Ken Baris

It is one thing to have your brokerage recognized with a prestigious award. It is another thing when that award is named after your father. That was the extraordinary honor that Ken Baris experienced this year, as Real Living named his firm the 2021 recipient of the Jordan Baris Real Living Award for Diversity and Inclusion—especially poignant after Jordan’s recent passing last year. The younger Baris was able to carry on his father’s priorities and commitment to caring for his agents through a difficult and trying year, as Ken took an extremely aggressive approach around safety and pivoting the business to adapt to new conditions. That included everything from marketing platforms to daily Zoom check-ins making sure agents were okay, providing the kind of leadership any father would be proud of.

“Making a tremendous difference in such unique times for the Jordan Baris team is humbling and motivates me to continue to innovate, inspire and lead with dignity, compassion and fierce competitive drive,” he says.