2016 Women of Influence by HousingWire

42 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

WOMEN OF INFLUENCE

A NIE A K PE-L E WIS

KIM A L E X A ND ER

N A N C Y A L L E Y

LO E T TA A RRIN G TO N

G EO R G E A NN B E VIL L E

C HRIS TIN A B OY L E

K ATIE B RE W ER

SUSA N C HEN OWE T H

T R ACI COX

D O NN A D EM AI O

L E A H F OX

J US T INE JIMENE Z- GA R CIA 50

R O BIN G O RD O N

SHE A H A L E Y

D EB BIE H O FFM A N

KIM H O FFM A N

T ERRI HUN T ER

JA MIE KO RUS

A NI TA K WA N

D EN A K WA S C H Y N

A N T HE A M A R TIN

M A RY A NN M CGA RRY

C L AUD IA MERK L E

T ERRI MERL IN O

B L ISS M O RRIS

ELISA B E T H MURPH Y

PENN Y NEL S O N

D E SIREE PAT N O

A M A NDA PHIL LIPS

N A N C Y PR AT T

PAT RI CIA R AY M O

JE A NN A R OAC H

M A RISA SH A P T ER

SUZ A NNE SHU C K

JA NIS SMIT H

SA ND H YA SUKU

E VA TA PIA

C HERY L T R AVIS -J O HNS O N 63

SA L LY FREN C H T Y L ER

SA R A H VA L EN T INI

M A RIN A WA L SH

MEL INDA WIL NER

SEREN A YA N G

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 43

OR THE SIXTH TIME, HousingWire is recognizing women leading out in our industry in mortgage lending, servicing, investing and real estate with our

Women of Influence award. Although these 43 women represent a range of occupations within the housing economy, all of them demonstrate leadership that inspires those in their own company, in their communities and in the industry at large. Some of our 2016 award winners have worked their

ANIE AKPE-LEWIS

way up in traditional mortgage companies, while others started their own businesses. They have made their

VP OF MORTGAGES

mark in marketing, technology, economics, compliance,

Municipal Credit Union

asset management, operations and business development. Their fields of accomplishments vary but their impact is indisputable. Reading through this year’s nominations, one of the things that stood out about our winners is their tremendous value to the companies they run, or work for. This value comes not only from the job duties they perform — although those were impressive on their own merits — but also in the way they lead and mentor others within their companies. Many of our winners mentor other women in the industry, run internship programs for college students or work with business groups in disadvantaged areas. Others coordinated volunteer programs for their employees or served on advisory boards that inform the industry. Investing time and effort to see others succeed is a hallmark of this group, and should be celebrated in its own right. We’re happy to do just that, and invite you to find out more about each of these winners, the most influential

NIE AKPE-LEWIS is a trailblazer in the mortgage and banking industry. In addition to leading the mortgage division at Municipal Credit Union, Akpe-Lewis promotes diversity in business and advocates for entrepreneurship and tech innovation through her role on several boards of directors. Akpe-Lewis is a business professional and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in the banking industry, particularly in real estate, mortgage finance, loss mitigation and mortgage servicing. As the vice president of mortgages at Municipal Credit Union she currently manages a $610 million portfolio. She is a highly active member of the board of directors for various organizations — highlighting her advocacy for entrepreneurship, tech, culture and community. Akpe-Lewis serves on the board of The New York Mortgage Coalition, an affordable housing program initiative based in New York City. She also serves on the board of Tech for Her, an Africa-based organization helping girls and women with education and mentorship within technology, as well as UX Diaspora, a unique community of people of color in UX who are digitally migrating to educate, connect and inspire one another all over the world. As founder of IBOM, LLC, Akpe-Lewis aids small businesses around the world, particularly those owned by African entrepreneurs in the UX Diaspora, guiding business development and strategy and leading sound results in the completion of their business goals. A native of Nigeria, she meshes her global experience and culture with corporate skills from her banking profession to provide unique and results-driven services to her clients.

women in housing.

Akpe-Lewis aids small businesses around the world, particularly those owned by African entrepreneurs in UX Diaspora, guiding business development and strategy.

