Greg Hart to leave Compass as the firm eliminates COO role

Compass’ chief operating officer Greg Hart will leave the brokerage at the end of the year, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

According to the filing, Hart’s position is being eliminated and Compass will not seek to fill the vacancy. As such, Hart is entitled to receive severance benefits.

Hart joined Compass in March 2020 to serve as the firm’s chief product officer, before assuming the role of chief operating officer over the summer of 2022. Prior to joining Compass, Hart served as the worldwide president of Amazon Video. He started working at Amazon in 1997.

In an email sent to Compass employees and obtained by HousingWire, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin wrote that he was “incredibly appreciate of Hart’s contributions” to Compass, and that both he and Hart felt that “now is a good time for him to move on from Compass.”

Reffkin also noted that eliminating the role of COO will allow for “a streamlined management team with fewer layers and faster decision-making empowering our team and local regions even more.”

The COO role is not the first executive officer position the brokerage has cut as it has pivoted from a mindset of growth to profitability over the past 18 months. In late-August 2022, Compass announced the departure of chief technology officer Joseph Sirosh, which the firm noted was part of its bid to manage expenses.

So far in 2023, Compass has succeed in meeting its financial goal of being free cash flow positive in the second quarter of 2023, which it repeated during the third quarter. Brokerage executives believe their company is on track to achieve its goal of being free cash flow positive for full year 2023, which they view as the first major step towards overall profitability.