REA Group Loses Another Top Manager
July 13, 2009 by Simon Baker
Shaun Di Gregorio, the General Manager for International Business, has made the shock announcement that he is leaving the REA Group after 7 ½ years. The announcement was made to all staff at the REA Group’s global conference at a resort on the Sunshine Coast.
Shaun was an integral part of the team that made realestate.com.au into the market leading property portal in Australia. He joined in early 2002 as the Sales Manager and in 2005 took over as General Manager for Australia. During that time he helped take realestate.com.au from being used by 20% of agents to being used by over 90%+ of agents.
Over the last 18 months Shaun has been responsible for the international operations of the REA Group excluding the UK and Italy, which report directly to the CEO.
It is believed that Shaun chose to move on from the REA Group to explore new career opportunities.
The departure of Shaun is not surprising. Recently the REA Group redefined itself as an Australian company with some international businesses. As such, it has closed the New Zealand business, closed the UK print publications and is exiting the UK.
Of interest was the non-appearance of the UAE team at the REA Group global conference last week. Perhaps they are the next business slated for sale or closure?
The resignation of Shaun sees the departure of yet another long serving member the original core team that built the REA Group between 2002 and 2008. Other departures include long time CEO, Simon Baker, the CIO, Chris Vulovic, the Head of Industry Sales and Marketing, John Hart, and the most recent CEO of the Australian business, Jamie Pride.
- REA Group Loses CIO
In news today, it has been reported that Chris Vulovic, the CIO of the REA Group, has left the business. The search has commenced for a new CIO. Read on for more ... ...
- REA Group Director Steps Down
Alasdair MacLeod is stepping down from his position as director of REA Group. MacLeod's departure follows the mid-January announcement that he would be leaving his position as managing director of News Ltd's Nationwide News. REA Group is 60.7 percent owned by News Ltd, and MacLeod is the son-on-law of Rupert Murdoch, head of News Ltd's parent company News Corporation. REA Group runs leading Australian property portal realestate.com.au along with Italian portal casa.it and portals in France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong. MacLeod joined the board in February 2003....
- Another Loss for REA Group
Another member of REA Group has just left the team - Daniel Bignold, head of residential for realestate.com.au. ...
- REA Senior Manager Joins IPGA
IPGA Ltd, the company behind the iproperty.com family of portals, has announced the appointment of Shaun Di Gregorio as its new CEO. Di Gregorio previously held positions as head of Australian operations for REA Group and general manager of REA Group’s international business. Patrick Grove, IPGA’s executive chairman, says REA Group's revenues grew from AUD$6 million to $167 million and the share price increased from $0.15 to $7.40 while Di Gregorio was working as a senior manager at the company....
- REA Group Sells Stake in propertyfinder.ae
The REA Group has exited the Dubai market by selling its 51% stake in propertyfinder.ae to its joint venture partner, the Swiss Media Group. The REA Group purchased 51% of Propertyfinder.ae in October 2007 with the objective of driving strong growth on online real estate advertising in the Gulf Region. The sales continues the retreat of the REA Group to its core Australian business....
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Every new CEO likes to build his own team.
I suspect the move from high growth at any cost to mature business focusing on the customer and business efficiencies will see a different breed of senior exec.
Other than Simon Baker, Shaun was probably the next cab off the rank in terms of driving REA in Australia to its market position as he built and led a large and loyal sales and marketing team over a 6 to 7 year period.
During that time he saw off 5 to 6 of his counterparts at Domain and ensured he kept daylight between the two portals in terms of market share and revenue growth.
As Snoop has mentioned a new CEO likes to build his own team and I guess Shaun being in his current position was always going to vunerable given the re-structure focussing REA on Australia. Only two significant and respected executives now remain on the leadership team that Simon Baker had a year ago and they are Georg Chmiel the CFO and Andy Sheats the Strategy and Development GM.
Shaun can walk away from REA with his head held high and with the respect of all of his employees both past and present. He will be missed and there will be quite a few more people who will follow him out the door in the coming months.
Looks like the share price is also leaving.
Great operator with a big future. Should be able to write his own ticket.
Robert, REA share price is moving inline with just about every measure of the ASX. In other words, there is no current proof that the Google announcement has had any more affect on REA than the All Ords (none)….
Shaun was always the ultimate professional and promoted the virtues of online through his constant seminars and roadshows to agents. I for one would not have known of industry sites like this and business2 if Shaun had not spruiked them at one that I attended a few years ago.
I think the current REA leadership need to come out of their bunkers and say hello to their customers like Shaun used to. He was never afraid to face the music of which there was always a bit and thats what seems different between how he operated and how the current regime tends to act.
Max, i think Robert for all his ranting may have a point with the share price which is overvalued anyway. There is far too much change occurring, far too many people leaving the building and far too many people up the top at REA who don’t seem to know much about their customers, the real estate agents of Australia. The Ray White clan knew it and cashed in above $6.00 and News Ltd know it and refused to up their stake. The one horse race is over.
The next 12 months will be very interesting and I think Shaun will be a very interested spectator. He may have left at just the right time.
Craig A,
I think you will find that Shaun is one of the last key people to leave.
