TED JANKOWSKI
Resigned as CEO
The Greater Boston Real Estate Board announced last week that Ted Jankowski, who has served as the board’s chief executive officer for less than a year, has resigned.
The resignation, according to a statement by GBREB, was due to “differences of opinion with the board of directors.”
It was unclear whether Jankowski was asked to resign or left voluntarily. Messages left with Brian H. Kavoogian, GBREB chairman for 2004 and the person designated to answer questions for the organization about the resignation, were not returned by Banker & Tradesman’s press deadline.
Greg Vasil, the board’s senior vice president of legislative affairs, will temporarily manage the association during the search for a new chief executive, while at the same time directing the group’s government affairs efforts.
‘A Broad Umbrella’
A notice to members from GBREB’s current chairman, Lenny Owens, which was posted on the organization’s Web site last Wednesday, stated that Jankowski resigned on Feb. 16.
“GBREB’s volunteer leadership will take a more active role until a new president/CEO has been named. We will make ourselves available to Greg and the senior staff and anticipate attending regular staff meetings with a focus on membership services,” Owens wrote to members. “The board has every confidence in Greg’s abilities and are fortunate to have him and the entire GBREB staff working diligently to serve your needs.”
Jankowksi was hired to lead the 8,000-member association in January of last year, several months after GBREB’s former chief executive, Edwin J. Shanahan, left to start up his own lobbying firm. Jankowksi began his service later that winter.
Since joining GBREB, Jankowski made several key staff changes. He recruited Vasil, and hired a director of finance administration and a new leader to manage and direct the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, a GBREB division.
In a prepared statement, Kavoogian said, “The board of directors of GBREB recognizes the importance of real estate and particularly housing production to the regional economy and plans to build upon its recent successes in formulating and effectuating governmental policy in these areas, as it searches for a new chief executive officer.”
GBREB is an organization with five divisions representing Realtors, commercial brokers, investors, developers and property managers and owners. In an interview with Banker & Tradesman last May, Jankowski said GBREB is “the only real estate organization … across the country that has such a broad umbrella that covers all of the real estate interests with one fell swoop – both residential and commercial … Unfortunately, I don’t think that voice has been well coordinated in recent years. I think that’s something that can improve and strengthen.”
Prior to joining GBREB, Jankowski was the deputy city manager in Portsmouth, N.H.
A 12-person search committee has been named to find a new chief executive. Owens will lead the search committee. Others on the committee are Kavoogian; GBREB’s Chairman-elect Larry Curtis, Treasurer Rick Loughlin, Assistant Treasurer Tom Alperin and Clerk Bill McLaughlin; Laurie Cadigan, GBAR president; Bill Wollinger, Rental Housing Association president; Scott Brown, Building Owners and Managers Association president; Chris Tosti, Commercial Brokers Association president; Michael Lindgren, president of the Real Estate Finance Association; and David Wluka, a member of GBAR.
