PropertyGuru, Asia’s number one property portal group has appointed three industry heavyweights to key regional roles within the firm. They include Sarah Baker, Regional Head of Products; Andrew Batt, Regional Group Editor and Douglas Gan, “Strategy Guru”. These latest senior hires will play a critical role in shaping and driving the Company’s future regional success.

Sarah joins PropertyGuru with over 10 years of digital media experience. Previously, she was Head of Entertainment in Digital Media at Network TEN in Australia. She oversaw digital production of some of the world’s best entertainment brands like MasterChef, Big Brother and The Biggest Loser. She also managed multi-platform technology projects including mobile applications and emerging technologies.

Prior to joining Network TEN, Sarah worked at Yahoo!7 in Australia and at Yahoo! UK & Ireland,  managing the Yahoo! Finance website and worked at LineOne, a British Telecom and United News & Media joint venture as the Money Editor.

Andrew, who will be based in Singapore, has close to 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry. His previous roles include Publishing Director for Ensign Media where he was responsible for editorial matters for Property Report South East Asia magazine, as well as the Thai language edition of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Before joining Property Report, Andrew worked at Guardian Media and Haymarket Business Publishing. He is a well-known figure in the property industry and has also acted as MC and moderator at property and publishing events in Singapore and abroad.

Douglas Gan is the ex-CEO and co-founder of ShowNearby, a successful regional online /mobile location based advertising business. A serial entrepreneur by nature, Douglas founded youth community website OhGenki.com which was sold to StreetDirectory.com in 2006. Prior to this, he founded web-hosting business PureHostings.net in 1999. In addition, Douglas has consulted for many firms on web development, design and SEO/online marketing.

Steve Melhuish, Group CEO of PropertyGuru said, “I’m delighted to welcome three ‘A star players’ into the PropertyGuru family. The impressive track record and experience brought by Sarah, Andrew and Douglas will further support our continued rapid growth and market leading traffic, content, customer services and innovation.”

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 and tripling its revenue growth 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 7 million buyers viewing approximately 60 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 370,000 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" award.