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KIM ALEXANDER

NANCY ALLEY

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

VP, STRATEGIC PLANNING

Towne Mortgage Company

Simplifile

IM ALEXANDER demonstrates how business savvy and compliance expertise can combine to deliver best-in-class mortgage production, service and growth. Alexander’s dedication to the industry is evidenced by her leading the Michigan mortgage industry’s successful campaign to modernize that state’s Consumer Mortgage Protection Act. Alexander has been in the mortgage industry for more than 15 years. She was promoted from chief compliance officer to director of operations in November 2015. In her current role, she is a member of Towne’s senior management team and is responsible for managing retail, wholesale sales and correspondent operations. Alexander’s passion to ensure each individual is equipped with the right knowledge, especially during a time where regulations are transforming and evolving, drives her to train department representatives at all levels. She also speaks in front of credit union and industry groups regularly and is known for her practical approach. She was the 2015 Chairperson of the Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association legislative committee, sits on the executive board of governors, and is a former (2014) president of the organization. A le x a nder i s a l so a n act ive memb er of t he Mor tg age Bankers Association with a Certified Mortgage Bankers certificate, several regional credit union support organizations and has ser ved on various local and national committees. She is an ardent supporter and fundraiser for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, having completed the three-day, 60-mile walk five times in the past nine years and raised over $30,000 for the organization.

Alexander was the 2015 Chairperson of the Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association legislative committee, sits on the Executive Board of Governors, and is a former (2014) president of the organization.

S VICE president of strategic planning for Simplifile, Nancy Alley spearheads the innovation of technology solutions that address the changing needs of all players in the industry. Recently appointed to the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) board of directors, Alley provides insight from the perspective of those in the trenches of the industry and from technology providers working to deliver solutions that work towards solving industry problems and regulatory challenges. With more than 25 years of experience in the financial services and mortgage industry, Alley has led product management and engineering efforts for several key players in the industry, and when that wasn’t enough, founded SignOnline to promote electronic records and signatures, a vision that permeates her efforts today. Enhancing her breadth of knowledge and experience, Alley has led the strategic product efforts at several companies, including architecting a strategic vision for a suite of technology offerings that span the mortgage lifecycle from origination to default. Today, Simplifile is the beneficiary of her immense talents as she leads the strategic planning efforts for the organization, which includes mortgage technology that for the first time connects title settlement systems and loan origination systems, enabling users to collaborate in real-time. Recognizing her natural inclination for all things mortgage, MISMO has tapped her not once, but twice, to join teams that manage and direct MISMO’s business and affairs. She is a former co-chair of the eMortgage workgroup in MISMO and has recently joined MISMO’s strategic planning committee. Additionally, Alley was appointed to the MISMO board of directors.

Outside of MISMO, Alley is also involved with the GSEs, serving as Simplifile’s representative on Freddie Mac’s Vendor Advisory Board and sitting on Fannie and Freddie’s joint UCD Advisory Board. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 45

LOETTA ARRINGTON

GEORGEANN BEVILLE

SVP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

VP, TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Assurant Field Asset Services

Ellie Mae

OETTA ARRINGTON has played a pivotal role in establishing a critical function for a vital new and strategic business unit of the Fortune 500 Assurant. While Arrington’s experience is clearly an asset, it is her unique insights and approach that have made her such an invaluable leader of her business and important client advocate. Arrington has had a remarkable last 12 months. Her unique client-focused perspective, honed from her time in servicing and through multiple executive roles throughout the field services sector, led to her being named to head a new function for the new mortgage solutions business unit of Assurant. In her role leading the client executive team, Arrington is responsible for the satisfaction of all Assurant Field Asset Services clients. While this may seem like a tall order for even the most seasoned executive, Arrington’s special insights from having worked on both the client and provider side has eased her path toward success. In addition to spearheading this new organization, Arrington found the time to play an essential role in expanding AFAS’s relationship with one of its largest clients, achieving the rare combination of jumping from the middle of the pack to the clear performance scorecard leader while nearly doubling revenue. Her efforts led to best practice standard processes for both client audit response and managing overall client collateral risk. Arrington’s career has been marked by a vigilant focus on satisfaction, and she has steadfastly held her ground, often taking unpopular stances in her role as an advocate for her clients. She was able to anticipate the emerging regulatory environment that we have today, and began her research into the changing and proliferating requirements coming from multiple branches and layers of governmental agencies, GSEs and non-governmental bodies.

