The Agency’s hires exec for growth spurt

The Agency has hired a veteran sales executive to ride herd on an expansion that ranged from New York to South Florida and Silicon Valley, with a mid-market joint venture part of the mix.

Mike Schwartz has been tapped for the newly created role of sales manager for The Agency. He is the latest of several high-level hires and new offices for the luxe brokerage, long a mainstay among high-end brokerages in its home base of Los Angeles.

Schwartz also is the latest in a string of former Compass executives to join The Agency.

Schwartz is from the Bay Area, and plans call for him to remain in Northern California, said Rainy Hake Austin, The Agency’s president. He most recently served as a sales manager for Compass in its Berkeley office.

“Mike will be joining our leadership team, and be involved in our strategic growth strategies and specific initiatives, such as our focus on reimagining the office of today,” Hake Austin wrote in an email. “Meaning offices focused not just related to physical space but how that space can cultivate energy, embody our culture, and elevate the service provided to our agents and clients.”

Schwartz has a reputation as an executive adept at attracting talent. His LinkedIn profile notes that he recruited more than 50 new agents to Coldwell Banker’s Berkeley office, where he served as managing broker from June 2016 to December 2017. He managed 400 agents in that role, and also was active with a Coldwell Banker’s diversity council.

Mauricio Umansky, founder and CEO of The Agency, said Schwartz will provide a focus on agent relations.

“…We are currently hyper-focused on advancing our service and solutions for agents,” Umansky said.

The Agency has grown at a rapid pace since launching in 2011. The firm has closed more than $41 billion in real estate transactions in the past 11 years, and it currently works with more than 1,000 real estate agents in 50 offices around the world, according to a statement from the company.