RealPage Abruptly Replaces CEO As Rent-Fixing Lawsuits Advance
RealPage replaced CEO Dana Jones, who had been at the helm of the embattled software firm since 2021.
Dirk Wakeham, a former RealPage executive who left the company in 2013, was appointed to replace Jones on Tuesday, effective immediately. The staffing shake-up hadn’t been previously signaled, and RealPage declined Bisnow’s request to provide a reason for the change.
“On behalf of the RealPage Board of Directors, we want to thank Dana for her tremendous contributions at RealPage,” Chairman Charles Goodman said in a statement. “She has been a trusted leader through a period of significant transformation and growth. We wish her every success in her next chapter.”
The move comes as RealPage is locked in a multifront battle with regulators and local governments over one of its main products, a property management platform called AI Revenue Management.
Federal antitrust officials are suing RealPage and some of the country’s largest landlords and property managers over allegations that the group used the software, previously known as Yieldstar, to coordinate rents. Prosecutors allege that landlords used the software to share nonpublic data to coordinate and artificially inflate rents.
Wakeham first joined RealPage in 2007 after it acquired the insurance compliance software firm he had founded. He served as the firm’s president until 2013 and shepherded RealPage through an initial public offering in 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. Thoma Bravo acquired RealPage in 2021, took it private and remains its primary backer.
After leaving RealPage, Wakeham spent the past decade in senior leadership roles and sitting on the board of directors for real estate investment firms and software providers.
“Returning to RealPage feels like coming home,” Wakeham said in a statement. “I’m honored to step into this role at such an important moment for the company and our industry.”
A spokesperson for RealPage declined to provide any additional details on the change in senior leadership beyond a press release.
Four state attorneys general weighed in last month to try to block proposed settlements in a sprawling class-action lawsuit that has ensnared more than three dozen firms, including industry giants like Brookfield Properties, Cortland and Related Cos.
A group of 27 landlords reached settlements in the class-action case being heard in a Nashville court, while roughly 20 other firms, including RealPage, remain. The attorneys general are asking the judge to reject the settlements for defendants that they are also suing and to temporarily withhold approval of the other deals.
RealPage has consistently denied that its platform violates antitrust regulations and says it is being used as a scapegoat by politicians who are looking to score points amid a housing affordability crisis.
At the same time, it has made adjustments to the AI Revenue Management tool to assuage regulators and recently struck its first deal with a state over what kind of information the platform can leverage to suggest rents.
Greystar and Cortland have both reached settlements with the federal government that include their cooperation in the ongoing antitrust suit, and the attorneys general filing in the class-action suit includes new details about the federal government's case.
Its investigation, which has included more than 100 depositions and the review of millions of documents, has “produced compelling evidence of a coordinated, nationwide scheme to inflate rental prices,” the filing says.
