People Roundup: Navent, AVIV Group, Daft.ie, Hjem and Rightmove

One of the founders of the Latin American classifieds operator, Navent is stepping away from the QuintoAndar-owned company.

After nearly 20 years in the online classifieds industry, Nicolás Tejerina declared himself "ready to embrace new passions and adventures" in a LinkedIn post on Monday.

Tejerina is stepping down as CEO of Navent having been instrumental in establishing some of the region's most iconic real estate portal brands such as Zonaprop, Adondevivir, Inmuebles24 and Imovelweb.

His career includes buying and leading the jobs board operator Bumeran (now Jobint), teaming up with Tiger Global to found Navent in 2007, raising $150 million, integrating 19 portal brands, and selling the business to Brazilian PropTech, QuintoAndar in 2021.

Tejerina paid tribute to the "dedication and passion" of his colleagues over the years and expressed confidence in the company's future under the management of QuintoAndar.

"I believe that the combined talent of Navent and QuintoAndar will profoundly enhance the experience of searching, renting, and buying properties."

AVIV Group reshuffle as Immoweb boss takes on German role

Piet Derriks will now serve as a Managing Director of Immoweb in Germany in addition to his current role as Managing Director of Immoweb in Belgium.

Derriks will take on the extra responsibility alongside AVIV Group's CFO, Lars Nordmark. The two will serve as AVIV Germany's Managing Board in charge of brands including Immowelt and Immonet.

"I am confident that this journey will lead to the realization of many synergies between countries, brands, products and services, and of course to shared success at AVIV Group as the European leader in the real estate platform business," commented Derriks in a LinkedIn post.

Derriks joined AVIV Group from the jobs board specialist StepStone—also owned by the German publishing giant Axel Springer—in 2021 as Managing Director of the Belgian market-leading real estate portal Immoweb.

Aviv Group's reshuffle of its executive suite is no doubt intended to bring some impetus to Immowelt which has long been the number two player in the German market behind Scout24-owned Immobilienscout.

Below: Piet Derriks discusses Immoweb's business on stage at PropTech & Portal Watch 2023

Daft.ie parent appoints Laura Swanton as Head of Marketing

Distilled Media—the parent company of Daft.ie—has hired experienced Marketing Director Laura Swanton as its new Head of Marketing.

Swanton has more than 18 years of experience working in B2B and B2C marketing roles across a broad range of businesses including jewellery retailer Chupi and business gifting provider &Open.

As well as the leading real estate vertical Daft.ie, Distilled also operates the leading autos portal DoneDeal and horizontal classifieds platform Adverts. In an interview on the company's Medium account, Swanton said she was excited to work with these big-name Irish brands.

"What initially drew me to this opportunity was the portfolio of iconic brands. Working with Irish brands is something I’m passionate about, and as a long-time user of Daft, DoneDeal, and Adverts, these platforms have played significant roles in my life. From buying my house to renovating it, and buying and selling our car, these brands have been with me through many important moments."

Norwegian challenger Hjem gets a new CEO

The Norwegian real estate marketplace Hjem has appointed Veslemøy Tvedt Fredriksen as its new CEO just months after launching.

Tvedt Fredriksen replaces former Microsoft and Facebook executive Rune Paulseth who, according to local publication DN.no, resigned at the beginning of June.

Hjem parent Bomega had brought on Tvedt Fredriksen in January as a strategic advisor. She now steps into the hot seat to take on the dominance of Schibsted-owned horizontal FINN.no which is the market leader in Norway.

Rightmove promotes from within to fill the CFO vacancy

Rightmove has announced that Ruaridh Hook will replace outgoing Chief Finance Officer, Alison Dolan.

Hook has been at Rightmove since 2016 and is currently the Head of Commercial Finance and Financial Planning & Analysis at the British portal company. He will take over Dolan's responsibilities from the 15th of September once she leaves for retailer Marks & Spencer where she is set to become CFO.

Commenting on the internal appointment, Rightmove CEO Johan Svanstrom said:

“I am delighted with the appointment of Ruaridh as CFO of Rightmove. Ruaridh has tremendous knowledge of our business, commercial model and the market, and of course is already well known to so many team members across our organisation and outside it.

“He has worked closely alongside Alison and me in recent years, and was instrumental in developing our strategy, which we outlined last year.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Ruaridh since I joined, and we look forward to delivering our strategy together with the full leadership team, and building on Rightmove’s strong position and partnership model together.”