From what I hear, most of the people who came up with the strategies and executed them, started leaving REA not long after Simon Baker left. This talent pool ranges from key Account Managers, Product Managers and way up to Country Managers. That is a lot of equity making the decision to leave!
When I raised this, you said these people were not that influential to where Greg Ellis wanted to take the company. Seems strange that it has taken Shaun, and you, this length of time to catch up.
Shaun led a great team, which were loyal to the company. The successful former team members have all landed great positions around the globe. I am sure that Shaun too will find such a position.
You are right, the one horse race is over.
I understand that Greg Ellis is surrounding himself with everyone from sensis. I have said it before, but Sensis has a dismal track record of losing market share, and outsourcing to Google.
Makes you wonder what Greg Ellis will do now that Google is the competition.
Max, count the numbers, the REA Shareprice has slipped in the last week, against the trend of the ASX and Seek. Sell your shares now, and buy when they hit a bottom.
Will the property portals (REA & Domain) move to a pay per property model as against the current monthly subscription? Given that Google Maps is on the war path? Or is that a rant too
I had the pleasure and honour of working with Shaun and the REA leaders of the past, bar one that shall remain nameless however she is Mr. Ellis’ problem now, and he might want to look at the HR department closely.
As a former employee, I can honestly say that I have never worked so hard, played so hard and enjoyed every second so much. The business and the people were a huge part of my life and it’s very sad to watch this happen.
However all the leaders of the ‘Good’ REA should hold their heads high knowing that their staff admired them and we will never forget those fantastic and exciting years from buying property.com.au to that first 1 million UVs mark.
Simon Baker, Bill Spring, John Hart, Shaun, Karl… and numerous others, thank you for great leadership but also for showing me that a business is only as good as its people.
Perhaps even more telling about the current ‘health’ of the REA Group, is what the industry is saying.
David Crombie, the CEO of EAC (Estate Agents Cooperative) and board member of the REAIAC (Realestate.com.au Industry Advisory Council) resigned from the REAIAC earlier this year.
“Last week I resigned my position as a consultant on the realestate.com.au Industry Advisory Council.
When I accepted the position of consultant on the REA Industry Advisory Council I believed that the members of the Council could work with REA to the betterment of the real estate industry and industry practice in general. While the IAC was a very good concept I personally don’t think that with the current management and direction of REA that it will and can work. ”
See the post here http://davidcrombie.blogspot.com/2009/03/resignation-from-reaiac.html
EAC has a membership of around 1800 agents in the state of NSW in Australia. Representing a fair % of the overall REA Customer base. (if there are 9200 agents in Australia, then this represents around 20% of the market).
Telling signs of the souring relationship the REA group has with its customers.
Also interesting to read on David Crombies twitter profile, that “Google Maps is now the fifth highest source of referring sites to realestateworld.com.au after two days”. (realestateworld.com.au is the EAC owned and operated portal for NSW agents)
Interesting evidence to suggest that REA has dismal relationships with its Key Customers, which in turn has fostered the Key customers participation with Google. And these Key customers are now touting some positive results from Googles entry.
This outlines the four extreme challenges which the REA Group currently face:
1. Internal – Retaining key personnel, therein stopping IP walking out the door
2. Customers – Souring relationships with the real estate industry and the lack of confidence in REA by the Major Australian Industry players.
3. Competition – the entry of Google, and through that entry, the opportunity for competitors, and Key Customers, to derive leads to their businesses/clients, without working with the REA Group. How do they reverse this? or Can they?
4. Shareholders – retaining the confidence of Major Shareholders so that they either maintain or increase their stake in the company, and delivering results which provide them a longitudinal return on their investment. The first step is obviously to reverse the trend of the downward heading shareprice.
Challenging times ahead!
I wouldn’t be too worried about short term share price movements. The market in general is still quite volatile and i suspect REA is just a cork in the ocean of the ASX….which in turn is just a cork in the ocean in global markets…
As for losing key people…that’s where the real danger for any business is in longer term value generation and success.
From all reports Shaun was a key driver of the company and no doubt his leaving will have a ripple affect.
Hi
I’m a bit confused. In the first sentence of this article is states that Shaun has made the “shock annoucnement” of leaving REA. Yet in the 5th paragraph it states that the departure of Shaun is “not surprising”.
Could you please clarify whether it is a shock or not surprising?
Kind Regards
Confused
Hindsight is a great thing Robert and AJ but look at the Share Price 5-6 months down the track.
Looks like it will finish at about $9.60 up a staggering $6.00 from a low of $3.42 a year ago. As a shareholder AJ you must be pleased?
Haven’t seen too many investments triple in value in 12 months.
Not that hard to see why.
Big recovery in the Australian Real Estate Market with double digit growth for the year in most places and still no real National competitor for REA as Domain fuddles and bumbles through another year of ordinary strategy and internal battles with their print buddies.
Share price will continue to grow under those conditions. Most agents are not tuned into the machinations of Google and will keep throwing dough and their vendors into REA.
[...] follows two other REA Group departures during 2009: general manager for international business, Shaun Di Gregorio, and Australian CEO Jamie [...]