Ken MacKenzie, September 2009

To celebrate 25 years of serving Canada’s real estate community, REM asked a small group of real estate leaders this question:

“Who had the biggest impact – good or bad – on Canadian real estate in the last 25 years?

This is not a popularity contest or a marketing exercise. We want to know who you think had the biggest impact on the industry in the last 25 years – even if it was, in your opinion, a negative impact. Your choices could include Realtors, company executives, association executive officers, regulators, service company executives….even politicians! Who has had the most impact during the last 25 years in making the industry what it is today?”

REM took those consensus picks and added our own and the results will be revealed on REM online every day until the end of June.  Take a look and see if you agree with these choices, and then let us know who we missed. Add your comments below or drop an email to [email protected].

Ken MacKenzie

Ken MacKenzie, former EO for the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board “was instrumental in the development of the mls.ca (now realtor.ca) website. He was often referred to as the father of mls.ca,” says Gord Archibald, EO of the Association of Regina Realtors.

MacKenzie retired after a 30-year career at the FVREB in 2009. Under his leadership, the board joined with neighbouring boards in Vancouver and Chilliwack to create a single Lower Mainland MLS system in 2002. Two years later, along with the Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton Boards, the cross-border MLXchange, a single commercial MLS system, linked Realtors across the B.C./Alberta border.

In a September 2009 interview with REM, Mackenzie said, “There are still a lot of technical people who would like to see Realtors eliminated by technology. We need to stay abreast of modern technology to ensure that the Realtor stays at the centre of the transaction.”