Introducing the 2021 HousingWire Vanguards

If you were tasked with defining the word “leadership,” how would you explain what it means?

The word encapsulates so much, and yet according to Merriam-Webster, it can be summed up as “the power or ability to lead other people.”

If it’s simply the ability to lead others, the list of HousingWire Vanguard winners would be a lot longer. If it’s based on the ability to grow a company, cause or initiative, the housing industry would be filled with leaders, as it continuously broke record after record last year.

While all of this fits the standard definition, the word leadership here is the type of leader that many of us are inspired by and aspire to be — a Vanguard leader.

The following pages highlight 50 of the greatest leaders in the housing industry. They’re the executives who are changing the foundation of the industry.

To highlight a couple of the quotes that explain this best, John Berkowitz, co-founder and CEO at OJO Labs, when talking about his secret to his success, said, “My biggest secret to success is that I’m willing to take a community approach to building a company.” James Deitch, CEO at Teraverde, said his secret is believing team members are capable of extraordinary contributions. Along similar lines, Cathleen Schreiner Gates, CEO at SimpleNexus, said, “When I was promoted to my first management role, I was advised to find ways to leverage the talents and passions of the individuals on my team versus having everyone adhere to a single definition of what success looks like.”

It’s answers like these that showcase what it means to be a Vanguard. They’re people who are not only moving markets forward, but they also are bringing an amazing team of talented individuals along with them for the ride. Congratulations to this year’s class of honorees.

Take a look through the list below to view this year’s Vanguards.