Executive brings down curtain on 20-year spell with real estate giant
Redfin president and chief executive officer Glenn Kelman announced Tuesday he was leaving the company, ending a two-decade stint leading the real estate brokerage giant months after its acquisition by Rocket Companies.
Kelman, who joined Redfin in 2005, revealed the decision – which he said was his own – in a LinkedIn post and expressed gratitude to Rocket and Redfin’s client base.
“I love my colleagues,” he wrote. “We saved consumers a billion dollars in commissions. I hope to use all that I learned to do something as good as Redfin, in a different field. I’m grateful to Rocket and its CEO, Varun Krishna, for helping us play to win.
“I’m grateful to Redfin customers. In our early days, you took a chance on us when most buyers and sellers of homes won’t take any chances at all. And to Redfin supporters everywhere, thank you for embracing a company that marched to the beat of its own drum.”
Rocket finalized a $1.75 billion swoop for Redfin last July, a move that brought the brokerage’s 2,000 agents and one million listings under the lender’s umbrella.
Kelman shared an email he said he sent to Redfin on Tuesday morning in which he revealed his decision to leave came ahead of the “second, much-longer phase” as a Rocket company next week.
“Approaching that, I had to decide whether to be at Rocket for years,” he said. “Instead, I want to try finding another mission-driven enterprise outside of real estate. I’m grateful that Rocket has turned out to be such a good owner of Redfin, and that Varun has been such a kind leader.”
He said Krishna would take over Redfin until the company could find a successor as CEO, with January 16 – this Friday – set to mark Kelman’s last day at the company.
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