Former realtor.com President Errol Samuelson’s departure came as a complete surprise to Move Inc. CEO Steve Berkowitz and others at the company, many of whom “found out about his resignation in exactly the same way that everyone else in real estate did: from social media, blogs and then Inman News,” industry consultant and color commentator Rob Hahn blogs. “There was no farewell email, message, or any communication from Errol to the staff.”
Based on a phone interview with Berkowitz, Hahn characterizes the Move leader as “furious, but confident” in the wake of Samuelson’s departure.
While the company is also dealing with the departure of Chief Product Officer Scott Boecker — who Hahn reports left “very quietly just a week or two before Errol’s move,” Berkowitz says he’s got deep talent in product development from the likes of Social Bios founder Ernie Graham and Doorsteps founder Michele Serro (who both came on board when their companies were acquired by Move).
Berkowitz said Move “wouldn’t miss a beat” with Curt Beardsley formally taking on the title of vice president of industry development. Zillow is said to be hoping that Samuelson will help it build ties to MLSs and rope in more direct listings feeds. In announcing Beardsley’s promotion, Move was careful to point out its “long-standing relationship with the National Association of Realtors and the more than 800 multiple listings services” that provide listing feeds to realtor.com.
Ties between Move and NAR remain strong, Berkowitz says, and Hahn thinks the abrupt nature of Samuelson’s departure is likely to make his new job trickier — and put an end to talk that the longtime realtor.com leader was a viable candidate to take over as NAR’s CEO when Dale Stinton retires. Source: notorious-rob.com.
