Gary Keller

Co-founder and Chairman of the Board

As chairman of the board of Keller Williams® Realty , Gary Keller is responsible for providing strategic direction for the company. Keller established Keller Williams® Realty  with partner Joe Williams in 1983. The company began franchising in 1991 and expanded to Canada in 1998, and has become the fourth "largest and fastest" growing residential real estate company in North America with sales and commissions growth topping 700 percent since 1995.

Based on his leadership qualities and contributions to the real estate industry, Keller was voted as one of the five "Most Admired People” in a survey conducted by REAL Trends Magazine in 2000. He also was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Central Texas and dubbed the second most influential person in the real estate industry by REALTOR Magazine in 2003. In 2004, he was a finalist for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.

In 2006, InmanNews named Keller in their list of the 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders. The Wall Street Journal named Keller Williams Realty to its elite “Franchise High Performers” list in 2006, and the franchise is ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine in several categories, including ranking No. 66 in the Franchise 500® and as the No. 52 fastest-growing franchise.

Keller has co-authored two nationally best-selling books – The Millionaire Real Estate Agent and The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, which have enjoyed numerous weeks on BusinessWeek’s best seller list and an appearance on the best seller list of the New York Times.

A lifelong learner, Keller is also a student and passionate music lover. He has taken guitar lessons for more than 10 years from the Austin School of Music and collects Gibson®’s ES-335 vintage guitars.

 

 

Mo Anderson
Vice Chairman

Vice Chairman Mo Anderson is the driving force behind Keller Williams® Realty's  culture of family. She established her first real estate office, a Century 21 franchise, in Edmond, Okla., in 1975; soon after, it was the third top-producing office out of 7,500 Century 21 locations in North America. In 1986 Mo sold her company to Merrill Lynch Realty, where she served as a district vice president until December 1989.

In 1991, Anderson became the first Keller Williams franchisee outside of the state of Texas when she persuaded Gary to expand his profit share concept for real estate offices. In 1992, she landed the regional director role for Oklahoma and became the co-owner of two Keller Williams market centers in that state.

In 1995, Keller put forth a call to all his regional directors to help him find a new top executive for the company. In January 1995, Keller’s extensive search came to an end when Anderson became president and CEO of Keller Williams® Realty , with Keller stepping up to the position of chairman of the board. With the appointment of Mark Willis as president in 2002 and then CEO in 2005, Anderson now serves as the vice chairman for the company. Today, her focus is on cultivating the unique culture of Keller Williams Realty by traveling across the United States and Canada visiting market centers and teaching classes.

A tireless supporter of community causes, Anderson founded KW Cares in 2003 to assist company associates and their families in need and raised millions for Hurricane Katrina relief. Anderson has been named twice as Oklahoma's Women in Business Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. She is also listed in Who's Who in American Women and was one of 10 women profiled in Body and Soul (Hill Publishing). Most recently she was nominated for REALTOR Magazine’s 2006 Good Neighbor Award, and named one of the magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate.

Anderson serves or has served on the boards of Edmond Memorial Hospital, the Francis Tuttle Vo-Tech Foundation and the Daily Living Center.

 

 

Mark Willis
CEO

Mark Willis was named chief executive officer (CEO) of Keller Williams® Realty International in 2005. With growth always his focus, Willis works to ensure that Keller Williams® Realty  continues to attract and retain the best real estate professionals in the industry. When he became president of the company in 2002, the company had 14,000 associates. Today, the company boasts more than 77,000 associates in over 600 market centers.


Prior to joining Keller Williams® Realty  in 1991, Willis was a branch manager for Coldwell Banker. He also owned his own real estate company, Carriage House Realty, in the mid-1980s. As team leader of Keller Williams® Realty's  Southwest market center in Austin, Texas, Willis quadrupled the market center's production over a five-year period, making it the number one real estate office in the Keller Williams system. In 1997, Willis became regional director for Central and South Texas and quickly expanded the region's presence in San Antonio and Houston, eventually building a 1,900-agent business in the process — earning him a place in REAL Trends’ Billionaire’s Club.

 

Mary Tennant
President and COO

Mary Tennant was recruited by the executive team to come on board as Keller Williams® Realty International's chief operations officer (COO) in 2006. Chosen by the executive team because of her “genius at building teams and developing efficiencies in staff and office operations,” Tennant oversees all the franchise headquarters’ operations and is responsible for ensuring that the fastest-growing real estate company in North America continues to provide its signature training and support to more than 77,000 associates.

