NEWSFLASH: Former Countrywide managing director joins Purplebricks in leading role

One of Countrywide’s most senior figures, Lee Wainwright, has joined Purplebricks as operations director.

Wainwright was with Countrywide as managing director for 27 years, leaving in December – amid a significant number of high-level departures in Countrywide’s latest re-structure.

Latterly, between October 2015 and December last year, he was managing director of Bairstow Eves and Mann London, responsible for 116 branches.

According to his Linked In profile, he then spent just two months ‘exploring opportunities’.

At Countrywide he was also in charge of the ‘transformation’ of Countrywide Anglia.

He has now joined Purplebricks, where this morning a spokesperson said: “We are pleased to confirm that Lee Wainwright has joined our business as operations director. He’s a strong addition to our management team and has the drive, commitment and enthusiasm to help us grow our brand and offer our customers an even better service.

“Lee has a first rate reputation in the industry and we will continue to recruit first class people to our collective business.”

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26 Comments

  1. inthefield

    I’d say he’ll be looking for another opportunity in about 12 months time

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  2. Herb

    Look how well Countrywide have done – NOT!

     

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  3. smile please

    Lee is a very experienced individual and sadly this will be a boost for PurpleBricks.

     

    Not sure if anybody has noticed but…..

     

    CW are cutting negs, managers, regional managers and MD’s to be more like PurpleBricks.

     

    PurpleBricks majority of LPE’s are ex Countrywide. They also have a number of middle management ex CW.

     

    Just a thought ….

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    1. inthefield

      Noted Smile but they left because they were disalussioned with CW path and tactics. If CW were trying to be more like PB then whats the point? Frying pan and fire?
      I fail to see how it will be a boost for PB. If Lee is a proper estate agent what can he offer PB apart from a more experienced member of the team to press the return button on the PB keyboards.

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      1. AgentV

        Supposing the ‘PB’ so called ‘disruptive model’ was planned to be just a starter to raise money? What about if one of the purposes was to weeken a large rival to the point where it could be snapped up? What if that wasn’t your main purpose at the start , but you now see an opportunity you can morph into? What if your main long term goal is to dominate portal traffic..and replace…well you know who? What would you be worth then?
        Or it could be just another job filled.  

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      2. MattBesier41

        inthefield, this is an incredibly narrow view. How can this NOT be a boost for PB? 
         
        Wether you like it or not PB are doing incredibly well in terms of growth and value. Theyre winning more and more instructions. I think that if they continue to operate as they currently do, they may fall when vendors realise the risk of working with purplebricks. Bringing someone like Lee can mitigate that as he will be joining as an Ops director. He could improve their awful sales progression team and then all of a sudden, theyre as good as traditional estate agents, whilst still being insanely cheap!

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        1. AgentV

          ‘theyre as good as traditional estate agents, whilst still being insanely cheap!’
          If you are an estate agent MattBesier41 is all you do measure a property, take a few photographs and then let the owners do their own viewings and negotiate a sale? That’s a listing service….its not estate agency as we know it.
          Also they are only incredibly cheap because every listing is currently subsidised by investor money of up to maybe £1,000 or more per property. Add this on together with the extra costs for using their conveyancing and all of a sudden the cost is well over £2,000 per property!!! Thats more than our average fee for the full service including unlimited viewings, negotiation to obtain the best possible sale price and full sales progression afterwards….including handing over keys to the buyer on completion day. And to cap it all our service is No Sale No Fee….as opposed to Pay Upfront Whether You Sell Or Not!!!     

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        2. inthefield

          They’re insanely cheap for a reason. They’re insanely bad. 
          Everyone is getting carried away with the cheapness. I re-iterate what I’ve said many times before that a few of my investor clients LOVE buying off PB because they know they will not face any tough negotiation by the local property idiot. Can you imagine when that reputation really takes hold? Who would possibly want to save hundreds to lose thousands. Yours, I’m afraid Mattbeiser41, is the narrow view. 

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    2. PeeBee

      You missed something, smile please…
      …Countrywide’s logo and homepage is PURRRRRRRRRRRPLE!
      Coincidence?

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      1. PeeBee

        Erm – ‘scuse me, EYE… 
        HOW COME the font size has gorn all Pete when you’re posting anything?  I need a microscope to see what cr@p I’m typing!   HOW COME you can’t format paragraph breaks any more?   Typical example of “progress”!

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  4. lettingsguru

    Is it me, or does it appear that everybody that leaves Countrywide was the Managing Director!?

    Maybe it is a bit like John Lewis where all the staff are partners…..

