UWM, LoanDepot, Guild, Cenlar make leadership announcements

February 10, 2022 2:21 PM

UWM appoints Blake Kolo to head investor relations

UWM Holdings Corp. parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage, announced that Blake Kolo, current chief business officer, has also been appointed the company’s head of investor relations. In addition to his responsibilities managing UWM’s mortgage funding operation, private-label securitizations and servicing rights activity as CBO, Kolo will also build and develop relationships with the investment community, tapping into his previous experience as a leader in the financial industry.

Before joining the Pontiac, Michigan-based lender as chief business officer in 2019, Kolo served as managing director in the Detroit office of financial-leadership advisory firm The Siegfried Group.

LoanDepot promotes Elijah Pallante to chief data officer

Following appointments last year of chief technology and chief digital officers, Foothill Ranch, California-based loanDepot announced the promotion of Elijah Pallante to chief data officer, a new position at the company. Pallante will be in charge of increasing the role of data in order to provide guidance on loanDepot’s product development and information strategy. He will also continue his current responsibilities as head of the company’s enterprise innovation team. Pallante has held the title of senior vice president, enterprise innovation, since 2018.

Pallante joined loanDepot in 2014 as vice president, corporate development, and previously held positions at financial institutions, including Discover Financial Services, Performance Capital and Merrill Lynch.

Guild Mortgage names Victoria Garcia DeLuca VP to advance diversity in lending

Residential lender and servicer Guild Mortgage announced the hiring of Victoria Garcia DeLuca as vice president of marketplace diversity strategy, a newly created position at the San Diego-based company. In the role, she will head Guild’s multicultural growth efforts, to increase purchase loans for first-time homebuyers in diverse and underserved markets. She will also head diversity, equity and inclusion partnerships and serve as a liaison between the company and government-sponsored enterprises. Garcia DeLuca has held leadership roles throughout the industry, including as senior vice president at the Federal Savings Bank in Brentwood, Tennessee. Previously, she managed sales for Wintrust Mortgage and Wells Fargo, both in Chicago.

The new appointment reflects Guild’s efforts to increase homeownership among minorities and in underserved markets and to promote DEI in lending, said Barry Horn, Guild’s executive vice president and national production manager. “The Hispanic and minority markets for homeownership are forecast to grow considerably through 2030,” Horn said. “Guild has a long history of serving first-time homebuyers. Bringing Victoria aboard is a big step in our long-term commitment to reach more markets that are diverse and underserved.”

SitusAMC taps Jeff Osheka, Tom Costanzo to lead sales teams

Left to right: Jeff Osheka, Tom Costanzo

New York-based SitusAMC, provider of real estate technology and outsourcing solutions, announced the appointment of Jeff Osheka and Tom Costanzo to head sales teams. Osheka joins as director, head of residential technology sales, and Costanzo was promoted to the position of managing director, head of residential services sales. In their roles, Osheka and Costanzo will oversee operations and strategy of their sales divisions to support company growth objectives.

Osheka most recently served as vice president of sales at Sagent, following its acquisition of ISGN Corp. in 2020. Before joining ISGN, Osheka also held the title of vice president, banker sales at Ellie Mae and had previous tenures with Lending Space and Lydian Technology Group. Costanzo, who has been with SitusAMC since 2020, was originally hired by SitusAMC to lead residential sales and took on additional responsibilities as head of brokerage and transaction advisory that year. Before coming to SitusAMC, Costanzo worked for private equity firms involved in mortgage investments and also held positions at other companies within the mortgage industry and banking.

Cenlar names Glen Vilim chief talent officer

Mortgage subservicer and bank Cenlar appointed financial industry veteran Glen Vilim chief talent officer. Vilim will oversee all human resources efforts, including attracting talent and succession planning for the Ewing, New Jersey-based company. “Glen brings a wealth of expertise in both human resources and financial services to the company and has an exceptional track record in advising some of the top global banks on human capital functions,” said Cenlar CEO and chairman Greg Tornquist.

An expert in compensation, staffing and expense analysis, Vilim most recently served as an advisor to GV Trusted Partners, a human capital and compensation consultancy he founded. He also held a leadership role with compensation benchmarking firm McLagan and additionally spent over a decade in investment management at Merrill Lynch in both front- and back-office roles.