Tennant began her real estate career with Keller Williams® Realty Inc. in 1992. Claiming National Rookie of the Year her very first year, Tennant quickly rose in the company ranks, taking on leadership and ownership roles at both local and regional levels. As the team leader of the Austin Southwest market center, she increased the real estate office’s annual closed volume sales from $90 million to $1.3 billion within eight years. The Southwest market center remains the number one real estate office in the world in the number of closed units.

 

David Therrien
Chief Technology Officer

As chief technology officer (CTO) and an active member of Keller Williams® Realty's  technology and research group, David Therrien is responsible for the research, development and integration of technology tools with corporate strategy. Therrien provides the strategic direction for the Information Technology division of Keller Williams® Realty International, and works closely with the Associate Technology Council (ATC), which is an associate-led council that provides the strategic direction for the company’s technology initiatives.

Therrien began his career in real estate in the mid-1990s, after retiring from the U.S. Navy as a cryptology and communications officer. After six and a half years at RE/MAX, Therrien joined Keller Williams® Realty  in 2004. His real estate business, the Dave Therrien Group hit $13 million in production within one year. He attributes his production success to technology and International in particular, the way he and his team responded to Internet-generated leads on potential clients.

 

Ann Yett
Chief Financial Officer

Ann Yett signed on as Keller Williams® Realty International chief financial officer (CFO) in 2006. As CFO, Yett is responsible for overseeing all financial, accounting and tax functions and has taken the lead in enhancing financial reporting systems and controls for annual budgets, forecasts and cash management.

Prior to joining Keller Williams, Yett was a certified public accountant (CPA) at the executive and consulting level and was responsible for crafting the strategic directions for companies of all sizes within a wide range of industries.

 

 

Mike Brodie
Executive Vice President of Special Projects

In 2006, Mike Brodie was named executive vice president of special projects at Keller Williams® Realty . In this capacity, Brodie is primarily responsible for the development of a luxury homes division for Keller Williams® Realty.

A top-producing real estate agent since 1973, Brodie has earned numerous awards including the Legends Award, Keller Williams® Realty  President’s Award and numerous production awards. He was named REALTOR® of the Year by the Collin County Association of Realtors and the Texas Association of Realtors. Brodie was appointed to a seven-year term with the Texas Real Estate Commission by Governor George W. Bush and served as its chairman. He also served in 2004 and 2005 as treasurer of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). He is the co-founder of the Keller Williams® Realty  Dallas Preston Road office, co-owner of the Plano office, and co-owner of the company’s North California/Hawaii Region.

David Osborn
President of kw360 – a family of services

David Osborn was named president of Keller Williams® Realty's Core Services Division, kw360, in January 2006. As president of kw360, Osborn manages and oversees the development of business alliances that facilitate Keller Williams market centers’ offering of ancillary services, including mortgage, title, home warranty and insurance. Osborn also serves as the president of KWRI Holdings, a group of affiliate companies in the Keller Williams system.

In 1996, Osborn was a member of the No. 1 national sales team for Keller Williams® Realty . His résumé with the company includes regional president of North Texas and New Mexico, regional operating principal of California Westside Los Angeles, regional operating principal of Arkansas Memphis and operating principal of four market centers in North Texas and New Mexico, with his North Texas and New Mexico Region consistently ranking in the top two regions in the Keller Williams system.





Dick Dillingham
Dean of Keller Williams University

Dick Dillingham was named dean of Keller Williams University in 2006. With a proven business record in real estate and 25 years of experience in training and instruction, Dillingham is responsible for ensuring the high standard of KWU courses and training programs. He oversees all decisions affecting the delivery of KWU courses across North America, the KWU Master Faculty and Millionaire Systems training.

Dillingham began his real estate career in 1977 and joined Keller Williams® Realty  in 1995. He has served as a senior instructor for the Council of Residential Specialists (CRS) for 20 years and balances his time in the classroom with his duties as an operating principal in Plano, Texas; Carmel, Calif.; and of the Northern California/Hawaii Region. Dillingham also continues to be a top-producing agent in Plano and an investor/partner for the Little Rock, Ark., market center.

Bryon Ellington
Chief Products Officer

As chief products officer, Bryon Ellington is focused on ensuring the synergistic development across all business units of training and tools that provide associates with a distinct edge in the market.

Coming to Keller Williams Realty in 2002 with a background in education, Bryon quickly capitalized on his ability to master a subject from all angles. Serving first as a research analyst in the Information Technology department, he helped to define the technology tools that would most effectively drive associates’ businesses forward.

