Pacific Union International Inc.

In 1975, visionaries Bill Harlan and the late Peter Stocker founded The Pacific Union Company, initially a small firm focused on the new market of San Francisco condominiums. John Montgomery joined in 1978, taking the helm as CEO and expanding the company into a major real estate development player over the next few decades. The playbook took a dramatic turn in 2009. In the midst of the Great Recession's fallout, Mark McLaughlin and Tracy McLaughlin made a bold move, acquiring Pacific Union's residential brokerage. With Mark McLaughlin as CEO, the firm underwent a period of explosive growth, expanding from $2.1 billion in sales volume to over $14 billion by 2017. This expansion transformed Pacific Union into the fifth-largest brokerage in the United States. The final chapter for an independent Pacific Union was written in August 2018. In a significant move within the real estate industry, the technology-focused brokerage Compass acquired Pacific Union International. The deal united two of the largest firms in California, creating a national powerhouse and placing the combined entity as the third-largest brokerage in the U.S. Mark McLaughlin, once a public critic of Compass, joined the acquiring company to lead its California operations, marking a pivotal consolidation in the luxury real estate market.