Freddie Mac, Cenlar, FlyHomes appoint, promote new leaders

December 30, 2022 12:20 PM

Freddie Mac appoints Bill Buskirk, Steve Johnson to senior VP

Left to right: Bill Buskirk, Steve Johnson

The multifamily division of Freddie Mac promoted Bill Buskirk and Steve Johnson. Buskirk was named chief operating officer of the division, while Johnson steps up as head of production and sales, a role he has held on an interim basis since May.

As chief operating officer, Buskirk will oversee business strategy, asset management, marketing and loan servicing among other responsibilities. He started with the McLean, Virginia-based government-sponsored enterprise in 2002 and has served as chief financial officer in charge of business reporting, budgeting and forecasting for the multifamily unit over the past 13 years.

Johnson, before taking over the helm of his current team, served as vice president of Freddie Mac small business lending and targeted affordable housing. As the new head of production and sales, Johnson will continue to spearhead sourcing, originating and structuring of all multifamily loan products.

Cenlar promotes Nayda McKain to HR business partner

Loan subservicer Cenlar recently promoted Nayda McKain to vice president, human resources business partner. Most recently a director for the same team, she has advised the Ewing, New Jersey-based company's leadership on HR matters intended to drive organizational changes and improvements and employee engagement. She joined Cenlar in 2019.

A Fannie Mae alum, McKain formerly served as chief of staff of the government-sponsored enterprise's Southeast and Northeast regional sales division, where she developed and coached its team of salespeople. McKain's professional background also includes positions at AIG Life Insurance and Wells Fargo.

FlyHomes hires former SoFi exec and a new chief marketing officer

Left to right: Andrea Collins, Dan Richards

FlyHomes, the Seattle-based real estate brokerage, added financial services and technology leaders Andrea Collins and Dan Richards to its executive team. Richards takes over as executive vice president of mortgage, while Collins becomes its chief marketing officer.

Richards joins FlyHomes after most recently serving as business unit leader of the home loans division at SoFi, where he was responsible for all mortgage operations. At FlyHomes, he will lead mortgage and closing businesses and manage related products, including buy-before-you-sell and all-cash down offerings. Collins comes to FlyHomes from home insurance startup Hippo, where she was its vice president of marketing for the past four years. She will lead FlyHomes' marketing team, developing communications, brand and market strategies in order to drive demand.

Sales Boomerang, Mortgage Coach hires Shelli Holland, Casey Martin

Left to right: Casey Martin, Shelli Holland

Recently merged Sales Boomerang and Mortgage Coach welcomed Shelli Holland and Casey Martin to its chief executive team as it moves forward on aligning the two businesses' data and presentation platforms.

In her new role as chief people officer, Holland will be responsible for guiding the staff of the newly combined company toward common culture, policy and business strategy. She previously headed human resources at a variety of software firms, including Rosetta Stone, where she helped the language-learning platform prepare for its initial public offering. She also managed personnel functions at government affairs software firm Phone2Action as it acquired two companies.

Martin joins the company as chief revenue officer. He most recently served as head of U.S. sales for email platform Sparkpost and held a similar role at audience tracking firm AddThis, before their acquisitions and transitions to other firms. A former media director, Martin will oversee the new company's sales and client services teams.

Investment firm Rice Park welcomes Chris Bixby to lead VC strategy

Photo by Sarah Pierce

Investment firm Rice Park Capital Management appointed private equity and fintech leader Chris Bixby as managing director of venture capital strategies. Bixby will lead investment strategy in early to midstage proptech and real estate-focused technology startups. The unit has already invested in companies, such as Blue Water Technologies and Capacity.

Bixby joins Minneapolis-based Rice Park from buy-now-pay-later fintech Sezzle, where he served as vice president of growth, helping lead enterprise sales, marketing and partnerships. He has also worked in brand management at General Mills and started his career working in mergers and acquisitions at Jefferies Wealth Management.

LendingPad adds loan technology veteran, Mavent founder Al Ogrodski

Loan-origination system platform LendingPad, based in McLean, Virginia, hired technology and compliance expert Al Ogrodski. Previously co-founder and chief architect of software firm Mavent, Ogrodski brings experience in the design of loan origination systems and other automated platforms serving the mortgage industry, and in his role with LendingPad, he will help develop its new compliance engine, ComplyIO. In his past work, Ogrodski has held leadership positions at SitusAMC and automated compliance provider ComplianceEase.

Waterstone taps Chik Quintans to lead digital marketing efforts

National lender Waterstone Mortgage, the Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based subsidiary of Waterstone Bank, recently appointed Chik Quintans as director of digital marketing. With a background also in sales, Quintans will be responsible for the company's digital marketing strategy, which includes initiatives related to customer relations, lead generation and social media. He will also oversee the digital marketing team.

