Former Chicago Sun-Times CEO To Be Interim CEO For National Association Of Realtors

The former Chicago Sun-Times CEO and a media industry leader, Nykia Wright, will serve as interim CEO for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) starting on Nov. 20.

The transition comes as the organization faces a federal class-action lawsuit for allegedly artificially inflating commissions paid to real estate agents, TheGrio reported.

The outlet reported that on Oct. 31, a federal Kansas City, Missouri, jury ordered the NAR and some known real estate brokerages in the U.S. to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion. A jury found that the NAR “conspired to require home sellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes in violation of federal antitrust law.” Approximately 500,000 home sellers in Missouri and nearby towns are the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit that filed in 2019, TheGrio reported.

Wright, a startup innovator, has experience with “operational turnarounds, change and transformation, and process design and improvement for private equity acquisitions” and “initiating organizational redesigns,” among other things, according to her LinkedIn profile page.

Wright was instrumental in transforming digital operations at the Chicago Sun-Times. According to The Grio, the interim CEO said in a statement on Nov. 2, “I am honored to join the organization at this important moment when the opportunity to make a difference in the evolving real estate landscape has never been greater.”

The Chicago-based organization’s present CEO, Bob Goldberg, will be an executive consultant to Wright while the association undergoes the change. Goldberg said, according to TheGrio, “After announcing my decision to retire earlier this year, and as I reflected on my 30 years at NAR, I determined last month that now is the right time for this extraordinary organization to look to the future.” Ahead of his planned retirement date of Dec. 31, Goldberg will hand over interim responsibility to Wright after working at the NAR for 30 years.