RISMEDIA, June 23, 2008-Fidelity National Financial, Inc., a Fortune 500 provider of products, services and technology solutions to the financial and real estate industries, has announced three key appointments to its Cyberhomes Media Group (CMG), the new Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions (FNRES) unit created to help advertisers reach a huge, highly targeted online real estate audience and enable publishers to generate incremental advertising revenue from their websites.
The three, recruited by CMG General Manager Prem Luthra, collectively represent more than three decades of experience in online real estate and the interactive industry: Jack McGovern, vice president of Sales; Paul Simos, vice president of Business Development and Publisher Networks; and Shiraz Vartanian, vice president of Corporate Development and Advertising Strategy.
As part of the start-up team for Cyberhomes Media Group, the company says they will help position Cyberhomes.com as the definitive online destination for everything real estate for consumers. Their industry relationships and prior experience working together will greatly assist the deployment and growth of the Cyberhomes Real Estate Ad Network.
“Jack has hit the ground running, building the kind of sales team that has made him a leader in global sales,” said Luthra. “Paul is structuring strategic relationships with partners, networks and publishers who will serve advertisements on their sites, and Shiraz is already networking throughout the industry to ensure that Cyberhomes.com is connected to the rest of the interactive industry as the real estate destination of choice.”
“With these three online veterans onboard and the support teams they will attract to Cyberhomes Media Group, we will be able to give all national, regional and local advertisers access to a vast audience of home buyers, property owners and those consumers we call ‘home enthusiasts,'” said Luthra. “In addition to providing them access through Cyberhomes.com, they will also benefit from the multiple third-party publisher relationships that we are structuring in the real estate vertical and related industries.”
Cyberhomes Media Group’s New Executives
McGovern has spent the past 10-plus years successfully building and managing sales and business development teams for online real estate and mortgage companies. During five years at Realtor.com he achieved record sales growth, while reducing operating expenses by designing and implementing sales coaching standards that are still used by the company today. McGovern will be building a world-class sales organization for the Cyberhomes Media Group, establishing relationships with national, regional and local advertisers by offering a comprehensive suite of online advertising solutions that will help businesses increase visibility and revenue.
Simos is a senior corporate and business development professional with a background in corporate law. He comes to CMG from Move, Inc., where he served as Vice President of Corporate Development. For more than seven years at Move, he performed acquisition and divestiture activities, as well as serving in a senior business development capacity. His responsibilities included managing relationships and negotiating multi-year, multi-million dollar distribution agreements with AOL, Google, MSN and YAHOO! Previously Simos served as corporate counsel at eToys, Inc, a corporate associate for the international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and a banking and finance solicitor in his native Australia.
Before joining CMG, Vartanian was the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Help-U-Sell Real Estate. He was responsible for all technology infrastructure and also performed business development and strategic planning functions. He managed over 30 employees, plus vendors and outsource partners in support of 700-plus franchise office locations nationwide. Previously, he was with Move for more than seven years, initially as a senior software engineer and later as Director of Corporate Development.
“Cyberhomes.com is rich with real-time information on properties, neighborhoods, school districts and more,” said Cyberhomes General Manager Marty Frame. “The value, breadth and accuracy of its content, combined with easy navigation, are attracting a highly engaged audience that averages two-and-a-half visits per month, and more than 30 minutes per visit. This enables Cyberhomes to offer unique advertising opportunities for businesses in and out of real estate. The experience and established working relationships these new executives bring is a huge plus for Cyberhomes Media Group, and will allow us to attract highly talented individuals to fill the remaining positions on our team.”
For more information, visit www.fnf.com.