AAG appoints Ed Robinson president and chief operating officer

K-D Prints Ltd./American Advisors Group (AAG)

Reverse mortgage specialist American Advisors Group, announced the appointment of Ed Robinson as president and chief operating officer, positions he has held on an acting basis since August. Robinson will be in charge of day-to-day operations at AAG and efforts to improve client experience. Robinson was previously COO at Genesis Financial Solutions, and also held executive positions with USAA, Fifth Third Bank, PHH Corp. and GE Financial Insurance. The lender, based in Irvine, California, garnered more than 32% of market share of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages in 2021, leading the rest of the industry by a wide margin, according to Reverse Market Insight.

InstaMortgage hires Leslie Garner as SVP of sales

InstaMortgage, based in San Jose, California, and licensed in 26 states, welcomed Leslie Garner as senior vice president of sales to support further company expansion. “Because InstaMortgage is growing so rapidly, we needed a sales leader with training and development skills to build our team of loan officers,” said Shashank Shekhar, InstaMortgage CEO.

Garner comes to InstaMortgage from Stearns Lending, where she held a similar role. Previously, she was involved in mortgage leadership and training at companies, such as Cornerstone Home Lending, National Residential, Fifth Third Bank, Bank of America and homebuilder DR Horton. Garner has also worked with training platform XINNIX, the Mortgage Academy, providing educational development for several mortgage-lending clients nationwide.

Azimuth adds former Black Knight, TIAA leaders after capital raise

Left to right: Ross Gloudeman, Michael Redmon, Ned Carroll

Following a strategic investment from Truist Ventures in January, mortgage compliance fintech Azimuth GRC recently announced the hiring of three new members to its leadership team. The Jacksonville, Florida-based company named Ned Carroll chief technology officer; Ross Gloudeman legal counsel and chief compliance officer and Michael Redmon director of financial planning and analysis. Azimuth expects to double its staff in 2022.

Carroll served most recently as chief data officer at asset management and retirement services firm TIAA and previously held technology leadership positions with Bank of America. At Azimuth, he will assist in growing the company in addition to developing technology and products to best assist clients. Gloudeman brings 15 years of experience in risk and compliance management to Azimuth after tenures at Black Knight, Walter Investment Management Corp. and more recently, Home Point Financial. With over a decade of experience in corporate finance and business operations, Redmon will help drive efficiencies for Azimuth. He comes to the company from software developer Volly and also previously held operations and leadership roles with Black Knight.

Kukun adds Ralph McLaughlin, Dong Xiang to leadership team

Left to right: Ralph McLaughlin, Dong Xiang

Kukun, the proptech platform and data and solutions provider serving real estate investors, named Ralph McLaughlin chief economist and Dong Xiang vice president of data science. With experience in both housing and technology industries, McLaughlin and Xiang will apply their data analysis expertise to design metrics and report trends in residential real estate.

As chief economist, McLaughlin will be responsible for research and the development of economic tools that will improve the investing experience for users of Kukun’s platform. He joins Kukun, based in Menlo Park, California, after serving in leadership roles at several real estate and valuation firms, including Trulia, CoreLogic and Haus. In past positions, he served as the research spokesman for companies, delivering data findings to the press and public.

Before coming to Kukun, Xiang served as tech lead for machine learning at Amazon. He was also previously principal data scientist at Zillow, where he helped create many of the algorithms used on Zillow's platform. In his new position at Kukun, Xiang will oversee proprietary property data and lead data science operations to provide quality real estate insights.

Greystone expands CMBS platform unit, adds affordable lending leader

Left to right: Pharrah Jackson-Rowell, Jared Noordyk, Natalie Grainger, Rich Highfield

Commercial real estate financier Greystone recently added new leadership to its commercial mortgage-backed securities team in an attempt to turn its platform into a proprietary conduit offering for multifamily and commercial assets. Cushman & Wakefield invested $500 million in Greystone’s agency, Federal Housing Administration and servicing businesses in December, providing resources to grow the CMBS platform.

