New CEO at Freddie Mac; AI pro joins KW coaching division
Longtime financial services exec Kenny Smith becomes Freddie Mac’s new CEO. Plus, Patrick Ferry joins KW MAPS Coaching as a senior advisor in digital marketing.
Editor's note: As an industry with millions of agents and over 100,000 brokerage companies, new leaders rise to the top every day. Here we highlight executives and other notable leaders who've recently taken on, or stepped away from, roles that influence the residential real estate landscape.
Freddie Mac taps veteran financial services leader as next CEO
Freddie Mac has appointed Kenny M. Smith to be its next CEO, effective Dec. 17. Smith steps into the role after a lengthy career in financial services. He worked for 27 years at Deloitte Consulting, where he served as vice chairman and U.S. financial services leader, among other positions.
Smith will also join Freddie Mac's board of directors. His experience advising major financial firms on strategy and operations will be a key asset as the mortgage giant navigates market challenges and aims to support broader access to homeownership and rental housing, the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) said in a news release.
Michael Hutchins will remain as president. Hutchins stepped into the interim CEO position earlier this year following a period of leadership turnover after Bill Pulte took the reins at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This latest leadership change at Freddie Mac comes amid broader shifts at GSEs overseeing the U.S. housing finance market.
Hutchins said Smith's background will benefit Freddie Mac's work with homeowners, renters and industry partners. Smith said he is "honored and excited" to lead the company into 2026 and beyond.
"Freddie Mac plays a vital role in the nation's housing finance system, and I look forward to working with our talented team to expand access to homeownership and rental housing across the country," Smith said.
Patrick Ferry of Ferry family coaching dynasty joins KW MAPS
Keller Williams has named Patrick Ferry to a senior role at KW MAPS Coaching, tasking the longtime real estate technology coach with helping agents build AI-driven, online-first businesses, the company announced this week.
Patrick Ferry is the son of real estate coaching pioneer Mike Ferry and the younger brother of Tom Ferry. In 2025, Patrick Ferry's coaching clients — who included more than 65 top agents and teams — generated over $1.3 billion in sales volume, according to a news release.
Patrick Ferry joins KW MAPS as a senior advisor in digital marketing and as a full-time coach who will work with agents, teams and market centers. His focus will be on training agents to grow their businesses through online branding, automation and AI-based systems.
The hire reflects Keller Williams' push to help agents compete in a market where visibility, referrals and digital reach increasingly drive business, the company said. Patrick Ferry will lead coaching initiatives aimed at building what he calls long-term business assets — including databases, geographic specialization and scalable digital marketing platforms.
Patrick Ferry said it's important for agents to integrate with quickly-growing AI and LLM ecosystems, arguing that agents can "become untouchable" in their market once platforms like Google, YouTube and ChatGPT start recommending them.
"KW is the only organization with the vision, scale, and infrastructure to build that kind of agent by the tens of thousands," he said.
Patrick Ferry is scheduled to present at Keller Williams' 2026 Family Reunion conference in February and will also coach alongside Executive Chairman and Co-founder Gary Keller in monthly mastermind groups, the company said.