Robert Reffkin

Robert L. Reffkin
Born	Berkeley, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Business leader, entrepreneur
Years active	2000–present
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Compass, Inc.

Robert L. Reffkin is an American business leader, serving as the co-founder and chief executive officer of the digital real estate firm Compass, Inc..

Biography

Raised in Berkeley, California, Reffkin is of African American and Jewish descent. His father, a jazz musician originally from Louisiana, departed soon after his birth and died when Reffkin was 11 years old. His mother, an immigrant from Israel who was estranged from her family due to his African American background, passed on her surname from a previous marriage to him.

Through the A Better Chance program, Reffkin attended San Francisco University High School, where he later returned to deliver the commencement speech in 2021. At age 15, he started a DJ business financed by savings from his bar mitzvah and babysitting jobs and participated in the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Reffkin completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University in under two years, graduating in 2000. He began his career at McKinsey & Company (2000–2002), where he was the youngest analyst ever hired. He then earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 2003. Following this, he worked for two years in investment banking at Lazard before being appointed as a White House Fellow (2005–2006) under Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. Later, he took on the role of vice president and chief of staff to Gary Cohn, then President and COO of Goldman Sachs.

In 2007, Reffkin established the nonprofit organization New York Needs You (currently America Needs You), aiming to support low-income college students through mentorship; he raised $1 million by completing marathons in all 50 states.

Inspired by his mother's experiences as a real estate agent, Reffkin co-founded Compass with Ori Allon in 2012. The company uses technology to empower agents by enhancing brand development, data analysis, and market research to improve operational efficiency and profitability. Compass went public in April 2021; following the IPO, Reffkin’s net worth was estimated at $500 million, with forecasts suggesting he could become the youngest Black billionaire in the United States.

In collaboration with Peter Koechley, Reffkin co-wrote No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can, which was released in 2021.