by G. Sax, Head of Communications, RESO
In this edition of RESO Three Questions, we chat with Shayne Fairley, the freshly anointed CEO of Stellar MLS, about carving out a personal legacy after following a legend, starting a consulting business inside an MLS and the importance of a technical education in MLS and proptech work. Enjoy!
Q1: Your rise to COO and eventual CEO over the last 18 years has come from a humble beginning: help desk and training. As you take over the reins at Stellar MLS from the legendary Merri Jo Cowen and you think about industry legacy, how would you like to use the whole of your background in training, operations and other disciplines to carve out your own sense of legacy?
Shayne: I don’t think about legacy at this point. If I do a good job, the legacy will take care of itself. And if I don’t, then I’ll be out.
But to answer the question, all the different experiences I’ve had at Stellar MLS have given me a unique perspective on what it takes to drive the company while also making sure that our employees are taken care of along the way.
I’ve been in the exact role of a lot of the staff, and I know what they do on a day-to-day basis. This means that I know what they need in order to succeed. Hopefully, that helps me make prudent decisions as CEO.
Also, we’re nothing without our customers, obviously, but it’s going to take a unified team rowing in the same direction so our customers remain happy. A strong, unified culture has helped with our success over the years. Merri Jo and I formed that culture together, along with so many others, and I am committed to protecting that going forward.
Q2: The longest you have been at any one position was as Director of Initiatives & Data Services. That is not a common title. Can you explain what you did at that time, and is it the kind of position that other MLSs should consider?
Shayne: That was during a time that the company was expanding, and we had a lot of different projects and initiatives that leadership wanted to accomplish. But we didn’t have anyone driving those initiatives to successful completion.
I worked in our IT department and was heavily involved in project management. That’s where I honed a lot of those skills. We also had a data services department that I oversaw, which included data licensing and data compliance.
RESO: Piggybacking on that question, Director of Initiatives & Data Services seems like the kind of title/position that would lend itself to an initiative like Stellar MLS’s Universal Consulting Opportunities (UCO).
Shayne: UCO comes from the belief that we know how to “MLS.” We had already been consulted for our expertise, so one day when we were talking about new opportunities, we came to the conclusion that we should formalize this as UCO and outwardly advertise our services.
At the same time, some of these requests were coming from outside of the U.S., particularly in the Caribbean and South America. That’s really where the idea of the UCO was born from, having brought on the Puerto Rico REALTORS® MLS years ago. Others saw that success, and we continued to grow the concept.
It’s working. We now have more opportunities than we can work on. With this growth, we know that we have to go through an AI transformation, so I’m looking at ways in which we can upscale our current team.
And as we start to see efficiencies from AI, we will need to repurpose some roles and do more customer outreach and relationship building. It’s a BHAG [Big Hairy Audacious Goal] to do that with intention. As we build, we want to make sure that we’re looking out for the best interests of the company and its employees.
Oh, and for the record, Merri Jo is not retiring. She is our Chief Vision Officer and EVP of Subsidiaries, most specifically leading UCO to even greater success.
Q3: There is a common thread among several professionals in the MLS and proptech space with the DeVry Institute of Technology. What are they teaching there that lends itself to the MLS industry?
Shayne: I had no intention of using my degree to work at the MLS. I could not find a job in network communications management after I graduated in my field. I actually took a job at Stellar with no intention of staying. I was planning to get a “real job” instead.
I can’t really give full credit to DeVry except perhaps problem solving and management skills. But I got much of that after I graduated while cutting my teeth here at Stellar as we grew and grew.
We started off representing Central Florida, then we became a regional MLS and now we are one of the largest MLSs in the industry.
Thanks to the opportunities afforded me here, I quickly became a lead tech a couple of years after I graduated. Funny story, one of my employees at the time said, “Shayne, you are sooooo not technical.”
I was offended. I told them, “I came from a technical school!”
Three Questions is a lighthearted interview series that features real estate industry professionals, their businesses and how they interact with real estate standards.
