People Roundup: Domain, Frontier Digital Ventures and SMG

This week's People Roundup features a fascinating rumour coming out of Australia. But does it have legs?

Oceania: Pellegrino to return as Domain CEO?

Jason Pellegrino is rumoured to be on the shortlist of new CEOs at Domain when CoStar completes its acquisition of the business later this year, less than a year after being relieved of his duties.

The Australian Financial Review says Pellegrino is the leading contender to head up a CoStar-owned Domain, despite stepping down from his position as CEO seven months ago after a tenure that saw Domain fall further behind News Corp-owned rival REA Group.

During Pellegrino's time in charge, REA more than doubled its market capitalisation, while Pellegrino's Domain saw its value drop by 12% over the same period.

Greg Ellis was named interim CEO after Pellegrino left the company, barely weeks before CoStar started an after-hours raid on Domain shares that led to the Group's ongoing acquisition deal for the portal. In other words, Jason Pellegrino may be in line to replace his replacement.

CoStar and Pellegrino both declined to comment, according to AFR.

Meanwhile, CoStar has purchased the Homes.com.au domain name, meaning a major rebrand may be in the works for Domain.

Di Gregorio to Step Down as CEO of FDV

Frontier Digital Ventures' co-founder, Shaun Di Gregorio has announced that he is to step down as CEO of the company after more than 11 years at the helm.

A former REA and iProperty executive, Di Gregorio founded Malaysia-based Frontier Digital Ventures (FDV) in 2014 alongside business partner Patrick Grove and was instrumental in growing the company from an idea to a publicly-listed marketplace group operating in 17 countries around the world.

In a LinkedIn post, Di Gregorio cited family reasons and the commute between his home in Dublin and the company's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur as motivations for the decision.

A press release also confirmed that Grove has already replaced Anthony Klok as Chairman of FDV's Board of Directors and that Di Gregorio would remain involved with FDV as a Non-Executive Director when he steps down as CEO on the 30th of November.

Since highs of around A$1.8 in 2021 FDV's share price has dropped considerably, trading at around A$0.5 for much of 2023 and 2024 and this year has seen the price fall further with shares trading for as little as A$0.2 per share on Tuesday. Di Gregorio remains personally invested in the company and, at the time of writing, was FDV's largest shareholder controlling 8.5% of the shares.

No timeline or update was given as to Di Gregorio's potential replacement with the company saying it will provide updates to the market as appropriate.

Swiss Marketplace Group appoints new Head of Sales

SMG Real Estate, a division of SMG Swiss Marketplace Group, has named Urs Scheuber as its new head of sales.

Scheuber served as CEO of the Swiss agency Barrier Immobilien AG. He also spent nearly 18 years at Service 7000 AG, a household appliance specialist, where he advanced to the position of Key Account Manager. Earlier in his career, he held roles at Swissray International, Fiat-Sig, Also Group, and Pilatus Aircraft, and has also taught marketing and economics at KV Luzern.

"With Urs, we are gaining an experienced leader who knows both the challenges of a dynamic market environment and the needs of our clients inside out," said Dr. Sandro Principe, director of business customer at SMG Real Estate.

Meanwhile, SMG Real Estate has appointed Giuseppe Barbato as head of sales operations. Barbato will support Scheuber in advancing sales process automation and will work closely with the company’s key account clients.