Who We Are

Our people

Zillow.com team

Rich and Lloyd gathered together an experienced group of senior managers and board members to help get Zillow rolling. Great people tend to attract other passionate people, and a truly outstanding and constantly growing team was assembled around a simple, powerful idea in very short order. The team included real estate professionals for insight into the industry and statisticians to analyze those zillions of data points. We set up shop in downtown Seattle, Washington.

Having trouble with the site? Get help in Zillow Advice.

Our management team

About My House

Kristin Acker

Kristin Acker is the Vice President, Product Teams at Zillow. One of the initial members of the Zillow team, Kristin has led Program Management and User Interface Design teams at several companies including Microsoft, PictureIQ, and Pure Networks and led a program management team at Expedia. Her longest tenure was at Microsoft where she worked from 1989 to 2000, primarily on consumer products such as Microsoft Money, Publisher, Works, and Picture It. Before starting her tech career, she spent a year on the oceans serving on staff for Royal Cruise Line. Kristin graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in Economics and Political Science. View Kristin's profile

About My House

Richard Barton

Rich Barton is the Chairman and CEO of Zillow.com. Before co-founding Zillow, Rich founded the online travel site Expedia.com. Expedia was started within Microsoft in 1994, and then spun out in 1999 as a public company; Rich served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Director until 2003. Rich also co-founded and is the Board Chairman of Glassdoor.com, where you can rate and review your company and see how your salary stacks up. Rich is also a venture partner at Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park and on the boards of directors at Netflix, Avvo, RealSelf.com, and CommonSenseMedia.Org. Rich holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. View Rich's profile

About My House

David Beitel

David Beitel is the Chief Technology Officer of Zillow.com. One of the initial members of the Expedia team, David held many leadership roles in product development during his 10-year tenure there. He began as a Software Design Engineer in 1994, and left Expedia as CTO in 2005. Before the Expedia years, David worked at Microsoft in the handheld computing group. David holds Bachelor of Science and Masters of Engineering degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University. View David's profile

About My House

Amy Bohutinsky

Amy Bohutinsky is Vice President of Communications at Zillow. Prior to Zillow, Amy was Director of Corporate Communications for Hotwire.com, a discount travel site. She led the PR launch of Hotwire in 2000, and handled communications during and after its $685 million acquisition by IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2003. Prior to Hotwire, Amy worked for Blanc & Otus, a technology public relations firm in San Francisco. Amy started her career as a broadcast journalist, having been an anchor and field reporter for various CBS, NBC and ABC affiliates in Virginia and Florida. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Washington & Lee University. View Amy's profile

About My House

Lloyd Frink

Lloyd Frink is the President of Zillow.com. Before founding Zillow.com, Lloyd was at Expedia, where he was Senior Vice President, Supplier Relations, managing the air, hotel, car, destination services, content, merchandising and partner marketing groups. Lloyd joined Expedia in 1995 as one of the first members of the team. From 1988 to 1994, Lloyd worked at Microsoft where he started the group that created products eventually evolving into the Tablet PC and Pocket PC. One of the youngest interns ever hired at Microsoft, Lloyd interned summers from 1979 until 1987. Lloyd graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in Economics in 1987. View Lloyd's profile

About My House

Stan Humphries

Dr. Stan Humphries is Chief Economist at Zillow.com and is in charge of data and analytics. He helped create the Zestimate and its algorithm and is also in charge of calculating all statistics on the housing market, including the Zillow Home Value Index. Prior to joining Zillow, Stan spent five years at Expedia.com where he ran a team responsible for finding innovative ways to use data, building systems for personalization, pricing, forecasting, and fraud detection. Before Expedia, Stan served as a researcher and faculty member at the University of Virginia, and was previously with NASA where he negotiated international science agreements. Stan has also served in the United States Peace Corps, where he taught physics and chemistry classes in West Africa. Stan has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science/Economics from Davidson College, a Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia. View Stan's profile

About My House

Liam Lavery

Liam Lavery is General Counsel at Zillow.com. Previously, Liam was a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, with a focus on technology transactions and business law. There he advised clients ranging from startups to some of the nation's largest companies in software, online services, title insurance, health care, publishing, computer hardware, and computer games. Liam received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan. View Liam's profile

About My House

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff is Chief Operating Officer at Zillow.com. In this role, he oversees the areas of marketing, business development, partner relations, and finance. Prior to joining Zillow.com, Spencer was Vice President of Lodging for Expedia. In 1999, Spencer co-founded Hotwire.com, a leading Internet travel company, and ran several product lines there. Hotwire was sold to IAC/InterActiveCorp in 2003. Before his career at Hotwire, Spencer served as an investment professional at the Texas Pacific Group, a leading private equity firm. Previously, Spencer worked as an investment banker in the mergers and acquisitions group at Goldman Sachs in New York. He also held other positions at Bear Stearns and Allen & Company. Spencer graduated cum laude from Harvard University. View Spencer's profile View Spencer's profile

