Douglas Elliman’s Long Island CEO to Step Down

Another regional head is leaving Douglas Elliman, The Real Deal has learned.

Todd Bourgard, the brokerage’s chief executive officer of its Long Island, Hamptons & North Fork regions, is stepping down. Bourgard announced the decision on Oct. 2, sources told TRD. Bourgard confirmed he will be with the firm through the end of the month.

Bourgard has held the leadership position at the firm since 2023. He worked as an agent in Hampton Bays for 17 years before Elliman tapped him to manage its sales office, and added Westhampton Beach and Quogue to his purview before taking on all of the Hamptons and North Fork in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

Bourgard’s step back marks the third regional leader to leave the firm in the last three months. In August, Richard Ferrari announced he was stepping down from his role as the head of Elliman’s New York City brokerage. Then at the start of September, Elliman parted ways with Peter Hernandez, the head of its Western region.

The moves leave an apparent power vacuum at the regional level, but in an interview with The Real Deal, CEO Michael Liebowitz confirmed that the firm is planning to move away from a model with regional CEOs.

Bourgard said he wasn’t aware of the firm’s plans, which had nothing to do with his decision. “That is nothing that they have discussed with me,” he said.

While Bourgard’s decision was his own, Liebowitz said it allowed the firm to consolidate operations even further.

“If you look at all these businesses, they’re too top-heavy,” he said of competing brokerages. “We’re going to have the regions closer to one another.”

What that means in practice is that the New York City and suburban New York regions will report to Jamie Gagliano, the firm’s recently hired chief operating officer. When asked about the Western region, Liebowitz declined to comment, saying “we can’t give away everything we’re doing.”

Who, specifically, will report to Gagliano, is up to her, according to Liebowitz. “She’ll set up a reporting structure, she’s visiting the regions and doing all the things that she needs to do,” he said.

But “will it be called a regional CEO,” he said of who ultimately reports to Gagliano. “Probably not.”

“I think that structure is an old way of doing business,” Liebowitz said.

In addition to Gagliano, the firm also hired Lena Johnson, former One Sotheby’s chief marketing officer, in April to lead the firm’s national brokerage. Johnson’s focus has been on overseeing the brokerage’s expansion into new luxury markets and recruiting.

Liebowitz has also sought to modernize the business through technology. In July, Douglas Elliman announced it was overhauling its tech infrastructure, including launching a new company powered by Google Cloud AI.

Liebowitz previously predicted that streamlining and automating its operations would lead to a “significant amount” of headcount reduction, and a decrease in agents in the industry overall.

The regional head departures come as Elliman has also turned over a number of other C-suite roles in the last year.

In December 2025, the company brought on former vice president of marketing Natalie Passerini as chief marketing officer. In February 2026, Caitlin Chagan returned after less than a year to serve as the president of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing in New York, where she had worked for a decade before departing for a development startup.

Elliman also hired Chris Reyes from Brown Harris Stevens to serve as chief technology officer in November 2025.