Executive Director Miriam Baer announced that Wendell Bullard of Durham has been elected as Chair and Mel Black of Raleigh as Vice Chair of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. Their terms will begin on August 1, 2021.
Wendell Bullard was appointed to the Commission by Governor Cooper in 2018. Licensed in 1994, he is Managing Broker at Bullard Properties, LLC, in Durham. He has experience in commercial brokerage, land, and residential sales. Bullard is a past President of the Durham Regional Association of REALTORS® and the North Carolina Association of REALTORS® and is a past REALTOR® of the Year in both organizations. He also served as a NAR® Director and REALTOR® Party Liaison for Community Engagement.
Mr. Bullard is also an original founding member of several charter schools in North Carolina. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from North Carolina Central University and is a United States Air Force Security Specialists veteran.
Mel Black was appointed to the Commission by Governor Cooper in 2019. As a real estate and appraisal educator, Mr. Black develops and delivers real estate curriculum for the Colibri Group. As an attorney in private practice with Everett Gaskins Hancock, LLP, he focuses on administrative law and occupational licensing. Mr. Black is a third-generation broker and second-generation appraiser in North Carolina. He has been licensed as a broker since 1988 and certified as an appraiser since 1991.
Mr. Black is the former Executive Director of the North Carolina Appraisal Board and former Education and Examination Officer with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.
He has been elected to multiple national positions, including president of the Association of Appraiser Regulatory Officials, member of The Appraisal Foundation Advisory Council and its State Regulator Advisory Group, and member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation. For his service to North Carolina, Mr. Black was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
Mr. Black was named Educator of the Year by the North Carolina Real Estate Educators Association and received the Larry A. Outlaw Excellence in Real Estate Education Award from the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.
He holds a Juris Doctorate from the North Carolina Central University School of Law, an Educational Specialist degree from Appalachian State University, a Masters of Education from Winthrop College, and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of the State of New York. Mr. Black and his children, Andrew and Mari, are based in Raleigh.