Arrington played an essential role in expanding AFAS’s relationship with one of its largest clients, jumping to the performance scorecard leader while nearly doubling revenue. 46 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

EORGEANN BEVILLE has completely revolutionized the way that Ellie Mae services customers. In the last six years she has built the customer support organization that Ellie Mae is widely known for and in the last 12 months, she has taken strides to once again change the organization to be ready for the impacts of Know Before You Owe. Her passion and leadership have brought more information to the customers to encourage self-service while organizing in a way to allow people to get to the information faster and easier. Specifically, she launched forums to increase customer dialogue and added technology such as search tools, all while broadening Ellie Mae’s learning management capabilities to refactor and simplify all of the learning technology on an easy to use platform. Beville launched Ellie Mae’s very popular road shows and its Know Before You Owe city tour was completely sold out. She worked with sales and product teams to launch the Ellie Mae Idea Center to generate and enhance customer ideas and to create solutions that the clients need and ask for. In addition to her leadership in building and growing a best-inclass customer support organization, she has created industry certification standards including the Help Desk Institute and programs for Encompass and the Ellie Mae SDK. She has created and refined Ellie Mae’s Knowledge Center to launch forums for discussion, reorganized content for easier access and and has established customer support pods on her team to allow Ellie Mae customers to get to the right person sooner. Her Know Before You Owe city tour helped to prepare Ellie Mae customers of all sizes for the changes associated with recent regulation and as a critical member of the client satisfaction ambassador team, Beville was responsible for channeling customer feedback into learning tools.

Beville launched Ellie Mae’s very popular road shows and oversaw its Know Before You Owe city tour, which completely sold out.

CHRISTINA BOYLE

KATIE BREWER

SVP, SINGLE-FAMILY SALES AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

COO

Freddie Mac

Green River Capital

HRISTINA BOYLE is the driving force behind Freddie Mac’s sharper customer focus that inspires the team to view every interaction from the customer’s perspective first — through a “lender’s lens.” Boyle’s new organizational structure is the foundation of this effort, supporting more than 2,000 lender customers along every step of the loan-production process and gathering continuous feedback to improve the customer experience, increase Freddie Mac’s competitiveness, and move the housing industry forward. The new model is a win-win-win – for Freddie Mac, lenders and homeowners. Since launching it, Freddie Mac has seen a 14-point leap in customer satisfaction, strengthened its nearly $2 trillion book of business, and increased market share to its highest level in eight years. To maintain momentum, Boyle mobilized on multiple fronts. Using the “lender lens,” she championed the Freddie Mac Loan Advisor Suite, a technology-enabled solution designed to help lenders lower costs, operate more efficiently, and reach more qualified homebuyers. At Boyle’s direction, Freddie Mac is developing the suite for lenders with lenders to ensure its usability and usefulness, reliability and flexibility. Going live this summer, it will reflect collaboration with lenders of all sizes, types, channels, and business models. Another example of Boyle’s aggressive customer focus is the diversification of Freddie Mac’s lender base. She expanded the sales team and tailored service models to better meet mid-sized and smaller lenders’ needs — because one size does not fit all. She also established a customer care team dedicated solely to strengthening lenders’ overall experience with Freddie Mac. All of these efforts center on one goal: providing lenders with the experience they seek and deserve.

Boyle expanded the sales team and tailored service models to better meet mid-sized and smaller lenders’ need. She also established a customer care team dedicated to strengthening lenders’ experience.

