy’s 2022 growth strategy Schneider shared with Inman in December. The CEO said he planned to take a “collaborative approach” to the franchisor’s digital strategy, which includes investments in iBuying and power buying, mortgage and title, bespoke luxury solutions and forging partnerships with third-party tech companies.
“The transaction has to get simplified for the end customer [and] that includes helping the agent make it simpler. That’s where the integration of things like title and mortgage comes in,” he said. “Every model has got to go more digital, and no matter what your value proposition is, you’ve got to deliver more of it digitally.”
