NEW YORK CITY—Douglas Elliman's COO Scott Durkin has been named president of the country's fourth largest and New York City's largest residential real estate brokerage firm. He will maintain his role as chief operating officer. He joined Douglas Elliman in 2015 as executive vice president of acquisitions and growth and was promoted to COO in October 2017.
In a GlobeSt.com interview, Durkin explains how the company roles will be structured moving forward. As the president, he will continue to lead the brokerage, operations and strategic growth at a national level.
Dottie Herman, who previously held the roles of president and CEO, will continue as CEO. The company has New York headquarters, seven regions and an international division. The CEOs of the separate regions report to the president and COO, and Durkin is in charge of operations for the entire company.
Herman's primary responsibility is as a brand ambassador and public speaker for the company. “She's an industry legend, so she's out there on behalf of our brand,” says Durkin. “This frees her up to not have to worry about any of the operations back at headquarters or any of the regions.”
His expanded role will encompass a new cycle of growth, as the company continues to expand its brand in targeted locations across the country. This will include searching for and acquiring companies in San Francisco, Fairfield County, CT and Westchester, NY.
“In this past year as COO of Douglas Elliman, Scott has successfully led several major initiatives to strengthen our brand, our culture and the ways in which our most valued assets, our agents, do business,” says Howard M. Lorber, chairman of Douglas Elliman Realty.
He highlighted Durkin's leadership during a record-breaking year of sales and his support for SteetEasy's Premiere Agent product, which Lorber credits as creating greater lead generation for the company brokers.
With Douglas Elliman's CTO, Jeffrey Hummel, Durkin led the creation of a partnership with StreetEasy and Zillow to develop an exclusive listing platform. The new listing and customer management system have an anticipated roll-out date of March 15, 2018.
Durkin also helped oversee expansion efforts in New York, South Florida, California and Massachusetts, and restructuring operations in Westchester, Connecticut and the Hamptons. He streamlined operations involving sales, technology, marketing, legal, accounting public relations, human resources and facilities.
The company's closings totaled $25.4 billion for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2017. With more than 7,000 affiliated agents, the company operates 110 offices in the US.
Durkin started his career as a sales agent with the Corcoran Group in 1991, becoming a protégé of Barbara Corcoran. He was directly involved in transactions including the company's sale to NRT and the acquisitions of brokerages in the Hamptons, Palm Beach and New York. While at Corcoran, he held several positions including COO and senior managing director of the Chelsea-Flatiron office.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