In December, the firm hired commercial real estate and mortgage-backed securities veteran Rich Highfield as head of CMBS to oversee the expansion, responsible for transforming the platform into a direct source for property investors across commercial asset types. Highfield joined Greystone from Starwood Mortgage Capital, where he oversaw its CMBS conduit platform as president. He also previously served as a director at Blackrock Solutions and principal at Banc of America Securities.

In January, to further lead the CMBS group’s proprietary conduit development, Greystone named Jared Noordyk as head of securitization and Natalie Grainger as chief credit officer. Noordyk comes to Greystone from SitusAMC, where he was part of a team that focused on securitization and debt diligence. Noordyk is also a past managing director and head of securitization at CCRE - Cantor Fitzgerald. Grainger managed CMBS executions as a director at Deutsche Bank before taking her position at Greystone this year. She also previously held finance positions at Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and Deloitte.

In its affordable lending division, the New York-based firm welcomed the return of Pharrah Jackson-Rowell, who steps up to the role of vice president and loan originator. In the position, Jackson-Rowell will assist property owners and investors with capital needs in affordable housing financing. She returns to the affordable lending team after serving as a vice president in Greystone’s affordable development unit. Jackson-Rowell has been with the company for 18 years.

Women in Securitization appoints Claudine Chen-Young as chair

Hand-out/Katten

Women in Securitization, or WiS, an arm of the Structured Finance Association, recently announced the appointment of Claudine Chen-Young to chair of the group. Chen-Young is currently a partner at the law firm Katten in its structured finance and securitization practice. WiS offers women education and resources to develop skills, advance in their careers and remain in the industry. Chen-Young previously served as WiS vice-chair. At Katten, she assists banks, private equity firms and other financial institutions in the purchase and sale of residential mortgage assets and the structured financing of them.

Popular Bank hires Adam Dejak to lead residential lending unit

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New York-based Popular Bank recently appointed banking veteran Adam Dejak as national director of residential lending of Popular Mortgage. A longtime mortgage banking leader with expertise in residential, specialty and community development lending, Dejak comes to the subsidiary of Popular Inc. from Sterling National Bank, where he was director of residential mortgage lending. At Sterling, Dejak managed business development, third-party originations and capital markets loan acquisition. In his new role, Dejak will be in charge of the residential mortgage unit's growth via talent development and expansion of Popular’s loan offerings. The bank offers mortgage options in the greater New York area and South Florida.

Mortgage Network to open new Rhode Island branch led by Jayne Furlong

Danvers, Massachusetts-based Mortgage Network announced that longtime mortgage professional Jayne Furlong had joined the company as sales manager. In addition to carrying out responsibilities as sales manager, Furlong will also lead a new yet-to-be-opened branch in Warwick, Rhode Island. She will assist borrowers with financing needs in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Florida. Furlong was previously president and founder of Majestic Mortgage in Rhode Island, and later served as operations and sales manager at Atlantic Home Loans. Most recently, Furlong held the title of senior vice president of mortgage lending at Guaranteed Rate, where she was also a branch manager, before coming to Mortgage Network.

Evergreen Home Loans hires marketing expert Haavard Sterri

Full-service direct lender Evergreen Home Loans welcomed Haavard Sterri as vice president of digital marketing. In his new position, Sterri will oversee Evergreen’s digital strategy and content development to support the growth of retail and consumer-direct channels. Based in Bellevue, Washington, Evergreen has offices in six Western states.

The corporate marketing expert joins Evergreen from Summit Funding, where he was director of marketing. At Summit, Sterri was responsible for its marketing, branding and advertising efforts nationwide.

Cherry Creek adds Lisa Gibbs to head Salesforce implementation

Denver-based Cherry Creek Mortgage, a full-service lender, hired Lisa Gibbs as vice president, CRM technologies. In the role, Gibbs will be in charge of customer relationship management strategy, working with Cherry Creek’s technology team to implement use of Salesforce throughout the company. She will also work with other units at Cherry Creek to develop and achieve goals related to CRM initiatives.

Gibbs previously held the title of chief strategy officer and principal at management consultancy Dietrich Partners. She is also a past vice president of technology at Thomson Reuters.