MARIS recently restructured their governance and will move from 32 directors to 13 in order to be more agile and better support the business side of real estate.
The company started with drafting a charter and strategic objectives, curated information from a private T3 study, and considered CMLS leadership and governance best practices. They then formed a task force to compose a final recommendation. On October 7, 2019, the MARIS Shareholders voted for the new governance structure, which will be effective on November 1, 2019.
What’s unique about the final result of MARIS governance?
The MARIS Association Shareholders no longer have direct appointments to the MARIS Board of Directors. Instead, Association Shareholders participate in a newly created Shareholder Council. The Association Shareholders oversee key areas of the MARIS business that ensures they maintain oversight of MARIS as an asset for the Shareholder Associations.
The MARIS board of directors is now market-based. MARIS geographical markets include Urban, Sub-Urban, Rural, and Resort marketplaces.
Board make-up.
- No more than 1 person from a brokerage may sit on the MARIS board of directors.
- 3 appointed by the largest three brokers.
- 3 elected from the Urban/Sub-Urban marketplaces
- 2 elected from the Rural/Resort marketplaces
- 1 elected from any state MARIS serves members in that is not Missouri
- 1 appointed from the Association Shareholder Council
- 0-2 (non-voting) named by the CEO of MARIS (approved by the board)
- 1 (non-voting) CEO of MARIS
The marketplace based board supports our vision of the future. Not all members are the same, and not all markets we serve are the same. MARIS will explore marketplace business rules which will ease the burden of change for Associations and brokers that are considering joining MARIS now and in the future.
To ensure continuity and historical knowledge, MARIS has maintained current board members through 2019. Due to staggered terms, elections and voting for open seats will transpire in 2020.
The 9 new voting board members are:
3 Largest Brokers
- Jason Winkler, Coldwell Banker Gundaker
- Nate Carr, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties
- Kevin Goffstein, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alliance Real Estate
Urban-Suburban
- Dennis Norman, MORE Realtors
- Michelle Walker, STL Buy & Sell
- Cort Schneider, Schneider Real Estate
Rural-Resort
- Brad Krueger, Century 21 Advantage
- Derek Schriewer, RE/MAX Gold First
Illinois
- Jenni Beck, RE/MAX Alliance
The two CEO appointments, and the Shareholder Council appointee will be announced by the end of year.