Todd Sherman, President of Motivity Solutions, Dies at 45

Randall Scott

Todd Sherman, president and co-founder of Motivity Solutions, died unexpectedly March 19. He was 45 years old.

Sherman, a native and resident of Aurora, Colo., suffered a heart attack while exercising, according to a March 21 letter the company sent to clients and partners.

"The world has lost the most amazing husband, father, brother, son, friend and human being. He left behind a legacy and spirit that will forever be the foundation of the Sherman Family," Todd Sherman's brother, Motivity Solutions CEO Tyler Sherman, said in a written statement. "I know I am only one of thousands that Todd has inspired, and I know he would want us all to come together and emerge from this tragedy as better people."

Todd Sherman is survived by his wife of 17 years and their three children, as well as numerous siblings, cousins and other extended family.

In lieu of flowers, the Sherman family has requested that donations be made to the newly created Sherman Entrepreneurship Foundation, "dedicated to fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs." The foundation's website is toddsherman.org

Todd and Tyler Sherman co-founded Motivity Solutions, a provider of business intelligence software for mortgage lenders, in 2006, where Todd Sherman has overseen the company's software development, day-to-day operations and strategic implementations. Previously, the pair co-founded Watermark Financial Partners Inc., a Denver-based mortgage originator specializing in Federal Housing Administration lending. When they sold the company to Mortgage Investors Corp. in Feb. 2005, it was the seventh largest FHA lender in the country.

"It's not very often that you see brothers that can work efficiently and well side-by-side, and this is one of those cases where a very wonderful phenomenon happened," said Jody Collup, vice president of marketing at real estate valuations software provider Global DMS and a veteran mortgage technology executive.

"They seemed to be the halves to each other; the visionary and leader Tyler alongside the meticulous, organized, detail-oriented Todd. Together, they created a wonderful concept and really brought it to life to the benefit of multiple companies in the industry," she added.

Before co-founding Watermark, Todd Sherman worked as a software engineer at loan origination system provider Mortgage Cadence. He earned an undergraduate degree from University of Colorado Boulder in 1993 and an MBA from University of Colorado Denver in 1998.

"Todd was a very passionate young man and he was a visionary. He was a very, very creative software engineer and architect; always looking for ways to solve a problem and come up with the right answer," Michael Detwiler, the longtime CEO of Denver-based Mortgage Cadence who oversaw the company's sale to Accenture in 2013, said in an interview.

Motivity Solutions has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions in the mortgage industry, including the 2009 Release of the Year and 2013 Synergy categories of NMN's Mortgage Technology Awards, and was named a Top Service Provider by sister publication Mortgage Technology magazine each year from 2009 until 2014, when the last edition of the list was published.

Motivity is also unique in that the company has created a configuration of its business intelligence platform for internal use, allowing managers to use dashboards and reports to monitor and score employee performance.

"You can expect to see us continuing our growth and constantly improving our offerings as we build technology solutions and business intelligence to help you grow your competitive advantage," Tyler Sherman wrote in the company letter. "After all, that’s what Todd would have wanted us to do. His incomparable spirit will be with us always."