Onity, Figure, Rate bolster leadership teams

January 3, 2025 12:33 PM

Rate boosts reverse mortgage, D.C. production teams

Left to right: Connie Lindsay, Greg Pahel, Jesse Allen

National mortgage lender Rate bolstered its reverse mortgage operations, naming Jesse Allen as president of the division. Rate also added Greg Pahel as executive vice president, consumer-direct reverse lending. Both executives will be responsible for supporting the Chicago-based company's reverse mortgage ambitions, leading the unit's growth and expansion.

A veteran of the reverse lending space, Allen held a similar leadership role at Onetrust Home Loans. He also played key roles in reverse-mortgage operations at American Advisors Group and Bank of America. Recently serving as head of retail sales at Nations Direct Mortgage, Pahel previously led teams at reverse lender AAG as well.

To close 2024, Rate also welcomed Connie Lindsay as its new senior vice president of mortgage lending. Lindsay will oversee production in the Washington, D.C., market, joining the home lender after recently serving borrowers at U.S. Bank.

Figure adds Macrina Kgil as CFO

Fintech lending platform Figure Technology Solutions hired real estate and blockchain executive Macrina Kgil as chief financial officer, the first for the company that was newly spun off in 2024. In the role, she will be responsible for scaling business growth, drawing on her background in markets and public company financial functions.

Kgil comes to Figure from real estate startup Flow after previously heading finance operations at Onemain Holdings, leading the latter's acquisition from Citigroup and subsequent initial public offering. She also previously held the title of CFO at Blockchain.com and worked in private equity at Fortress Investment Group.

Onity welcomes Valerie Haertel to head investor relations

Mortgage servicer Onity Group recently appointed Valerie Haertel as vice president, investor relations. In her new role, she will be responsible for investor outreach and communications, delivering information of interest, including business strategy and financial performance, to stakeholders. Haertel will also seek to expand Onity's analyst coverage.

Before joining West Palm Beach, Florida-based Onity, Haertel held similar leadership positions in financial and healthcare industries at the likes of Aramark Corp. spinoff Vestis, CVS Health, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street Corp. and AllianceBernstein.

The Loan Store names taps Flagstar alum Jason Lee as president

Wholesale mortgage lender The Loan Store tapped industry veteran Jason Lee as president. Lee joins the Tucson, Arizona-based company after most recently serving as executive vice president and head of capital markets at Flagstar Bank, managing rate risk and loan trading activities.

As president, Lee will be responsible for leading strategy, operations and expansion, particularly through development of The Loan Store's product offerings and client experience.

Gateway names Jeff Schmidt president of mortgage banking

Gateway Mortgage, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, tapped longtime leader Jeff Schmidt as president of mortgage banking. A member of the mortgage team at Gateway for over a decade, Schmidt has held several roles at the lender, including most recently, regional vice president in North Texas. Prior positions include area sales manager and interim chief mortgage officer, a role he stepped into during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his new elevated role, Schmidt will serve on Gateway's executive leadership team and oversee mortgage performance across various channels and units, including retail, correspondent, operations, secondary markets and servicing. The mortgage unit is a division of Gateway First Bank.

Calque promotes Chandra Srivastava to chief revenue officer

Trade-in mortgage fintech Calque elevated Chandra Srivastava to chief revenue officer. A founding member of the Austin, Texas-based company established in 2020, Srivastava most recently held the title of chief marketing officer.

In her new position, she will oversee the company's revenue streams, while continuing to build Calque's lender-partner network to bring its various trade-in and buy-before-you-sell products in front of consumers. With a background in research, analytics, and predictive modeling, she previously worked with various financial institutions in reputation management and holds a Ph.D in marketing strategy.

Cornerstone appoints Jay Crowell as retail division leader

Houston-based Cornerstone Home Lending tapped Jay Crowell for the newly created role of president, national retail division. A veteran of the company for 15 years, he most recently held the position of president for the Pacific Northwest region. In his new role, Crowell will lead Cornerstone's strategy aimed at driving growth of retail and Realtor affiliate sales for the company's products nationwide. The lending unit is a division of Cornerstone Capital Bank, which was formed in 2022.

Flueid taps Cheryl Baillis for chief revenue officer

Title verification solutions provider Flueid announced the appointment of Cheryl Baillis as chief revenue officer. Also a member of Flueid's board of directors since 2023, she has provided essential strategic guidance for the technology firm, paving the way for her to move into the C-suite role for the Austin, Texas-based company. A real estate industry veteran, Baillis also previously served in management positions at the likes of First American and Zillow.

In her new role, she will oversee revenue operations with an eye on future growth, ensuring continuity and collaboration across Flueid divisions as they strive to meet benchmark goals.