About My House

Christopher Roberts

Christopher Roberts is the Vice President, Product Teams at Zillow. Prior to joining Zillow, Christopher worked for more than eight years in various senior management roles at Expedia, most recently as Senior Vice President, Engineering, overseeing the team that built the leisure travel technology platform. Prior to Expedia, Christopher was a manager at Microsoft and software development manager at Andersen Consulting. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. View Christopher's profile

About My House

Greg Schwartz

Greg Schwartz is Vice President of Sales at Zillow.com. Greg has previously served as Vice President of Advertising Sales at CNNMoney.com where he built the advertising sales team and platform. He was also National Accounts Director for Automotive and Finance for Yahoo! Inc. Greg has also held various positions at DoubleClick, Inc., including Director of Business Development, and he co-founded the wireless advertising business unit. Greg graduated from Hamilton College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He is based in New York City. View Greg's profile

Broker Advisory Board

Steve Baird

Stephen W. Baird is the president and chief executive officer of Baird & Warner. Established in 1855, the firm is the oldest residential real estate brokerage in the United States and currently ranks among the nation's top 12 with an annual sales volume of approximately $5 billion. Under Steve's leadership, the firm has grown dramatically — currently with a sales force of approximately 1,700 sales associates, who operate from 30 strategically located offices throughout Chicago and its suburbs.

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.

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.

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.

Pat Lashinsky

As the Chief Executive Officer and President of ZipRealty, Pat serves on the Board of Directors and is responsible for the company vision, planning, and overall strategy in addition to day to day oversight of the company's overall operations and its growth and innovation initiatives. Pat has previously served as President, Executive Vice President of Product Strategy and Development, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, and as Vice President of Sales at ZipRealty.

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.

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.

Hanan Samet

Hanan Samet is a Professor of computer science at the University of Maryland. He is a member of the Computer Vision Laboratory where he leads research projects on image databases and on the use of hierarchical data structures for geographic information systems (GIS), spatial databases, computer graphics, and image processing. His research group has developed: the QUILT system, which is a GIS based on hierarchical spatial data structures such as quadtrees and octrees; the SAND system, which integrates spatial and non-spatial data; the VASCO set of JAVA applets, which demonstrate a wide range of spatial data structures and operations; and a symbolic image database system. Samet received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is the author of the text "Foundations of Multidimensional and Metric Data Structures," published by Morgan Kaufmann, and the first two books on spatial data structures, "The Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures" and "Applications of Spatial Data Structures: Computer Graphics, Image Processing and GIS," both published by Addison-Wesley. He is an area editor of Graphical Models and serves on the editorial boards of Image Understanding, Journal of Visual Languages, Pattern Recognition, GeoInformatica, and Journal of Spatial Cognition and Computation. He is a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and the International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR).

Board of directors

Erik Blachford

Currently the Chief Executive Officer of Terrapass.com, Erik Blachford was formerly President and CEO of Expedia, Inc., and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp's travel division, IAC Travel, including online travel businesses Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Classic Custom Vacations, and Interval International. Previous positions include President, Expedia North America and Expedia Senior Vice President, Marketing and Programming. Erik serves as a board director at TerraPass, Zillow.com, Glassdoor, and Butterfield & Robinson Travel. Erik holds a bachelor's degree in English and certificate in theater from Princeton University and a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

Bill Gurley

Bill Gurley has served as a general partner at Benchmark Capital for seven years. Investments have included Avamar Technologies, JAMDAT Mobile, Nordstrom.com, and Shopping.com, among others. Previously, as a Wall Street research analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, he covered personal computer hardware and software companies and was twice ranked an Institutional Investor All-American analyst. Prior to his investment career, Bill spent several years in the technology industry. A chartered Financial Analyst, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Florida, and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas.

Jay Hoag

A founding general partner of Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Jay Hoag has been a venture capitalist and technology investor for over 23 years. Prior to TCV, Jay was at Chancellor Capital Management where he spent over 12 years as a technology focused venture capitalist and fund manager. Jay has been involved in TCV investments in such companies as eHarmony, Expedia, Fandango, Netflix, C|NET and Tech Target, among others. Jay received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in economics and political science from Northwestern University and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Gregory Maffei

A former CFO of Microsoft Corp., Greg Maffei was recently named CEO of cable-television broadcasting's Liberty Media Corp. Prior to that, Greg was CFO of Oracle Corp., and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 360networks Corp. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Gordon Stephenson

Gordon Stephenson is the co-founder and Managing Broker of Real Property Associates (RPA), one of the largest independent real estate brokerages in the Northwest. He oversees more than 40 agents and brokers in their sales activities, and continues to personally represent buyers and sellers. Prior to founding RPA in 1991, Gordon was a Seattle-based Associate Broker with both Prudential MacPhersons and Windermere Real Estate. He is a graduate of Stanford University, with a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in Economics.

Zillow.com executives Richard Barton and Lloyd Frink are also board directors.