Rocket Mortgage appoints new COO

Rocket Mortgage announced the promotion of Heather Lovier into the role of chief operating officer Wednesday.

The mortgage shop has had to reshuffle some of its management roles, following the retirement of a number of veteran employees including former CEO Jay Farner and former president Tim Birkemeier.

In her new position of COO, Lovier will be in charge of overseeing the entire homeownership experience within the organization. Bill Emerson, who previously held the role, will continue as the company's president, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission published June 26 said.

The mortgage executive has over 20 years of experience at Rocket, starting her tenure at the shop in 2003. Prior to her recent promotion, she was the executive vice president of client experience operations for a little over two years, Lovier's LinkedIn page shows.

She also is the chief operating officer of RKT Holdings, LLC, as of March 2024, and will keep that position going forward.

"Lovier has focused on driving operational excellence and enhancing the client experience. Mrs. Lovier will continue her role as Chief Operating Officer of Holdings. Any changes to Mrs. Lovier's compensation for her new appointment will be determined at a later date," Rocket disclosed in its SEC filing.

Executive changes at Rocket Mortgage also coincide with a shift in what the company is prioritizing as a means to grow.

Since the hiring of its new CEO Varun Krishna last year, the megalender has turned greater attention to artificial intelligence as a way to usher in more efficiencies and make the process of originating loans seamless. 

The mortgage lender has been beefing up its use of AI as it pushes to be a technology-first company.

In April, Rocket announced the rollout of an AI-platform for underwriting, while a few months prior the lender said it was testing an AI chat interface in the search engine used by its loan officers, brokers and underwriters to find answers to questions that arise during the loan origination process.

In January, Rocket Mortgage's TPO channel launched an AI tool that will help mortgage brokers update approval letters on the go.

"AI is something that you have to have a right to win and a right to win means you have to have the assets," said CEO Varun Krishna during the company's fourth quarter earnings call. "Because of those ingredients that we have at scale, it's why we expect to be a benefactor."