CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® installs 2021 Leadership team

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (C.A.R.) has installed its 2021 Leadership Team. Leading the team is C.A.R. President Dave Walsh, a vice president and manager of a Compass Realty office in the Silicon Valley. Serving with Walsh are President-elect Otto Catrina, Treasurer Jennifer Branchini and Chief Executive Officer Joel Singer. The 2021 officers begin their official term this week at the close of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (NAR) Conference and Expo held online.

Dave Walsh

Dave Walsh serves as C.A.R. president. Walsh is a strategic leader with broad-based business, financial and operational expertise gained from over 40 years of residential real estate sales, management and training experience.

Walsh began his career in the real estate industry in 1980 as a sales associate and became a broker in 1982. He was owner of a real estate firm and general manager of six Windermere offices prior to joining Alain Pinel REALTORS^® as vice president in 2007. He became part of the Compass family when Compass acquired Alain Pinel in 2019.

As vice president and manager of the Compass San Jose office, Walsh is responsible for supervising the 124 real estate sales professionals and staff that work for him and for reviewing all their transactions for professional, regulatory, and disclosure compliance.

Walsh has a history of being at the forefront of real estate trends, its policies and industry organizations. He served on the Board of Directors for both the Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS^® (SILVAR) and the Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS^® (SCCAOR) as well as the Board of Directors for San Francisco Bay Area-based multiple listings service, MLSListings, Inc. In 2007, Walsh was awarded the prestigious "REALTOR^® of the Year" award by the Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS^® and was elected its president in 2008.

In 2018-2019, Walsh served as state treasurer of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® and was responsible for leading the Strategic Planning Committee, identifying critical issues of importance to REALTORS^® based on the driving forces affecting the evolution of the real estate market and brokerage industry. He previously served as C.A.R.'s 2020 president-elect.

Walsh is passionate about consumer protection and the professional standards of the real estate industry. To that end, he frequently speaks on real estate ethics and professional conduct as well as other trends, values, and issues impacting the Bay Area, California, and national real estate industry.

He frequently meets with elected legislators in Sacramento and Washington D.C. to support and advocate for all property rights and homeownership issues.

Otto Catrina

A full-time real estate broker/REALTOR^® since 2002, Otto Catrina serves as C.A.R. president-elect.

In addition to serving his clients, Catrina also is active with his local, state, and national associations of REALTORS^®.

At the local level, Catrina was 2011 president of the Bay East Association of REALTORS^®, where he served on various committees, including Strategic Planning, Board of Directors, Marketing, Professional Standards, and Local Government Relations.

Catrina also serves as a State Director for the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^®, where he has served as C.A.R.'s Federal Chairman and Chairman for C.A.R.'s Legislative Committee. He has served as Public Policy Liaison to C.A.R. Leadership, overseeing federal and state legislation.  

Catrina also has served in various leadership positions at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (NAR) including NAR Director, member of the Issues Mobilization Committee, and REALTOR^® Party Member Involvement Committee.

Distinguished in the real estate industry, Catrina has been recognized by the Bay East Association of REALTORS^® with numerous honors. He received the Association's prestigious "REALTOR^® of The Year" in 2007, the John A. Deadrich Distinguished Service Awards in 2009 and the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2019. He is a member of NAR's Presidents Circle and in 2016, was inducted into NAR's Hall of Fame.

Jennifer Branchini

Bay Area REALTOR^® Jennifer Branchini serves as C.A.R. treasurer. Branchini has been a REALTOR^® since 1998, having worked in management at her family's brokerage for many years. She's also an active REALTOR^®, helping her clients with their housing needs on a daily basis.

Branchini has held numerous leadership positions during her career. At the local level, she served as the 2014 President of the Bay East Association of REALTORS^®.

At the state level, Branchini has served on the Board of Directors of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® since 2010 and has served in various capacities on numerous C.A.R. committees.

Nationally, she has served on the National Association of REALTORS^®' Board of Directors since 2014. Most recently, she served as Member Services Liaison Chair of the Meetings and Conference Committee.

Branchini is passionate about working together with her fellow REALTORS^® to improve the real estate profession and enjoys mentoring others along the way.

Joel Singer

C.A.R. CEO Joel Singer has held the Association's top staff position for more than 30 years, overseeing the association's objectives, business development, strategic planning, legislative policies and creating products so that real estate professionals can succeed in today's changing real estate market.

As an industry visionary, Singer led C.A.R. into the digital era by creating California Living Network in 1996, one of the industry's first web-based listing and real estate information service. Singer was also the driving force behind the development of electronic forms through C.A.R.'s for-profit subsidiary, Real Estate Business Services^® LLC (REBS^®) and serves as its president.

As its previous president and chief executive officer, he was instrumental in positioning zipLogixtm as the leader in the real estate forms and transaction management space. Under Singer's leadership and C.A.R.'s 20-year stewardship, zipLogixtm was at the forefront of electronic real estate forms and e-signatures. Singer oversaw the recent sale of zipLogixtm in order to leverage best-in-class technologies and business systems to grow and further enhance the success of REALTORS^®.

Under Singer's direction, C.A.R. has a strong presence in Sacramento, advocating for the real estate brokerage industry, housing, private property rights and other policy objectives of its members. Recent legislative victories include supporting bills that ensure that real estate professionals can remain independent contractors; create greater transparency for property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs; and help increase the construction of accessory dwelling units. C.A.R. also defeated a bill which would have eliminated the mortgage interest deduction for second homes and defeated a ballot measure that would have repealed the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act.

Singer joined C.A.R. in 1978 and previously served as its chief economist and headed the Association's Public Affairs department.

Since 2015, Singer has appeared on Swanepoel's Power 200 list, which identifies the 200 leaders that have the most power and influence to impact the residential real estate brokerage industry. He was named to the 2015 Inman 101 list of real estate industry doers "whose ingenuity, outspokenness, strength, conviction, power, and persistence are driving change." Singer also was selected to Inman's list of Real Estate Influencers of 2017 for his long-time efforts of keeping the REALTOR^® at the center of the transaction. In 2004, he received NAR's William R. Magel Award of Excellence, which is presented annually to an individual who has truly exceled in his or her role as an association executive of a REALTOR^® association.

Leading the way... ^® in California real estate for more than 110 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS^® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with more than 200,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.

SOURCE CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.)