Anywhere has tapped former Microsoft executive Tony Kueh to become its first-ever chief product officer, according to an announcement on Thursday. Kueh will spearhead the company’s product strategy, innovation roadmap, and technology investments.
Tony Kueh
“Tony Kueh joined Anywhere in September 2022 as the company’s first chief product officer and is responsible for the definition and execution of the company’s overall product strategy,” an Anywhere spokesperson said.
“Kueh has a long history of successfully incubating and rapidly growing innovative technology businesses in a broad spectrum of areas including mobile, semiconductors, enterprise/SaaS, and AI/ML while leading cross-functional teams including product management, marketing, strategy, and engineering,” they added.
The Duke University graduate started his tech career 23 years ago as a senior group manager for Microsoft, where he led the company’s mobile messaging and software solutions. From there, he went on to fulfill executive positions at tech companies Qualcomm, Palm, SAP, PasswordBox, NeuStar, MobileRQ and VMware, where he served as the VP of Products until June 2022.
Kueh founded a company, BluText, in 2015 and has been an advisor for several startups.
“The real estate industry is ripe for transformation,” he said in a statement. “By blending modern design with the latest in tech across mobile, cloud, and [artitifical intelligence and machine learning], we will be able to deliver delightful, intelligent, and streamlined digital experiences for consumers, agents, and ecosystem partners.”
“I’m very excited to lead at Anywhere and look forward to working across the enterprise, network of affiliated owners and franchisees, and the broader ecosystem to build transformative digital products,” he added.
Kueh will likely work side-by-side with COO Melissa McSherry, which Anywhere hired in February. McSherry, who most recently worked for Visa, is in charge of the company’s product, technology, enterprise marketing and customer experience initiatives.
McSherry and Kueh’s hiring seems to fall in line with Realogy’s 2022 growth strategy Schneider shared with Inman last 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.”
