Domain general manager takes redundancy in state-based restructure

Fazel

The general manager of Fairfax Media’s real estate website Domain has taken a redundancy as the company restructures under new CEO Anthony Catalano.

Sales executive Ross Fazel had worked with Fairfax for nearly seven years and was made general manager of Domain for Fairfax’s community media in January 2013.

However, earlier this month Fazel opted for redundancy in preference to alternate roles offered, as Catalano moves Domain from a national to a state-based structure, as it looks to take on market leader REA Group.

As GM, Fazel had responsibility for Domain’s digital real estate products and print branding across the Fairfax Media Regional Group and had 14 staff reporting directly to him. He has previously worked as sales director across the Fairfax properties Domain, Drive and MyCareer, and was dealer sales manager and state sales manager for Queensland, NS and the ACT.

However under the new structure, revealed by Mumbrella last month, Domain has state-based managers reporting to new chief operating officer Tony Blamey, with Fazel opting for redundancy.

Catalano said when he arrived at Domain four months ago the first glaring issue was its structure as a national business, as he believes real estate is a local business, with 85 per cent of people buying properties within five kilometres of their current address.

“We have very different positions in different markets and tackling those markets requires an individual state-based approach not a national one-size fits all approach. So that’s why we have opted for a state-based structure and it’s a resourcing issue. We’re putting more people into the market and we’ve got different challenges in different markets,” he told Mumbrella.

Of Fazel’s departure Catalano said: “There is nothing more to it than making sure we have absolutely the right strategic direction to grow this business and achieve a leadership position.” 

Fazel says he is now “looking for the next challenge” as a corporate consultant at learning and development consultancy Kease.

Blamey, former GM of real estate at Fairfax Media in Melbourne, was made chief operating officer of Domain last month, while Simon Kent, who was previously at Standard Media Index, took the role of national agency sales director, running the in-house sales team.

Catalano, who left Metro Media Publishing to take on the CEO role in November, said the changes would “consolidate all digital real estate services under Domain Group” and give it a single strategy and operating model that would enable it to “grow the business as fast as possible.”

Megan Reynolds