The National Association of Realtors faces further turmoil at its top leadership, just over two months after the trade group's chief executive officer resigned well ahead of his planned departure.
The Chicago-based organization announced Monday that NAR President Tracy Kasper will resign effective immediately and be replaced by Kevin Sears, the trade group's next president.
NAR said in a statement that Mr. Kasper had recently received “threats to disclose past personal non-financial matters unless it jeopardizes his standing at NAR.”
Kasper refused to comply and reported the threat to law enforcement, NAR said. The trade group would not say who threatened Kasper or tried to get her to take any specific action that would jeopardize her role at the organization, which has more than 1.5 million members. Not yet.
“Given the consequences of recent threats and the importance of this moment for myself, my family, and our organization, the time has come to once again put NAR's interests first,” Kasper said in a statement.
NAR said its leadership team is “deeply concerned about any attempt to undermine its governance” and added that it is taking steps to “protect the integrity” of the organization.
Mr. Kasper's sudden resignation is the latest in a series of recent leadership changes at NAR.
Early November, previously NAR CEO Bob Goldberg announced that he will step down, about two months before his planned retirement. The announcement comes as the trade group faces a punitive blow in federal court after a Kansas City, Missouri, jury found that NAR and some of the nation's largest real estate brokerages had artificially inflated the fees they paid to real estate agents. It was announced the same week I received it.
NAR said it is appealing the ruling because it faces potentially billions of dollars in damages.
NAR named former Chicago Sun-Times CEO Nikia Wright as interim CEO in November.
In August, former NAR Chairman Kenny Purcell resigned following a New York Times report detailing allegations of sexual harassment against Utah brokers by NAR employees and members.
Mr. Kasper, who was NAR's next chairman at the time, took over shortly after Purcell's exit.
