Kaira Sturdivant Rouda
President of Real Living, Inc. and Real Living Network Services

Kaira Sturdivant Rouda is the president of Real Living, Inc. and Real Living Network Services. Previously, she held the positions of chief operating officer and chief marketing officer for Real Living, responsible for the development and stewardship of the Real Living brand.

Sturdivant Rouda is responsible for the overall strategy and alignment of the company’s agent and customer care centers; marketing, advertising and special events; professional development and training; franchise sales and services; Web services and the information technology infrastructure.

Active in the residential real estate business for more than a decade, she was instrumental in Real Living HER’s – Real Living’s Columbus company-owned and operated stronghold – precedent-setting move to pull out of the costly Sunday newspaper classifieds in 1997 and the company’s subsequent brand repositioning, resulting in increased market share.

Under her leadership, Real Living has been recognized within the real estate industry and beyond. The Real Living brand has made a dramatic impact in an industry-facing consolidation and change and has been attracting franchise partners nationally.

Background
Before joining Real Living, Sturdivant Rouda was vice president of marketing for Stanley Steemer International, an Inc. 500 company with more than 230 franchises and 20 company-owned offices in 47 states. Sturdivant Rouda led the company’s national marketing, created its brand positioning, coordinated more than 20 media co-ops spending more than $15 million annually in media and oversaw all details of its annual sales convention.

Giving back
Sturdivant Rouda is an active contributor to her community, having served on dozens of non-profit organizations. In the mid-1980s, she founded Make Room Columbus, the city’s first homeless shelter for families. Rouda, an art-lover, also co-founded the 12¼ Circle at the Wexner Center for the Arts in the late 90s. She also founded the Columbus chapter of the American Women in Radio and Television.

In 2006, she was the honorary chair and founder of the Columbus Cattle Baron’s Ball that benefited the American Cancer Society. She is also a member of the Women President’s Organization, the YWCA of Columbus’ Board of Directors, the Ohio State University Medical Center’s Critical Care and Respiratory Advisory Committee, the Google Real Estate Advisory Council and the Trulia.com Advisory Board. She has also served on the board of the Mid-Ohio FoodBank and as a WebAward judge for the Web Marketing Association.

Accolades
She has received numerous awards for her civic service including: Columbus Board of Realtors Citizen of the Year, Ohio Sertoma Service to Mankind Award, Northwest Rotary’s Woman of the Year, Kiwanis Humanitarian Award and Business First newspaper’s 40 under 40, among others.

Speaking out
In addition to her work for Real Living, Sturdivant Rouda is a widely-published writer, serving as contributing editor for numerous publications in Columbus and beyond, most recently Midwest Living magazine. She writes a weekly column – Connections – distributed to 350,000 households in Central Ohio via ThisWeek newspapers.

Personal
Sturdivant Rouda is a magna cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University and a graduate of Leadership Columbus.