RIFO (ON) 2024 Annual Awards Gala: A Night to Remember, Elevating Real Estate Excellence

On Saturday, March 9th in the heart of Markham’s “New Downtown”, RIFO (ON) celebrated the success of the past year with over 300 Greater Toronto Area Agents, business partners and distinguished guests.

The group gathered, this year for the first time, at the beautiful Toronto Marriott Markham. The venue is located at the center of Markham’s redeveloped downtown, surrounded by a strip of shops, restaurants, entertainment and innovative businesses. It is also a “living downtown” where many of the most prestigious modern addresses reside. The venue perfectly represented RIFO’s new structure and strategy.

MCs Ariana Wang and Grant Guo offered the perfect combination of beauty and grace as they led the night’s proceedings. They also proved that RIFO Agents have many talents that extend beyond the real estate markets themselves.

RIFO CEO Johnson Ji set the stage for the evening as he spoke about RIFO’s significant achievements over the past year. He also provided his insights into what he sees as a breakout year for the company and for the industry. The RIFO business model is perfectly positioned to serve clients in the most efficient and effective way as we re-emerge from the challenging markets of 2022 and 2023 to drive forward in 2024.

The event provided the opportunity to celebrate all aspects of the RIFO business, including honoring the outstanding achievement of employees that consistently go above and beyond to promote RIFO’s vision, mission, values and goals. While RIFO is obviously proud of all of their employees, Rainie Cai, Chris Fan and Lei Du are shining examples and model representatives of the organization. Rainie, Chris and Lei took the stage to be acknowledged as Employee of the Year recipients.

While no proof was needed, attendees got to experience Rainie’s talents firsthand as she was the architect of the evening’s events. Chris was, as she is every day, a critical member of the night’s logistics team.

Fei Wang, proving that nice guys do finish first, took home the Toronto Regional VIP honors representing his capture of the Top Agent prize. Fei is an outstanding realtor that excels at every aspect of his profession. From finding his clients the right property or project, to building the most effective financing strategies to facilitate their deals, Fei is always at the top of his game.

Toronto Regional MVP Team of the Year went to the MCG Team that is led by Michael Ji. In their second year running they have shown themselves to be shining stars that are known throughout the industry, and respected by builders, developers, clients and peers alike.

The Agent awards were set to perfectly represent RIFO, with Regal, Imperial, Frontier and Ovation categories established to mark the achievements of the participants. In all, one hundred and seven outstanding Agents were honored. In addition, illustrating the importance of introducing new talent into RIFO’s stable, six Rookie of the Year awards were earned. The complete list of all award recipients can be found at www.rifo.com.

Robert Fotheringham served to represent the RIFO Holding Group’s Board of Directors. The theme of his talk was “change and renewal”. New venue, new program, new way of celebrating, all appropriate given the significant change that the company and the industry has undertaken over the past year. The one constant being the importance of the great people that represent RIFO and that were being celebrated on the evening.

Charles Jiang, CEO of RIFO Fintech, also took the opportunity to celebrate staff from the finance side of the business. Elaine Huang and Ted Qian received the Awards of the Excellent Employee, while Yabo Weng, Cecilia Chao and Blake Li were the recipients the Award of the Top Business Performance.

Queen Financial Group Award Winners were Stone Zhang, Haiming Yan, Haiquan Li and Yong Wang with the Award of the Outstanding Mutual Fund Representative, and Peiling Su received the Award of the Excellent Employee. All were acknowledged for their significant contributions to the mortgage and finance group, earning Employee of the Year status in their respective disciplines.

Sponsors and supporters graciously offered a number of great prizes for those in attendance. Raptors tickets, Cartier jewelry, gift cards and more. So, even if you didn’t end up with a trophy, there was a good chance that you didn’t leave empty handed. In either case, you were sure to have had a great time.

While the industry is highly competitive, it was amazing to see how supportive the RIFO Agents are of each other.

Everyone gathered for fellowship, conversation, congratulations, and lots and lots of pictures. The joy of the awards was richly shared.

Congratulations to all of the winners. Well done. Best wishes for an equally successful and rewarding 2024.