IN THE NEWS
Harold Crye Named Chairman of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
Posted 04/24/2008Harold Crye, chief executive officer and co-owner of Crye-Leike, Realtors, has been named chairman of the board of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®(LeadingRE), a global real estate network comprised of 700 of the best-known local and regional real estate firms in the U.S. and 37 countries producing over $400 billion in annual home sales.
Crye and his business partner founded Crye-Leike in Memphis in 1977 when Crye was just 31 years old. The company quickly became that city’s largest firm, expanded to become the #1 firm in both Tennessee and Arkansas and has since grown to be the fourth largest firm in the entire country, with 132 offices, 1,200 management and staff and 4,000 sales associates in eight states throughout the Mid-South.
Crye welcomes the opportunity to provide leadership as chairman. “I believe strongly in the independent business model. By their nature, real estate people are entrepreneurs,” Crye comments, “and since real estate is a local business, independence allows us to deploy our resources in the local marketplace to benefit our clients and our associates. LeadingRE complements that local strength with connections to the best professionals around the world, as well as a rich menu of benefits that include an industry-leading client referral network, tremendous marketing support, online resources, and an outstanding luxury marketing program, Luxury Portfolio Fine Property Collection®.”
Joining the LeadingRE board that Harold Crye now chairs is Mike Green from Harcourts International LTD in Australia and New Zealand, who also serves as chairman of the newly-formed International Advisory Board. Other LeadingRE board members include Vice Chairman William Watson, Jr., Watson Realty Corp.; Treasurer Robert Sibcy, Sibcy-Cline Realtors; Secretary Stephen Baird, Baird & Warner; Dan Elsea, Real Estate One, Inc.; Michael Patrick Lyon, Lyon Real Estate; Michael Robinson, Weichert Realtors; Brenda Shipplett, Long & Foster Real Estate; Arthur Sterbcow, Latter and Blum, Inc.; Allen Tate, Allen Tate Company; Ron Peltier, HomeServices of America; and former Chairmen Michael Saunders, Michael Saunders & Company. Retiring from the board is Robert Ganly of Knight Frank Ganly Walters in Dublin, Ireland.
“We are so privileged to have the brightest minds in the business on our board, now led by Harold Crye, who is a visionary in his own right,” Pam O’Connor, LeadingRE president and CEO notes. “Harold has made amazing strides in his career and will bring his superb business sense and his passion for this organization to bear in assuring LeadingRE’s continued growth and prominence in the industry.”
For more information on LeadingRE, visit www.LeadingRE.com.