Robert L. Reffkin[1] is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the online real estate brokerage Compass, Inc. and serves as the company's CEO.[2]
Biography
Reffkin is African American and Jewish and grew up in Berkeley, California.[3] His father was an African American man from Louisiana, who already had two children, and shortly after Reffkin was born abandoned him and his mother.[4] Reffkin's mother, Ruth, emigrated from Israel at age 7 and was later disowned by her family after they learned that she was pregnant by an African American man.[5] Since his mother never married his biological father, Reffkin took his surname from Gene Reffkin, his mother's former husband, who is also his godfather.