    I guess my point is, that it is hardly work “breaking news”.

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    1. smile please

      Each brand has (or had!) an MD
      Each MD has (or had!) a number of regionals
      Where it get very confussing is when they changed the structure and title of MD to retail director!
       
       

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    2. SecretAgent

      Typical Corporate ..

      Blowing smoke up peoples you know what by giving you a fancy title. Like branch managers, can’t even order tea bags without someones permission, who probably needs someones permission to authorise it.

      they just keep bringing in more and more trainees as they cant retain staff… within 6 months you go from apprentice to managing an office, stick it out another 6 you’re probably overseeing 3 branches and an area director.

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  5. Hillofwad71

    it seems that  every single quality,time served property  professional is leaving  with only shop assistants remaining Significant  move into opposition camp clearly wants to put as much distance from  the new roll out as possible

    She is definitley in the dentist’s  chair now to convince the banks they havent burned their  money  They will have extreme difficluty recouping the hundreds of millions expended building  up LSH

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  6. propertyopinion119

    Lee Wainwright is a true leader. He will do really well at PB. He will make a big difference to them.

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  7. Mark Walker

    Maybe he can take them from being ‘unprogressional’ – https://twitter.com/Jamesth33147560/status/838023192979587072

    (the new CONmisery?)

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  8. WOW139

    Lee Wainwright is an Inspirational person, PB are lucky to have such a talented leader heading the operation up in the U.K. – I’m sure more will be attracted to work there now he is involved 🙂 good luck Mr W 

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    1. proagent54

      I hate to say it, but I agree with you WOW139, Lee is a great leader and is a good signing by PB and could well help with their advancement

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  9. Robert May

    What would happen to the PB model if CW offered each listing rep an area appropriate  senior negotiator salary with a target of 52 properties a year on a much smaller territory and an uncapped OTE for someone who lists more?
    £10m spend would obliterate the PB offering  in a heartbeat. Countrywide have traditional fee structures to fall back on, PB do not.
    If investors saw strategic thinking from CW I have a hunch I know which one they would back simply because PB have no other model to fall back on.

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    1. AgentV

      You are so right Robert. There is also no reason why a network of independents couldnt do the same if they wished to.

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      1. Robert May

        There is a reason V and you don’t have to look hard to see what it is. Estate Agency wasn’t broken and isn’t broken. There are people trying to break it (unsuccesfully).  The industry just needs to heal itself and purge itself of people who are trying to break it with cash from investors who are swallowing the drivel they are being spoon fed

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  10. Fore32

    A very clever move by Purple Bricks – inviting him into their business will be a big win for them and a great loss for CW. A superb leader of people who has a special talent of ‘making things happen’ – no doubt he will improve the shortcomings of PB and make them and their people stronger quickly – good luck and enjoy the journey Lee!

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  11. steps56

    To be fair to him, he just needs a job like the rest of us, If he had joined any other company this wouldn’t be a headline, It just turns out Purple Pr1ck5 offered more money (sorry for spelling mistake wasn’t deliberate lol)

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    1. Robert May

      They need someone who knows what they are doing.
      Motivating a team when everything is against you isn’t easy so this will be a true test of leadership. There are good agents in PB but some of the listing reps aren’t the sort of people I would regards as  estate agents. It is those non-agents who will create the problems of being a sea anchor on credible progress.
       When good people aspire to join PB and there is a waiting list of good people eager to join for genuine reasons other than ‘at least it’s a job’ PB will be credible. At the moment they are, in my opinion, a long way from that.

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  12. Property Paddy

    OK I just read all the comments above and I have to say I am very disappointed. Not a single star wars reference to “the dark side of the force” !

     

    OK I’ll re – read all the comments again, someone should have made at least one reference.

    Oh FYI

    Obviously PB are going to recruit experienced, high profile business leaders within the industry. it will no doubt push there share price up again, profit or no.

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  13. rsvstu97

    Most of what’s said here is typical insular rhetoric. Whether you like it or not, whether you think they are good or not they are a disruptive influence and will appeal to certain types of seller. Let’s face it and I speak as someone who got to FSD level, on the whole CW were pretty poor too, in some cases atrocious. Where you had an inspirational leader like Lee the local business was successful. The problem is not every subsidiary had the same level of talent. I don’t know the next stage of the PB strategy and neither do any of you. I do know that Lee’s appointment has the potential to do more good than bad for PB. Instead of worrying about what the online agents or even your traditional competitors are doing just make sure your own proposition is the best it can be. You have no control over anything else after all.

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