KUALA LUMPUR, 16 February 2012: HomeGuru.com.my ("HomeGuru") has named John Paul Sta Maria 
as the internet property portal's new Country Manager with effect from 1 February 2012.
He takes over the post from Steven Tan, who now carries the role of Director in the Regional Business Development in Singapore-based PropertyGuru Group.
Previously, John Paul served the role of Sales Director in HomeGuru since joining the Company in September 2011. Spearheading the country's team of Business Development Managers, John Paul's leadership was instrumental in the transformation of HomeGuru's business-to-business sales strategies, significantly influencing the Company's outstanding fourth quarter (Q4) results for 2011.
"We have been impressed with the sales discipline and structure that John Paul had instilled in the Malaysian team within less than half a year and it is our belief that his professional input will further propel the Group's profitability in times to come ," states PropertyGuru Group CEO Steve Melhuish.
Prior to joining HomeGuru, John Paul was the Country Sales Manager at Monster Malaysia and has had 14 years of substantial working experience in fields including sales and marketing as well as online business.
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Media Contact:
Mr Jason Thoe, Head of Marketing
Contact number: +603 2279 7555 ext. 320
Email: jasonthoe@homeguru.com.my
Ms Widya Sharkawi, Editor
Contact number: +603 2279 7555 ext. 320
Email: widyawati@homeguru.com.my
About HomeGuru:
www.HomeGuru.com.my is the fastest growing Malaysian property portal set up as part of a joint venture between PropertyGuru Group and Malaysia's RedBerry. Currently the 80th ranked website in Malaysia based on Alexa, from its initial ranking of #499 in January 2011, HomeGuru has over 345,000 users viewing more than 1.7 million pages monthly. With over 70,000 listings and 3,000 agents signed up, HomeGuru gives consumers the platform to find properties for purchase, sale, rental or investment and a direct channel to search for and contact agents. An SME Tiger Award Winner for Online Business (Gold Award), HomeGuru is designed with the end-user in mind; featuring real-time access to multimedia-rich content, covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and a rapidly growing online property database in Malaysia.
About PropertyGuru:
PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 as a self-funded company, with a vision to make the property search process a breeze for buyers, sellers and investors. Taking advantage of Asia's growing affluence for property and the online boom, it received its first VC investment funding in 2008. Since then, the company has grown rapidly, reaping profits and positive cash flow in 2009, tripling revenue in 2010.
PropertyGuru is now Asia's leading online property portal, with a presence in 10 countries, including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and partnerships with leading property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, China and Macau. It has almost 6 million buyers viewing approximately 55 million property pages monthly, with a growing database of 350,000 opted-in buyers and over 19,000 real estate agents.
PropertyGuru provides an integrated media platform that real estate developers and agencies can use to promote their brands and generate sales leads. The entire PropertyGuru community boasts 400,000 residential and commercial properties and clients include almost 500 prominent developers from Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as over 19,000 real estate agents in Asia.
PropertyGuru has also won multiple awards, including the Overseas Property Professional "Best Online Media (Gold) Award 2011" and "Best Online Service (Silver) Award 2011", Red Herring "Top 100 Asia Technology Award 2011", Hitwise "No.1 Website in the Property Industry" award, the Singapore IT Federation (SITF) award for "Best Mobile Application (Merit) 2011" and "E-Enterprise Company 2010", the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA) award for "Best Performing VC Backed Company 2010", Marketing Magazine's "Top Digital Media of the Year 2010" award, CNBC World's "Best Property Portal Award 2009" and the "Google Zeitgeist Singapore 9th Fastest Rising Search Term 2009".