Advisory Boards

Broker Advisory Board

Ken Baris

Ken Baris is the president of Jordan Baris. At the age of 22, Ken was the youngest CRS in the nation and later earned the CRB designation. An industry leader, Ken with a partner developed and licensed to Top Producer Systems, Top Presenter — an interactive multimedia listing presentation that was awarded the best new software product of the year by NAR when it was launched. In the media, Ken has been heard on radio and seen on CNBC and NBC National Nightly News as a real estate expert. Frequently in the press, he has been quoted in editorial sections of USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Real Estate News, Real Estate Business and the (New Jersey) Star Ledger. As an author, Ken has been published in The Real Estate Professional Magazine, Real Estate Business, Real Estate Today and various industry newsletters. As a speaker, Ken has addressed professionals at numerous national conferences on topics such as Practical Technology, Selling on the First Day Out and Unlocking the Power of the Web for Brokers. Established in 1952, Jordan Baris Inc. is one of the premier full-service real estate brokerages in New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area and has a team of more than 200.

Jim Cahill

Jim Cahill is Executive Vice President/Chief Information & Technology Officer at Terra Holdings, LLC. Terra Holdings which owns and operates Brown Harris Stevens, Halstead Property and several other real estate firms. Jim's original responsibility was to design systems for the 70-person, one-office firm. Subsequently, Jim was given all Web development and online marketing responsibilities as well as the C.I.O. duties, required to grow the firm to its current size of over 40 offices and 2,500+ agents, staff and managers. Jim was also the co-chairman of the technical advisor committee for NYMLS.com, responsible for developing and launching New York City's first cooperative residential listings Web site. The site included listings from almost every Real Estate Board of New York residential real estate firm. Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Diploma in Information Technology from New York University. Additionally, he earned a Masters degree in Business Administration from the New York Institute of Technology. Jim is a licensed real estate agent in the state of New York.

Sherry Chris

Sherry Chris was appointed President and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC in October of 2007. Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, which is the 5th residential brand for Realogy, will officially launch in July of 2008. Sherry was most recently Chief Operating Officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Overall, Sherry has more than 27 years of real estate experience, including significant senior management positions in the areas of sales and marketing and new technologies, and franchise management. A native Canadian, she began her real estate career in Canada and held increasingly senior positions with Royal LePage for 16 years before taking on executive roles with Real Living (Ohio) and Prudential CA/NV/TX Realty. She joined Realogy in 2006. Well known within the real estate industry, Sherry is a frequent speaker at real estate and technology conferences.

Joe Deasy

Joe Deasy is the co-president and an owner of Windermere Real Estate/East, Inc. located in Bellevue, WA. In the past 5 years, the 340 agents of Windermere Real Estate/East, Inc. have completed, on average, 6,000 transactions (sides) and closed $3.2 billion dollars in sales volume. In addition to being an owner of Windermere Real Estate/East, Joe is a board member of Windermere Mortgage and Commonwealth Title Company. Joe works closely with managers and agents to help them develop to their highest potential in their respective roles. Joe is also an advisor to Windermere Services, the family-owned oversight company for the entire network of Windermere offices.

Dan Elsea

Dan Elsea is the president of brokerage services for the Real Estate One Family of Companies. Dan has been in the real estate business for more than 25 years in a number of capacities within the company from commercial and residential sales to branch and division management. He and his brother, Stuart, share the leadership of the company and its affiliates. The company is in its third generation in Michigan, having begun as Elsea Realty in 1929 under Staunton Elsea, Dan and Stuart's grandfather. Real Estate One brings in $2.4 billion annually, and is the 13th largest brokerage in the nation, employing 1,500 agents.

Michael Fischer

Michael Fischer joined Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC as its senior vice president of marketing in February 2008. Fischer is renowned for his marketing expertise in the automotive industry and among marketing communication agencies. Fischer oversees and directs the Coldwell Banker® brand's consumer marketing, including advertising, online initiatives, market research, public relations, internal communications and regional marketing activities. He will also guide all aspects of Coldwell Banker.com as well as marketing activities associated with Coldwell Banker Previews International , and the brand's agent intranet. Fischer joined Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC after spending 15 years at Nissan North America, Inc., most recently as director of marketing communications. In this role, he led all strategic planning and creative development for Nissan and Infiniti division marketing activities including TV, print, marketing collateral, point-of-sale, and auto industry trade shows. Along with other positions at Nissan North America, Fischer held marketing roles at Toyota Motor Corporation, Hill Holiday, Flair Communications, and Group Dynamics. Fischer earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University in 1981, and later earned an MBA in marketing and finance from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1992.

Dick Fulton

Dick Fulton is the Executive Vice President of Coldwell Banker Bain | Seal, the #1 Coldwell Banker global affiliate in GCI for four of the last five years. Coldwell Banker Bain | Seal represents the greater Pacific Northwest region with offices from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR. Dick has been in the real estate business for over 30 years. After receiving his Masters degree in Counseling, he began selling real estate, taking on the role of Managing Broker in 1984. In addition to managing the Lake Union and Magnolia William A. Bain Association offices (now Coldwell Banker Bain) for 20 + years, he has also held several elected positions with the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS). Starting as a Director in 1996 he moved into a leadership role as the Chairman of Disciplinary committee for 6 years then became the 2005 Chairman of the Board of Directors for the NWMLS. As Chairman he attended multiple conferences across the country gaining a national perspective on industry-wide issues.

