Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® CEO Robert Authier Receives Highest National REALTOR Executive Award
Waltham, Mass. – Robert Authier of Harvard, Mass., chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®, was named the recipient of the National Association of REALTOR® (NAR) 2008 William R. Magel Award of Excellence. It is the highest honor a REALTOR® association executive can earn. Authier will be formally recognized at the NAR annual convention in Orlando, Fla. this November.
“The 22,000 members of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® are very lucky to have someone of Rob’s caliber to manage our state REALTOR® association,” said 2008 MAR President, Susan M. Renfrew, broker/co-owner of Renfrew Real Estate in Greenfield. “He is a true professional and innovator who excels at ensuring that the management of the association is prepared to meet and exceed the wants and needs of the membership.”
With more than 37 years in association management, Authier has been called a mentor to other association executives and coach to REALTOR® members. He rejoined MAR as chief executive officer in April 2005 after previously serving the association as CEO from 1988-1993. He also has been CEO of the Virginia and New Hampshire REALTOR® Associations.
With 1.3-million members, the NAR created the NAR William R. Magel Award of Excellence in 1983 to recognize annually an individual who has excelled in his or her role as an association executive of a local or state REALTOR® association. Authier is the third Massachusetts REALTOR® association executive to be honored. Others have included the late MAR Executive Vice-President Milton Shaw and the late Greater Boston Real Estate Board EVP Andrew Hickey.
Authier began his career with the REALTOR® organization in 1977 as public affairs director of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®, a position he held for six years. In 1983, he was appointed executive vice president of the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS®, which he managed for five years, until returning to the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® to serve as its CEO/executive vice president from July 1988 to October 1993. In 1993, he was appointed the CEO of the 43,000-member Virginia Association of REALTORS®.
A Certified Association Executive (CAE), who also has earned the NAR Certified Executive (RCE) and EPro designations, Authier is past chairman of NAR’s Association Executives Committee and RCE Certification Board. He has served on the NAR Board of Directors as well as the Executive, Finance, Strategic Planning and many other committees.
A “Scarlet Key” graduate of Boston University College of Communication, he is an Eagle Scout and has served as chair of the Virginia Council on Economic Education, vice-president of the Heart of Virginia Boy Scout Council, youth basketball and soccer coach, and tenor with his church choir. He is a native of Holyoke, Mass. and currently resides in Harvard, Mass., where he and his wife Deborah have three children.
About the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®:
Organized in 1924, the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® is a professional trade organization with more than 20,000 members. The term REALTOR® is registered as the exclusive designation of members of the National Association of REALTORS® who subscribe to a strict code of ethics and enjoy continuing education programs.
