Renan Bourdeau
Managing Director, propertyfinder.ae, Swiss Media Group
Fluent French and English, my professional experiences have made me adaptable, flexible and multifunctional so that I can be operational internationally.
Having worked in Miami, Aix-en-Provence, Moscow, Singapore, Nouakchott and Athens, I learned to adapt to very different economic and cultural environments by developing initiative, reactivity and autonomy. During my various assignments in these locales, I implemented business units in 3 continents: Europe, Asia and Africa for communication campaigns and sales prospecting.
Additionally, I planned and executed strategic public relations and lobbying initiatives at senior government and private sector levels to create a social and business network to achieve the project’s main sales objective. With good commercial sense and fine-tuned relational skills, I am completely invested in continuing to realize my ambitious goals.
Continuing in the framework defined by these first experiences, I joined the Swiss Media group in June 2006, created by the founders of a variety of European publications with associated supporting websites in Switzerland. As part of an international expansion programme SMG has been seeking to replicate the success of their European operation in the United Arab Emirates, launching a new Real Estate web portal www.albabworld.com.
Afer 2 years of great success, www.albabworld.com has been taken over in 2007 by REA Group ( www.rea-group.com ), the largest online real estate network in the world, with 16 website, in 10 countries, and more than 7.7 million unique visitors/ month on its different websites such as www.realestate.com.au in Australia, propertyfinder.com in the UK, www.casa.it in Italy... and more recently www.propertyfinder.ae in Dubai.
REA Group (110 million revenue, 550 employees), based in Melbourne, and listed on the Australian stock exchange, has re-branded the website as www.propertyfinder.ae, and injected 2.1 million dollars to allow us to develop the company.
in 2007, I was promoted as Head of Sales & Operations with the objective to grow the Revenue and establish our protal as the number 1 real estate portal in the country.
In the past 3 years, the company has generated a 30% growth on a year to year.
in 2009, Michael Lahyani, co founder & CEO bought back the majority and became the sole owner of the company.
in 2010, I became Managing Director & Partner of the company.
53 contacts- REA Group is the largest online real estate network in the world (16 website in 10 countries, 7.7 million visitors/month)
- Headquater in Melbourne, Australia
- My former company Albabworld.com, part of the Swiss Media Group has been taken over by REA Group in November 2007
- Albabworld.com has been re-branded as www.propertyfinder.ae
- propertyfinder.ae is aiming to become the Number 1 webportal for Real Estate in Dubai
- Company specialized in publishing lifestyle and Real Estate magazines
- Sales Manager for the largest circulated magazine in the UAE: AlBabWorld.com
- In charge of Sales and Operations (from Production to Distribution)
- Responsible for the web portal (Partnership, Branding, Content)
- Participating in the elaboration of Strategic plans with the Partners of the company
2005 - 2006- Company specialized in rental and sales of luxury real estate in Provence
- Silver level Independent Commercial Agent Negotiator
- Development of a portfolio with international clients
- Creation of a luxury and prestige Department
- Placing, negotiation and sale of products with value between 1 and 7 million euros
2003 - 2004- Company specialized in providing services at an international level.
- Position based successively in Moscow (Russia), Singapore, Nouakchott (Mauritania) and Athens (Greece).
- Set up and activation of Business Unit over 3 continents : Europe, Asia and Africa in order to participate in communication campaigns and Sales Prospecting.
- Planned and executed strategic public relations and lobbying initiatives at senior government and private sector level to create a social and business network in order to achieve the project’s main sales objective.
- Organized, elaborated and conducted personal interviews with Government Ministers and CEOs.
2003 - 2003- Young and fast growing company in the decoration industry specialized in wall paper
- Sales Manager in charge of the South of France area.
- Targeted market: Top chain of "do it yourself" stores (DIY).
2000 - 2001- Prepared market study analyzing competitive environment for International calls in the cell phone industry.
- Managed Corporate Communication, developing press releases and newsletters
- Responsible for establishing internal procedures for inter-department communication and interaction
- Developed specs for new corporate web presence; managed web development team in its implementation
- Authority to recruit interns from top European Graduate Business Schools
1998 - 1999- Handled customer relationship management. Design and implementation of promotional activities
1998 - 1998Volunteer for International Press Relations. Responsible for coordinating photographers