Zillow has hired Chris Crocker as vice president of strategic partnerships, bringing 16 years of experience to the online real estate company. Crocker, who will develop partnerships with brokers, previously served as regional vice president of operations for the Southwestern U.S. region of NRT, one of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages. Crocker will work alongside Bob Bemis, vice president of partner relations; Sara Bonert, vice president of broker services; and Andrew Wild, director of brokerage sales.
“The real estate industry is in a period of rapid evolution. Consumer home-shopping habits are shifting to rely predominantly on mobile devices, the market is turning the corner and the successful brokers are adopting new tools and strategies to adapt to the new marketplace,” said Crocker in a statement. As the leader in mobile real estate and software tools for agents, Zillow has a unique advantage to partner with agents and brokers to help them thrive in the new economy.” He will relocate from LA to Seattle for the new job.
Zachary Cohn has joined Seattle startup Liffft as partner, joining the development firm led by Kav Latiolais; Donald DeSantis; and Scott Nonnenberg. Liffft is developing its own products as well as working alongside large companies in order to help teams operate more in startup mode.
“It’s a small team, so everyone has a closet full of hats, but my head will probably be covered by product manager and consulting hats for the most part,” said Cohn, who most recently worked at Startup Weekend and Banyan Branch.
Varolii Corp. announced that Will Cousins has joined the company as vice president of product management and strategy. He will oversee product strategy and continued expansion of the Varolii Interact Platform for smartphone, voice, email and text-based customer interactions in the healthcare, financial services, utilities, telecommunications and retail industries. “Will is an experienced software executive who brings deep expertise in mobility, enterprise software and SaaS solutions to the company,” said Dave McCann, Varolii Chief Executive Officer. Cousins most recently served as executive vice president of product and engineering at GridPoint. Before that, he worked as vice president of marketing and product management at Twisted Pair Solutions and in the embedded devices group at Microsoft.
Chris Clark has left mobile payments startup Square and rejoined Seattle development shop Black Pixel, a maker of apps such as NetNewsWire, Bistromath and Versions. “Chris brings a wealth of expertise including phenomenal user experience design skills, unsurpassed attention to detail, uncanny iOS and OS X platform knowledge, and a strong sense for product strategy,” notes Daniel Pasco in a blog post. “Chris raises the bar for quality higher than anyone I have ever met. His addition to our talented design team solidifies Black Pixel as a center for beautiful design and skilled engineering.”
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