Leah Sternberg, formerly a regional vice president of Compass, has joined the California luxury brokerage Pacific Union International as its vice president of business development for Southern California, the company announced today.
Credit: Leah Sternberg
Sternberg’s appointment comes after Pacific Union, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, made a number of brokerage acquisitions or partial acquisitions in the past year, including John Aaroe Group, Partners Trust and Gibson International. The company merged all three into one new brand: Pacific Union Southern California, which is headquartered in L.A. and includes 900 real estate professionals across 20 offices.
Overall, Pacific Union employs 1,700 real estate professionals across 51 offices throughout California and is projecting sales volume of $18 billion in 2018.
Nick Segal, Pacific Union president in Southern California, said in a press statement today: “We’re in the people business, and Leah is one of the most passionate and motivating people I know. Leah has keen real estate insight based on her exceptional experience, which is essential to our mission of redefining the value proposition of our real estate professionals versus the common agent.”
Sternberg will work out of L.A. and serve as chief business advisor, with the goal of helping the SoCal real estate pros improve their efficiency, productivity, and adoption of the best practices of the merged, formerly independent brokerages.
As Sternberg told Inman:” I have worked in most of the roles in a brokerage. I think initially the priority is definitely going to be bringing the cultures together with training and education…”
Sternberg launched Compass’s brand in Pasadena in early 2016 as a regional vice president of the tech brokerage, building a team of more than 80 real estate professionals and staff. She left in March 2017 and was reportedly let go due to a disagreement with Compass leadership over her management style.
Prior to that she was with Coldwell Banker as vice president for Santa Barbara, the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and downtown Los Angeles, overseeing 15 offices and around 1000 agents.
Sternberg told Inman that in coming to Pacific Union, she was reuniting with many former colleagues from previous jobs.