He then moved into a role as, first course writer and then, team leader for the agent sales curriculum for Keller Williams University. There he channeled his instructional design skills into the creation of training programs for team leaders, developed Millionaire Real Estate Agent courses, and authored the Internet Lead Generation curriculum following intensive interviews with more than 100 top producing agents on their use of the Internet.

In 2007, Bryon stepped up to the role of director of research, development and implementation, where he served as a liaison between the evolving needs of associates in an online environment and the technology and training offered by Keller Williams Realty International.

During more than five years with Keller Williams Realty, Bryon has been consistently recognized for his urgency to be responsive to associates’ needs and his thorough grasp of the challenges and opportunities within the current real estate market.

Sharon Gibbons
Vice President of Market Center Administration

In 2006, Sharon Gibbons was appointed vice president of market center administration. In this role, Gibbons oversees the support systems of more than 650 market center administrators (MCAs) in the Keller Williams system. The role of the MCA in the Keller Williams system is to support a market center financially and operationally, in addition to being one of the three members of the market center’s leadership team.

Gibbons is a 20-year veteran of Keller Williams® Realty  and is one of its founding associates. Prior to this role, Gibbons served as the vice president of financial and administrative systems. She directed all revenue streams into Keller Williams® Realty  as well as profit share, payroll and expenses for the company. She managed the Keller Williams profit share program, the MORE program and financial administration for all Keller Williams market centers.

Ginger Gibson
Vice President of Franchise Systems

Formerly KWRI’s regional relations manager, Vice President of Franchise Systems Ginger Gibson’s focus is to meet growth and profit share goals; bring a higher level of accountability and profitability to regions and market centers; and ensure the company’s business model is implemented effectively in market centers across North America.

Gibson joined Keller Williams® Realty  in 1996 as an agent in Tulsa, Okla. and continued to move up the ranks of the company, becoming the regional director of the Ohio Valley and Mid-American Regions. In 2005, the executive team tapped Gibson to join the leadership team of the company to provide a higher level of support to Keller Williams® Realty's 30 regions.

Dave Jenks
Vice President of Research and Development

Dave Jenks serves as vice president of research and development. Known as “the numbers man,” Jenks tracks the growth and profitability of Keller Williams offices across the country. In 2003, with the release of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, co-authored by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, Jenks became a best-selling author. In 2005, they co-authored their second book, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, which reached the New York Times best seller list.

Prior to joining the company in 1996, he was president and CEO of Century 21 South Central States, based in Dallas, Texas. Jenks has been in the real estate industry since 1981, has taught for the Dale Carnegie Institute, and owned his own training company, The Leadership Connection Inc.

Dianna Kokoszka
Vice President of MAPS Institute

As vice president of Mega Achievement Productivity Systems or MAPS, Dianna Kokoszka is responsible for building the most powerful coaching and mastermind program in the industry. Kokoszka is passionately committed to providing a high level of motivation and accountability to her clients. Today, she leads a team of more than 40 MAPS coaches, who provide coaching programs tailor-made to help their clients build on the Keller Williams business models.

Kokoszka, who has been in real estate for 28 years, was team leader of the Keller Williams® Realty  Denver-West Market Center in Colorado prior to joining the international office. A pioneer in documenting office systems for real estate agents, Kokoszka began her real estate career as an agent and quickly moved up to mega agent status. Her entrepreneurial spirit and widely used published office systems have garnered Kokoszka many honors, including an appointment to the President of the United States’ Business Advisory Council, on which she has served since 2002. She also was named Denver Entrepreneur of the Year in 1984 and 1991, and Denver Businesswoman of the Year in 1986, 2003 and 2004.

Vickie Gonzales Leady
Vice President of Legal

Joining Keller Williams® Realty  in 2006 as the vice president of legal, Leady helms the company’s legal and compliance department to provide comprehensive guidance “at the speed of business” to the executive team and company at large.

Prior to joining KWRI, she served as general counsel and supervisor of the legal department for restaurant franchisor, Schlotzsky’s Inc., and its subsidiaries. In 2004, Leady was selected as a Texas Super Lawyer and a Texas Rising Star by Texas Monthly and Law & Politics.

Jay Papasan
Vice President of Publishing

Jay Papasan is co-author and executive editor of The Millionaire Real Estate Agent and The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, with Gary Keller and Dave Jenks.

Prior to joining the company, Jay spent several years as an editor at Harper Collins Publishers, where he worked on such best-selling books as Body-for-Life by Bill Phillips and Go for the Goal by Mia Hamm. A graduate of the New York University graduate writing program, his freelance work has appeared in Texas Monthly and Memphis Magazine.