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After Adrian Kelly revealed his intention to step down from the top job late last month, the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has elected a new president alongside two other appointments.
REIA deputy president and Western Australian agent Hayden Groves will be moving into the presidential role, succeeding Mr Kelly, who served as REIA president over three years from 2018 to 2021.
Mr Groves himself first joined the REIA Board back in 2015.
Commenting on his election, he said: “As someone with a long-standing commitment to furthering best practice and professionalism of real estate agents and agencies through the work of real estate institutes, I am honored to be appointed as president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia.”
As well as his roles with the REIA, the incoming president is also the immediate past president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA), owns award-winning Fremantle agency dethridgeGROVES and holds a bachelor of politics (Hons) from Monash University.
Mr Groves will bring with him a focus on “the people of Australian real estate”, stating they “must be at the heart of REIA’s strategy as trusted brokers of property transactions”.
“Your local real estate agent deeply cares bout their communities, values their own reputation and integrity and plays a vital role in securing the financial future of Australians,” he said.
From his perspective, reliance on the community and customer connections by agents “will be all the more important as real estate markets respond to the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“I look forward to working closely with all state and territory institutes, their members, the federal government, Opposition, other allied stakeholders and of course the REIA team in driving REIA into its next phase,” Mr Groves added.
Joining him in the REIA leadership team will be Leanne Pilkington and Richard Simpson, with their appointments as REIA office bearers also revealed at the 15 December board meeting.
“I am delighted to announce joining the REIA board leadership team is deputy president Leanne Pilkington, CEO of Laing+Simmons, and chair of the finance, risk and audit committee Richard Simpson, a partner at W.B. Simpson & Son,” Mr Groves stated.
A new board member was also named: Damian Collins, REIWA president and the managing director of Momentum Wealth and chairman of Westbridge Funds Management.
With the changing of the guard, the incoming president has also paid tribute to outgoing president, Mr Kelly.
“I am deeply grateful for the contributions of Adrian over the past three years,” Mr Groves said.
Highlighting how “few leaders of our industry have had the challenges Adrian has faced during his tenure as president”, he said that “Adrian navigated a federal election where the potential loss of negative gearing threatened the fundamentals of Australia’s private property market, he coordinated the industry’s crisis response to the pandemic and led a strategic reset of REIA including the appointment of a new CEO and launching REIA’s Getting Real.”
In recognition of Mr Kelly’s achievements, he was awarded REIA’s highest accolade at the annual general meeting – the Diploma of Fellow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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