Domain restructures with chief sales officer Tom Ainsworth departing
Domain’s chief sales officer Tom Ainsworth is leaving the company.
Sources tell Mumbrella Ainsworth was informed of the news this week and it is believed various prominent Melbourne real estate agents are disgruntled by the decision. Domain, however, insists the decision is part of a wider restructure as newly-installed CEO Jason Pellegrino makes his mark on the company.
Ainsworth has worked at both REA and Domain
The business formerly known as Fairfax – which has since been absorbed into Nine – owned a 60% controlling stake in Domain.
Mumbrella understands Ainsworth’s departure is not related to Nine’s takeover of Fairfax and the resulting combined sales teams and redundancies. Instead, the decision is believed to have come from Pellegrino.
Ainsworth joined Domain as executive director of residential sales last year, and became chief sales officer at the start of 2018.
Prior to that he had been director of sales at rival REA Group before spending time in the USA with Move, Inc.
The restructure which resulted in Ainsworth being let go means Domain will now operate under two business units. In a note to staff, Pellegrino said he was looking to grow the company after observing its processes and spending time with stakeholders during his first 100 days in office.
The B2B arm of the business – the residential, commercial, developer and media, agent services, corporate sales teams, go to market, sales operations and customer experience – will fall under the ‘agency/ business’ banner. This arm will be spearheaded by Tony Blamey, who becomes chief commercial officer – a promotion from his current gig as chief product and customer experience officer.
The B2C arm – which will include the content and audience teams previously led by Melina Cruickshank who has defected to rival REA Group – will fall under the ‘consumer’ banned and will be managed by a yet-to-be-recruited chief consumer officer.
As part of the restructure, Domain is also recruiting a chief product officer, who will report into Pellegrino and have teams supporting both lines of business.
The restructure comes very soon after Cruickshank’s departure. Cruickshank will now be REA Group’s chief marketing and content officer, replacing Kieren Cooney who moved across to replace Andy Lark as CMO of Foxtel.
Domain’s former CEO – prominent Melbourne real estate and media identity Antony Catalano – left in January citing family reasons.It subsequently emerged, however, there had been allegations about Domain fostering a boys’ club culture.
Fired. Catalano recruit.
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Comedy show continues
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Tony Blamey back to his rightful role. Extremely overdue Ainsworth exit. Nine don’t tolerate revenue declines.
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100% exited by Falloon. First win to Nine.
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Blamey moved back to running the sales teams, where he should have been the last 12 months. There’s a movie series called ‘Back to the Future’ the Domain board members like to watch.
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Blamey been with the business since 2003 and has run every division in Domain.
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