Proof adds tech finance leader Leandra Fishman to scale growth

Fraud prevention and identity-verification solutions provider Proof hired sales and technology leader Leandra Fishman as chief revenue officer. In the role, she will be in charge of driving sales to scale growth, developing new relationships to increase adoption of Proof's suite of identity-authorization products used to prevent fraud in remote online notarizations and other transactions.

Fishman joins Proof, which was previously known as Notarize, after holding the same chief revenue officer role at sales intelligence platform Apollo.io. Earlier in her career she worked in key positions at several communications technology firms, including Intercom, Twilio and Sendgrid, helping drive the last to an initial public offering.

First Home promotes Matt Nader to president

Baltimore-based First Home Mortgage announced the appointment of Matt Nader as president. Nader originally joined the residential lender in 2018 as a loan officer, regularly ranking as its top producer, before rising to the position of director of sales in 2023. In the president role, Nader will be responsible for enhancing and building upon First Home's relationships with clients and referral partners to expand the lender's reach. First Home currently has offices in six states.

Diamond Residential elevates Diana Whitmire to C-suite

Residential lender and servicer Diamond Residential Mortgage Corp. recently announced the promotion of Diana Whitmire to chief operating officer. A member of the DRMC team since its founding in 2009, the mortgage veteran most recently served as senior vice president of compliance and quality control.

In her new position, Whitmire will be responsible for aligning operations with compliance to support growth efforts and efficiency at the Lake Forest Park, Illinois-based company. DRMC is licensed in 21 states.

Nextmortgage welcomes Brendan McKeon as president

Nextmortgage, the joint-venture lending business of CMG Financial and real estate franchise Nexthome, appointed Brendan McKeon as president. In the role, he will be tasked with building and recruiting sales and operations teams to expand Nextmortgage's brand and drive efforts to streamline the home buying and lending process for consumers. The lender currently has branches in nine states.

McKeon comes to Nextmortgage with similar JV-operations experience from his tenure at Guaranteed Rate Affinity, the lending business affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty. McKeon began his home lending career at PHH Mortgage

RBI data science firm promotes co-founders, adds data scientist

Left to right: Pamela Finn, Laura Lasher, Scott Schang

Redefining Business Intelligence, the real estate-focused data science firm established in 2023, announced a slate of new executives in the C-suite, including the promotion of co-founder Laura Lasher to CEO. As RBI's first chief executive, she will lead efforts to expand its artificial intelligence-backed analytics research to support more clients, drawing into her career in home finance and real estate. Earlier in her career, Lasher served as president of the mortgage division at Arbor Bank. She is also a co-founder of mentorship and coaching company Worthy Performance Group.

In other moves, the Omaha, Nebraska-based technology firm welcomed fellow co-founder Pamela Finn to the chief revenue officer role. With expertise in launching and investing in companies both domestically and internationally, Finn also serves as senior advisor to Burlington Capital.

In an effort aimed at boosting analytics capabilities, the company named artificial intelligence expert Scott Schang chief data scientist. An expert in permission-based marketing, Schang has focused much of his career on the consumer-direct space, attempting to simplify topics for real estate and mortgage industries.

Loan Simple adds Casey Nunn to boost wholesale efforts

Multichannel national lender Loan Simple announced the hiring of Casey Nunn as senior vice president of third-party originations. In his new role, Nunn will be in charge of building a specialized team of sales executives tasked with driving growth of financing opportunities aimed at assisting underserved communities and first-time buyers.

An industry veteran with expertise in broker, correspondent and wholesale channels, Nunn joins the Englewood, Colorado-based company after holding similar sales leadership positions at the likes of Resicentral, Interfirst and Homepoint Financial.

Click n’ Close hires sales leader Jeff Raich

Addison, Texas-based Click n' Close named mortgage veteran Jeff Raich as a national sales director in its correspondent lending division. In the role, Raich will promote the lender's down-payment assistance programs and other products to delegated correspondent mortgage originators. Operating in wholesale and correspondent channels, Click n' Close also services its loan programs in-house.

Raich joins the company after holding a variety of regional sales leadership positions, including at First Community Mortgage and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., where he served for over a decade.

MCS elevates Jason Myers to senior VP

Property services firm MCS promoted Jason Myers to senior vice president, business development. Myers will continue to assist and grow the client base in the company's mortgage and residential services divisions, while adding new responsibilities focused on business strategy in his elevated role. Since joining the Lewisville, Texas-based company, Myers helped launch its residential services division, which assists with renovations, tenant turns, maintenance and inspections, and also added several clients to the mortgage unit. Before coming to MCS, Myers held a similar business development role at Xome.

Regions promotes Chase Simpson to manage affordable housing efforts

Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Bank recently named Chase Simpson vice president and relationship manager in its affordable housing division. In his new position, Simpson will manage, source and drive originations for affordable housing development throughout much of the Southeastern U.S., through low-income housing tax credits and other methods.

Before his promotion, Simpson worked as an underwriter at Regions, creating financial models for affordable housing investment and also served as a development risk management analyst.