Tyrrell to head ICE Mortgage Technology as Corr retires from Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae CEO Jonathan Corr announced his retirement in a blog post on the company's website Friday in a move that followed the completion of the company's sale to Intercontinental Exchange last week.

"While my personal chapter with Ellie Mae comes to an end, the story of Ellie Mae continues," Corr wrote. "As we turn the page there are big opportunities ahead, with an entire industry looking to us to automate everything automatable. We will help lenders run and grow their businesses, while forever changing the way that lending gets done. We are not just uniquely positioned to realize the vision of a true digital mortgage, but we are the only ones who can make it a reality."

Joe Tyrrell, who was Ellie Mae's chief operating officer since 2019 and an executive vice president since 2013, is now the president of ICE Mortgage Technology, a division that will also oversee MERS and Simplifile. MERS is an electronic registration system for mortgages, and Simplifile is a provider of digital closing services.

Tyrell has held various posts at Ellie Mae since 2002. Corr also started at Ellie Mae in 2002 as its chief strategy officer. He was later promoted to president and chief operating officer in 2011. Four years later, he succeeded company founder Sig Anderman as CEO.

"With Joe leading the organization, and with the addition of MERS and Simplifile, as well as the support of ICE, we will absolutely achieve our North Star of automation," Corr wrote.

Chris McEntee will be heading up corporate development for ICE Mortgage Technology.

Under the leadership of both Anderman and Corr, Ellie Mae made a number of strategic acquisitions in the marketplace prior to its acquisition by Thoma Bravo and then later, ICE.

Starting in the early 2000s with its acquisition of competing mortgage origination providers Genesis 2000 and Contour, Ellie Mae later was able to accelerate its acquisition activity after it went public in 2011. It subsequently acquired AllRegs, Mortgage Returns and Velocify in the years that followed.

But in 2019, Corr took the company private, selling it to Thoma Bravo.

"I don't have to worry about short-term earnings and analysts that are fixated on this penny or that penny or revenue growth at any cost, and focus on building great products for customers, customer success and profitability," Corr said in an interview with National Mortgage News after the deal was completed.

Under Thoma Bravo's ownership, Ellie Mae bought artificial intelligence firm Capsilon.