GREGORY P. VASIL
Housing platform
The Greater Boston Real Estate Board has appointed Gregory P. Vasil as its new chief executive officer.
Vasil, the association’s director of government affairs, has been serving as interim CEO since the abrupt resignation of the Realtor group’s former chief executive, Ted Jankowski, in February.
Vasil was hired by Jankowski last year to serve as the board’s government affairs director.
Having spent more than a year at GBREB, Vasil already has set some immediate goals. “We’re developing a housing platform for the organization that we can use as a springboard to the future,” Vasil said last week.
Vasil said board leaders will be reaching out to groups like the Commonwealth Housing Task Force and the Boston Foundation to discuss the platform. “Our membership is very energized about that,” he said.
Vasil also said that he wants to focus on improving the delivery of membership services and working on issues related to code changes that affect building managers and owners. He hopes to provide members with expertise that will help them when changes are made to building, plumbing or electrical codes.
The board interviewed about a dozen candidates for the chief executive job, both formally and informally, according to Lenny Owens, GBREB’s chairman and executive president of McCall & Almy.
“The more time we spent with him [Vasil] and understood how he approached the organization Â… the more we realized he was without question the right choice for the organization,” said Owens.
“We are very excited to have Greg step in from interim CEO to permanent CEO,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have him and his thoughtful consensus-building approach.”
Vasil, a resident of Wellesley, has worked as an environmental lawyer and at one time served as director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Massachusetts Environmental Strike Force. Prior to joining GBREB, Vasil served as vice president of strategic risk management and regulatory affairs for MassDevelopment.
Vasil said he hopes to use his experience in environmental regulation in his new position.
“Having been an environmental regulator, I have a sense of how government works. I understand what regulators look for,” he said.
In a press release, GBREB’s chairman-elect Larry Curtis said Vasil’s “management approach and style fits with the direction” that board leaders want the association to take.
Owens said leaders within and outside of the industry praised Vasil during the candidate search. “[They] told us, ‘You guys are crazy if you let him go,'” Owens said.
“He’s perfect for what we need right now,” he said.
GBREB now will be searching for someone to fill Vasil’s former position of government affairs director.
