James Brune, "Honest without Fear" Founder and CEO of BoardPackager tells his story on Global Luxury Real Estate Mastermind with Michael Valdes Podcast #170

James Brune, "Honest without Fear" Founder and CEO of BoardPackager tells his story on Global Luxury Real Estate Mastermind with Michael Valdes Podcast #170

James Brune, CEO of Board Packager had a great love of real estate from an early age when he would visit the rental properties his parents owned on weekends to fix odd things in their investments. He purchased his first home at the age of 21, but he had a successful career in oil & gas before he decided to make real estate his passion. He was a successful real estate agent in the highly competitive market of New York City and found a great business opportunity with the tedious work involved with creating a board package for co-ops and condos in New York City which was mostly a manual, laborious task where each package was several hundred pages and multiple copies were necessary. This archaic method had not been challenged in years, and the automated process with Board Packager was born. Jim is a brilliant entrepreneur, and it was a privilege to speak with him. 

More About James Brune: 

James Brune combines a strong analytical business background with practical reasoning to understand and navigate the critical elements of any transaction. His passion for real estate dates back to the days when he would spend time with his parents on their weekend projects refurbishing single-family rental houses. He bought his first house when he was in his early 20s and in 2012 turned his passion into a rewarding career; with nearly $13 million of transactions completed in 2012 alone, he was named Douglas Elliman’s ‘Rookie of the Year’. He is also the founder of BoardPackager, a new secure online platform for residential real estate transactions that is transforming an inherently nuanced and inefficient process into a easy, fluid way for brokers, applicants, property management and boards of buildings to process property transfers.

Prior to that, James held positions in natural gas trading and weather risk management for a combined 13 years; most recently as interim CEO/Executive Vice President/Director of the U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Weathernews, Inc. - a weather risk management consultancy. He started the company’s New York office, and eventually was responsible for the entire North American subsidiary (accepting buyout when permanent relocation was required).

James has lived in New York City for 15 years in several different neighborhoods; Midtown-East Manhattan, DUMBO and now Clinton Hill. He is an undergraduate of Southern Methodist University plus holds an MBA from the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University with additional coursework completed at Copenhagen Business School.

James is involved in a number of social and civic organizations in New York City and in New Orleans, LA where he also has a home. He is active in children’s causes, and is a Trustee of the New York Foundling. James additionally enjoys running, bicycling, skiing, traveling, photography, fantasy football and classic cars.

About Michael Valdes: 

Michael Valdes is the newly named President of eXp Global 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.