Scott Durkin has been terminated as CEO of Douglas Elliman’s brokerage segment.
The firm announced Durkin’s exit in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, days after the company’s longtime CEO and chairman Howard Lorber abruptly retired from his post.
Michael Liebowitz, the newly appointed chairman and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc., told agents in an internal email obtained by The Real Deal Durkin was “stepping down … in order to pursue new opportunities.”
Elliman tapped its own Richard Ferrari, president and CEO of New York and the Northeast, as the new head of its brokerage division.
The move adds to a shuffle of executives set off by Lorber’s retirement announced a week earlier. At the time, Elliman claimed in a document filed with the SEC that Lorber’s retirement was not based on a disagreement with the company, but the Wall Street Journal later reported the sudden exit came at the urging of the board of directors over concerns about the firm’s workplace culture.
John Singer, an attorney for Durkin, pushed back on the company’s characterization that he was “terminated” from the role of brokerage head.
“Mr. Durkin was not ‘fired’ from the Company,” Singer said in a statement. “Whereas no reason for Mr. Durkin’s abrupt separation was stated in the Company’s SEC Filings, suffice it to say that Mr. Durkin never at any time engaged in conduct justifying a termination nor was he ever apprised that his employment was in peril.”
Durkin was elevated to CEO of the brokerage just before Elliman spun off from its former parent company, Vector Group, and debuted as a solo public company in 2021. Lorber was the CEO and president of Vector until he sold the company to JT Group. The deal closed earlier this month.
The brokerage chief’s tenure has been marked by two years of losses at the company and a sinking stock price as it battled the effects of a housing market beset by high mortgage rates and low inventory.
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The firm has since embarked on a campaign to lower costs, including laying off employees, cutting corporate sponsorships and ending expensive office leases. Elliman also announced it would end an agreement with Vector Group, which allowed it to lease aircraft from the company on a per-flight basis.
Durkin’s bonus was also on the chopping block last year, though his salary remained the same as in 2022, according to SEC filings. His bonus totaled $250,000, less than half of what he earned the previous year.
Before becoming CEO, Durkin served as the president of the brokerage and led its national expansion. He joined Elliman in 2016 after roughly two decades at Corcoran, where he started as an agent in 1991.
Durkin took over as chief executive three years ago, after Dottie Herman resigned from the position. Rumors that Durkin was being groomed to succeed Herman, who purchased Elliman with Lorber in 2003, began circulating years prior to his promotion, though he denied them at the time.
Durkin later told Bloomberg that Herman told him, “Someday you are going to run this company.’ She said, ‘I need another me.’”
The New York Times first reported the SEC filing announcing Durkin’s termination.
Jacob Indursky contributed reporting.
This article has been updated with statements from Douglas Elliman CEO Michael Liebowitz and John Singer, an attorney for Scott Durkin.