Mike Montsko

As President of the Weichert Lead Network, Mike oversees Weichert, Realtors' state-of-the-art customer contact center. Prior to his promotion, he spearheaded the huge technological initiative that created Weichert's industry-leading contact center. The only one of its kind in the industry, the Weichert customer contact center uses sophisticated technology to deliver responsive personal service to online and 800-number customers seven days a week. In 2005 and 2006, Mike was listed as one of the "100 Most Influential Real Estate People" by Inman News.

Chad Ochsner

Chad Ochsner is the Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Alliance, a real estate brokerage company with 22 offices and more than 800 agents in Metro Denver, Boulder, and Northern Colorado. RE/MAX Alliance is the No. 1 RE/MAX franchise in the United States with $2.8 billion in volume in 2008 and 11,800 transaction sides. Real Trends ranked RE/MAX Alliance the 19th largest brokerage in the U.S. in 2008. Chad serves on various committees within his local and state associations and is a director for Metrolist, Colorado's leading MLS. A second generation Broker/Owner, Chad received the RE/MAX Broker/Owner of the year award in 2005 and again in 2008 for Colorado.

Beverly Thorne

Beverly Thorne is Chief Marketing Officer for Century 21 Real Estate LLC. She leads the planning and execution of the domestic marketing strategies in support of market share growth for the largest real estate franchise organization in the world. Beverly is responsible for leading the strategy development and program execution of all consumer, broker and agent marketing programs. She oversees the optimization of a National Advertising Fund with the overall goals to increase preference for the brand, to generate qualified customer leads, and to grow market share. Beverly earned her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and has worked extensively in the areas of consumer marketing, strategic branding and event marketing management over her twenty-plus year career. Most recently she was with JPMorgan Chase & Company where she served as senior vice president, customer marketing for the Home Finance business unit. Prior to that, Thorne worked at AT&T for nearly two decades in a series of increasingly senior roles, planning and executing marketing and communications strategies nationwide.

Rick Turley

A real estate veteran with more than two decades of experience, Rick Turley is President of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's San Francisco Bay Area Region, incorporating 23 offices and a talented team of more than 1,350 real estate professionals. Prior to being named president in early 2007, Turley was the manager of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's highly successful San Francisco Lakeside and Market Street offices where he earned several coveted accolades. Most notable was being honored as the No. 1 real estate office in San Francisco for sales units. Turley entered real estate in 1986 with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and earned the company's coveted International President's Elite and earned the title of Top 1% internationally for seven consecutive years. He was also honored as the branch's top producer each year from 1994 until he went into management in 1999. Prior to entering real estate, Turley was a former professional ice skater who competed in pairs figure skating. Turley currently serves as co-chair of the Manager's Council for the San Francisco Association of Realtors.

Mark Woodroof

Mark Woodroof is managing partner for Prudential Gary Greene, and has been active in the Residential Real Estate brokerage business for nearly 24 years. In March 2000, Mark became a principal at Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors. This new entity was formed with partner Marilyn Eiland by acquiring the residential assets of Gary Greene, Realtors Better Homes and Gardens and four Prudential affiliates, ultimately creating a market-leading force of more than 1,100 associates in 18 owned and 9 affiliated offices throughout the greater Houston area. Mark and Marilyn are actively involved in the leadership and daily operations of the company. Mark has been involved with the Houston Association of Realtors since 1991, serving as its chairman in 1999. He has also been active with both the state and national associations serving on numerous committees and is a past director of the Texas Association and current director of the National Association of Realtors as a large broker representative.

Technical Advisory Board

Oren Etzioni

Oren Etzioni is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Washington in Seattle, the director of the university's Turing Center, the founder of three startups, and a Venture Partner at the Madrona Venture Group. He is the author of over 100 technical papers for a wide range of academic conferences. His work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, SCIENCE, The Economist, Business Week, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Wired, and The New Scientist. His most recent startup, Farecast, utilizes data mining technology to anticipate airfare fluctuations. He was the Chief Technology Officer and a board member of Go2net (acquired by InfoSpace in 2000), and a co-founder of Netbot (acquired by Excite in 1997). At Netbot, Etzioni helped to conceive and design the Web's first major comparison-shopping agent. In 1995, Etzioni and his student, Erik Selberg developed MetaCrawler, the Web's premier Meta-search engine. He also is a co-founder of Clearforest, an Israeli startup that is an international leader in text mining.

Hank Levy

Hank Levy is Professor and Wissner-Slivka Chair of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. Levy's research involves operating systems, computer architecture, distributed computing, and the Web. He is the author of two books and numerous publications, including11 best paper award winners from top conferences in computer systems. With his UW colleagues, he invented Simultaneous Multithreading, which is used in the Intel Pentium-4 ("Hyperthreading"), IBM Power-5, and other CPUs. Before joining the university in 1983, Hank spent 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was a systems architect for early clustered computer and workstation products, and a member of the original design and implementation team for the VMS operating system. Hank was also co-founder of Performant, Inc., which was acquired by Mercury in 2003. He is a Fellow of the ACM, a Fellow of the IEEE, and recipient of a Fulbright Research Scholar Award.