About

Alex Howland, "One World, Achieving Together" Founder of Virbela, the technology behind eXp Realty, talks about his life as an organizational psychologist and how he created this platform from an educational focus to now the basis for the fastest growing real estate company in America. on Global Luxury Real Estate Mastermind with Michael Valdes Podcast #135Alex Howland is probably one of the smartest people I know, butmore importantly he is one of the most compassionate human beings I know who leads with humility. Having created the foremost platform for remote virtual interaction, it's been adopted in various other sectors including financial and entertainment. Social responsibility and inclusivity are at the forefront of everything he creates and develops. His motto is "one world, achieving together" and he lives it every day.More About Alex Howland:Alex founded VirBELA, a social virtual reality platform focused on education and team development with clients in various industries from government to retail. The VirBELA team developed eXp Realty’s cloud-based campus, called eXp World. eXp World Holdings, eXp Realty’s parent company, acquired VirBELA’s core group of products and services in November 2018.As President of eXp World Technologies, an eXp World Holdings company, Alex leads the development of VirBELA’s products and services to expand the offering to agents, teams and others who could benefit from their own, always-available environments for collaboration.In the development of VirBELA, Alex was awarded financial support from the Graduate Management Admissions Council, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation and the American Psychological Association to support some of innovations and research.Alex has a bachelors in organization psychology from Providence College and a doctorate in philosophy from Alliant International University, San Diego Scripps Ranch.More About Michael Valdes:Michael Valdes is the newly named executive vice president of International Expansion at eXp Realty. Previously Michael was the senior vice president of global servicing for Realogy Corporation, one of the world's largest real estate companies and parent to Coldwell Banker, C21 and Sotheby’s.Earlier in his career, Mr. Valdes was Director of Private Banking at Deutsche Bank for just under a decade where he oversaw a book of business of just under $1 billion. He has the distinction of being the first Director in the United States of Latino descent. Mr. Valdes is the Chair of the AREAA Global Advisory Board and co-host of the 2020 AREAA Global Luxury Summit. He is also a current member of the NAHREP Corporate Board of Governors and a member of Forbes' Real Estate Council. Additionally, he is the Executive Chair of the ONE VOZ, Hispanic ERG for the firm and a member of Forbes Real Estate Council. He is a former Board Member of Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach as well as the Shanti Organization in San Francisco. Michael was also a Board Member of Pink & Blue for 2, an organization started by Olivia Newton-John to promote breast and prostate cancer awareness.