• Douglas Elliman is one of the biggest names in real estate, but it has been touched by a scandal.
• Elliman's new CEO, Michael Liebowitz, explained how he'd improve the fortunes of the brokerage.
• An attorney for Howard Lorber, Elliman's former CEO, defended Lorber's tenure.

Michael Liebowitz, the new CEO of the residential brokerage firm Douglas Elliman, describes his relationship with Howard Lorber, the previous chief executive, as close.

Yet in a recent interview in his corner office overlooking Madison Avenue, Liebowitz sought to put some distance between himself and his predecessor, a longtime power player in the luxury brokerage business who left the firm abruptly in October.

"I'm very much an operator, which is a much different thing from Howard," Liebowitz said. "Howard was not an operational person at all."

Liebowitz said Lorber was "more of a front guy," suggesting he was less focused on Douglas Elliman's bottom line than pulling levers in his network of high-net-worth home sellers, buyers, and developers to help arrange deals and win business for the firm.

Liebowitz suggested that he was more interested in minding the company's financial performance.

"I watch the overhead, I watch the expenses," Liebowitz said. "I watch where we're spending money on. I look at return on investment."

Less than three months into his tenure, Liebowitz — a brokerage outsider whose background is in insurance sales — is familiarizing himself with one of the highest-profile players in luxury real estate while trying to steady the company after a moment of tumult.

The firm is a top seller of upscale homes in major markets like New York City and South Florida. Leading brokers at the firm, including Eleonora Srugo and Fredrik Eklund, have starred in popular real-estate-themed reality TV shows. The firm has also been involved in some of the most lucrative home sales of all time, including the hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin's purchase of a roughly $240 million Manhattan apartment in 2019.

More recently, it has been shaken by a raft of shocking charges against two former star brokers.

Lorber, who became the CEO in 2003, stepped down from his leadership role following an internal investigation in the aftermath of accusations of rape, drugging, and sexual assault against Tal and Oren Alexander, brothers who were top agents at Douglas Elliman for more than a decade.

Bloomberg News reported in November that Lorber disclosed during the investigation that he had consensual relationships with two brokers at the firm.

Revelations of Lorber's conduct and his close relationship with the Alexanders, who have since been arrested on federal criminal sex trafficking charges, bruised Douglas Elliman's reputation.

Two people who worked for Douglas Elliman during Lorber's tenure told Business Insider that there appeared to be a culture where professional boundaries and accountability were blurry. The Alexander brothers are fighting the charges and have denied the accusations against them, which have been brought forward by dozens of women, including some former colleagues at Douglas Elliman.

An attorney for Lorber disputed that characterization of Douglas Elliman's workplace during Lorber's tenure.

"Any suggestion that Mr. Lorber is responsible for a culture that promoted or enabled the kind of sociopathic acts presently alleged against the Alexander brothers is false," the attorney, Marc Kasowitz, said in a statement. Kasowitz also denied that Lorber's relationship with the Alexanders was closer than the connections he had with any other top broker at the firm.

"He did not have a close relationship with them, and his attendance at parties with them or at events they hosted does not evidence such a relationship," he said.

Kasowitz also challenged Liebowitz's description of Lorber's leadership.

"Mr. Liebowitz's suggestion that Mr. Lorber was not a good business manager is contradicted by Douglas Elliman's track record, as reflected in its public filings, of profitable growth over many years with Mr. Lorber as its chairman and CEO," Kasowitz wrote. "Under his leadership, the company became one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the New York metropolitan area, it expanded into new markets across the country, and it achieved remarkable growth and revenues."

After going public three years ago, Douglas Elliman posted annual operating losses in 2022 and 2023 amid weakness in the residential market. In the third quarter of 2024, its most recent financial report, it reported a net loss of almost $27.5 million. The company's stock price has slid by 84% since its public offering. Kasowitz noted that the company's performance had been challenged by higher interest rates and a nationwide dip in residential sales that affected rivals as well.

Lorber attracted criticism from investors over lucrative bonuses and other perks, including payments for a private jet, that seemed out of step with the company's declining fortunes.

The new CEO promised to get the company back on track by "getting our expense structure to where we think it should be" through cost cutting, while also building other service lines to diversify and expand its revenue.

"This brand, look at what was thrown at it," Liebowitz said. "We're still doing new business every single day."

From Staten Island to the top of luxury real estate

Liebowitz grew up in Staten Island and began his career operating property- and casualty-insurance businesses. He was appointed to the Douglas Elliman board after it went public at the end of 2021.

Liebowitz's ascension to CEO has been well received by some investors.

Brad Tirpak, an Aspen-based activist shareholder in Douglas Elliman who led a public campaign last summer that criticized Lorber's compensation and spending, said he was confident that Liebowitz would turn the company around.

He said that he texted Liebowitz shortly after his appointment and that "he responded in 15 minutes" and "offered to have a phone call that night."

Tirpak noted that the new boss purchased about $1.8 million worth of Douglas Elliman stock in November, which a public filing disclosed was sold to him by Lorber.

"He wrote a check — he put his money, his reputation on the line," Tirpak said. "Look, he's going to make some mistakes, and I don't know any CEOs that don't. But I think he's going to look at it and he's going to be trying to build shareholder value."

While Lorber was a beloved figure inside the firm, several brokers interviewed by BI expressed optimism about Liebowitz.

"Howard was very much a hands-on chairman, which I think was really nice," Frances Katzen, a successful New York broker at Douglas Elliman, said.

Liebowitz is "someone who's very smart, who is also very strategic — setting up systems and leadership changes that I think will make a meaningful difference," Katzen added.

Liebowitz said he had spent much of his time so far visiting Douglas Elliman offices across the country.

"I have visited almost the whole company," he said. "I've met thousands of agents."

Fast changes in the C-suite

Liebowitz said he wanted to upend Douglas Elliman's top-down management style and was creating a 15-person "agent board of directors" that would regularly confer with him and management and "be involved in major decision-making on a granular basis within the company."

"We want the agents bought into the things that we're doing," Liebowitz said. "The agents of this company are going to be assisting and helping me run this business."

The new CEO is trying to create broker buy-in at a precarious moment. Some prominent agents, including Tracy Tutor, a top broker who accused Oren Alexander of drugging her at a dinner, have recently exited. An attorney for Oren Alexander didn't respond to a request for a comment.

"I wished her well," Liebowitz said of Tutor's departure. "If I saw Tracy in a restaurant, I'd walk over and say hello."

"I wish Michael the best," Tutor told BI. "Other than that, I have no comment."

Liebowitz insisted that the firm's broker "retention has been great" and that developers were eager to hire the firm to help it sell new projects — a key area of its business.

Already the new CEO has made quick changes in the company's C-suite. In October, Scott Durkin, an executive who oversaw the company's brokerage business, was fired. The following month, David Ballard, its chief technology officer, left. Rumors of dismissals to come have swirled as Liebowitz puts his stamp on the company.

"Listen, the changes that we've made have been positive changes," Liebowitz said.