People News Roundup: Cian, Mubawab and CoStar

All the latest comings and goings from the online real estate marketplaces world this week...

Russian portal Cian loses another board member

Leading Russian real estate vertical Cian has announced that Giles Blanchard has stepped down as a director of the company. Blanchard's loss represents a big experience drain for Cian having been a co-founder of French portal SeLoger and a board member at Emirati portal Bayut and Pakistani portal Zameen.

The loss comes on the back of the resignation of former Zillow executive Chloe Harford who resigned from Cian's board last month with the company citing "recent geopolitical developments".

Many companies and individuals are scrambling to disassociate themselves from Russian and Belarusian companies in the world of online classifieds. Prosus wrote down a $700m investment in Russian horizontal Avito last month while this week Adevinta announced that it would divest from its Belarusian marketplace business Kufar.

Blanchard will be replaced on Cian's board by Mikhail Zhukov who was elected to the board on the 14th of April.

Moroccan portal Mubawab announces Zineb Bouayad as Deputy GM

The EMPG-owned Moroccan real estate portal Mubawab has this week confirmed the appointment of Zineb Bouayad as Deputy General Manager.

Bouayad had been Mubawab's Chief Financial Officer since her appointment in 2021. According to a post on Linkedin, her new roles will include "developing Mubawab's general policy, particularly in its commercial and marketing development, while continuing to set up and monitor the financial strategy and guarantee an optimal HR policy."

A graduate of Paris Dauphine University, Zineb Bouayad began her career as a financial consultant specializing in the Real Estate division at PwC in Paris before joining the real estate group Ametys/Onapar in 2013, where she took over as head of the Finance Department. and brackets.

She has more than 14 years of experience in Corporate Finance and Real Estate to her credit.

CoStar taps Homes.com acquisition for LoopNet appointment

CoStar has appointed a new boss of its flagship commercial real estate marketplace, LoopNet with the U.S. commercial real estate giant using its foray into residential real estate to make the appointment.

On Tuesday, former Homes.com President David Mele was named President of LoopNet with CoStar founder and CEO Andy Florance saying of LoopNet's new boss:

“With decades of experience, David has a proven track record of building and growing successful online marketplaces and we are confident that he will take LoopNet to the next level,"

CoStar acquired the residential portal Homes.com last year for $156 million and is planning to make the domain a viable rival to Zillow in the American residential real estate marketing space.