Nykia Wright is the chief executive officer of the 📝National Association of Realtors, the largest trade association in the United States. As an 🏷️#executive, she leads an organization representing roughly 1.5 million real estate professionals during one of the most consequential periods in its history, overseeing the implementation of sweeping operational, cultural, and structural changes. She was named permanent CEO in August 2024 after first stepping into the role on an interim basis in November 2023.
Before joining the association, Wright served as chief operating officer and then chief executive officer of the Chicago Sun-Times, where she led the newspaper through a digital transformation and its merger with WBEZ to form Chicago Public Media. Earlier in her career she worked as a strategy and business transformation consultant advising large corporations and universities, and she holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. At the association she oversees member services, agent education and compliance, and the practice changes stemming from the 2024 broker-commission settlement.
I wanted Nykia on 📝Playmakers because she's steering the largest trade association in real estate through a moment of genuine reinvention, and few leaders are navigating that kind of pressure so publicly. Hearing how she thinks about change at that scale was a conversation worth having.