Previously, Quintans served in sales or marketing leadership roles at Shelter Mortgage, Absolute Mortgage and, most recently, USA Mortgage, where he held the title of digital marketing manager.

Nexbank names Brian Ralston chief mortgage banking officer

Dallas-based Nexbank, a privately held bank in Texas, promoted Brian Ralston to executive vice president, chief mortgage banking officer. Ralston most recently served as senior vice president of mortgage banking, a position he held since 2013. In his elevated role, Ralston will guide strategy for the mortgage unit, while continuing to oversee origination and servicing functions within wholesale and correspondent channels and warehouse lending. He will also serve concurrently as president of Nexbank Title.

NewFed names Jim Janczy chief production officer

Retail lender NewFed Mortgage recently appointed Jim Janczy as executive vice president. chief production officer. In the role, Janczy will spearhead sales and marketing efforts for the retail lender based in Danvers, Massachusetts. Janczy began his career as a loan officer with Bay Bank in Boston before founding his own company, South Coast Financial Group. More recently, He has worked in high-level sales management roles at lenders, such as Home Point Financial, Wells Fargo and Envoy Mortgage.

Ncontracts promotes Cathy Guthrie to chief officer role

Ncontracts, a provider of cloud-based risk management and compliance software for mortgage and financial services, elevated Cathy Guthrie to chief human resources officer. She recently held the title of executive vice president of human resources at the software business, which she joined in 2021. Guthrie will continue to help scale growth at Ncontracts, whose employee count has doubled since 2019. The company currently serves over 4,000 banks, mortgage companies and fintechs.

Before joining the Brentwood, Tennessee-based Ncontracts, Guthrie held human resources leadership roles at a range of organizations, including enterprise risk software firm Unanet, cybersecurity provider AlienVault and storage-unit company SpareFoot.

Opteon USA names Lee Trice managing director

International valuation, advisory and property services platform Opteon promoted Lee Trice to managing director of its U.S. operation. Trice most recently held the position of executive vice president of growth and strategy. Trice joined Opteon USA earlier this year following its acquisition of staff appraisal firm Valucentric, a company he helped scale and he played an instrumental role in integrating the two companies. Opteon was founded in Australia in 2005, and its U.S. base is located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In his new leadership position, Trice will lead strategic initiatives for Opteon USA, including mergers and acquisitions, to drive further growth and innovation.

Union Home Mortgage adds former Gateway leader Erin Stark

Strongsville, Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage hired industry veteran Erin Stark as regional manager for Texas. In her new role, Stark will be in charge of expanding UHM's network within the state, while providing support to existing Texas branches. Before joining UHM, Stark served as area manager for the San Antonio region for Gateway Mortgage.

In 2022, UHM announced the opening of several new branches and recently reached an agreement to acquire Amerifirst Home Mortgage, a move which will help it expand to new markets in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and California.

Churchill Mortgage taps Kisha Weir for sales leadership role

Brentwood, Tennessee-based lender Churchill Mortgage recently appointed mortgage veteran Kisha Weir to vice president of sales for the Pacific Northwest region. Weir has prior sales management experience as a regional manager for Eagle Mortgage and, more recently, at Movement Mortgage, where she oversaw $11 billion in loan volume, her new employer said. In the new position with Churchill, she will be responsible for sales and business development operations in the Pacific Northwest as well as loan officer training and development across the division.

Voxtur names Rice Park CEO Nicholas Smith to board of directors

Mortgage technology company Voxtur Analytics, headquartered in Toronto and Tampa, Florida, appointed Rice Park Capital Management Founder and CEO Nicholas Smith to its board of directors. Before starting his firm in 2019, Smith served in several executive roles at companies in lending and real estate investment, including Blackstone, Finance of America, Incenter and Two Harbors. Rice Park's venture capital funding division is an investor in Blue Water Financial Technologies, a subsidiary of Voxtur.

Planet Home grows presence in New York and Pennsylvania

Left to right: Christopher Lewis, Nick DeJesus, Jason Morano, Chris Wubbenhorst

Mortgage lender and servicer Planet Home Lending recently added two new branches in the mid-Atlantic region, as it pursues further expansion across the U.S. The Meriden, Connecticut-based company, a subsidiary of Planet Financial Group, said it saw a third-quarter increase of 14% in home-loan volume from the previous three months.

The company opened a location in Woodbury, New York, with the intention of serving the Long Island town's multilingual community. The branch will be led by new regional vice presidents Jason Morano and Chris Wubbenhorst. In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the lender tapped local natives Christopher Lewis and Nick DeJesus as retail branch managers of a new office serving the Lehigh Valley, which is located between New York City and Philadelphia.