ATIE BREWER has a proven track record of leading business growth and transformation through her organization, communication, problem solving and interpersonal skills to ensure a synergistic/collaborative working environment. Brewer assumes responsibility and identifies opportunities to work toward a solution. In her time at Green River Capital, Brewer has built and maintained several client relationships. She personally manages more than 20 of GRC’s clients and is knowledgeable about each client’s specific servicing rules, requirements, policies and procedures. Recently, she has been involved in the redevelopment of our key performance indicators to better measure all areas against our service-level agreements with each client and created and oversaw a team to manage the implementation of a new major client engagement. In the past year, Brewer has worked closely with the entire staff at GRC to identify their concerns, what they enjoy about GRC and what they would like to change in order to improve efficiency. Through those conversations, she assisted with areas for change, starting with new employee incentive programs to incentivize the employees for superior performance. Through feedback and recognition, she was able to implement cross-functional client meetings to get everyone working on client issues, creating a more unified and collaborative working environment. Prior to her time at Green River Capital, Brewer held the positions of vice president of collateral based solutions at Ocwen Loan Servicing. She has been in the default servicing industry for more than 12 years and brings a breadth of experience including collections, loss mitigation, regulatory compliance and REO management. She has managed large groups over multiple sites and is skilled in aligning front-line associates with management objectives to deliver departmental goals.

Brewer personally manages more than 20 of GRC’s clients and is knowledgeable about each client’s specific servicing rules, requirements, policies and procedures.

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SUSAN CHENOWETH

TRACI COX

SVP, MARKETING

VP, ORIGINATION AND SECONDARY

Ellie Mae

Digital Risk

USAN CHENOWETH is responsible for marketing strategy, branding, communications, creative services, partner marketing, customer marketing and demand generation for Ellie Mae. Over the last year, she has dramatically increased revenues through integrated demand generation and branding campaigns and has been a driving force behind the company’s phenomenal growth and performance. In 2015, Chenoweth helped launch two integrated campaigns that supported the company’s growth. The first, a RESPA-TILA campaign, featured the taming of the compliance dinosaur and offered tools and resources to mortgage industry professionals looking to comply with the new CFPB regulation. In early 2016 she helped launch the Super Power of One campaign, aimed at showcasing customers as super compliant heroes in their industry through their use of Ellie Mae’s Encompass. During her tenure, she has built the Ellie Mae Experience conference from a 400-person trade show to a 2,200-person training and networking event, bringing together mortgage industry professionals, thought leaders and Ellie Mae staff from across the country. In 2016, the event sold out for the first time, further highlighting the event as the go-to place for everything mortgage automation. Through her branding work, in the last year alone, Ellie Mae has been named to HousingWire’s HWTech 100, included on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list and named a Best Place to Work by San Francisco Business Times. Chenoweth has deep experience in building leading brands, generating revenues, and increasing mindshare and market share for high-growth, global SaaS enterprise software companies. At Ellie Mae, she grew the marketing team from a four-person group focused on content development to a 25-person department covering communications, events, demand generation and partner marketing.

Chenoweth built the Ellie Mae Experience conference from a 400-person trade show to a 2,200-person industry training and networking event.

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RACI COX is responsible for Digital Risk’s quality control team, branch management oversight, learning and development and is an operational leader in originations. Her purview spans across quality control execution and compliance with licensing, development and implementation of all originations delivery trainings, and remote location leadership and end-to-end fulfillment oversight. She also created quality of services reporting and designed, developed and delivered 270 hours of training curriculum, including fundamental modules, activities, exercises and interactive web guides for all fulfillment roles. In addition, Cox modified branch oversight, leading to a reduction in licensing renewal costs of 25%. She also redesigned two processing scopes of work to include live production and nesting in the classroom. Initial productivity increased by more than 50% on one scope, reducing the authority process from 11 weeks to six weeks. Cox has gone above and beyond her duties to assist other women in the industry. She is an active mentor in the company’s P4 Mentor Program, and has also participated as a mentor and panelist at Digital Risk’s Women in Business mentoring luncheon. Cox is also the only executive leader to participate as facilitator in the company’s new manager training series. Cox co-hosts quarterly team-building events, including “Speed of Trust” workshops, DiSC assessments and strength finding workshops. In addition, she was one of three company executives chosen to present a global training for Mphasis, Digital Risk’s parent company.

During the past year, Cox has developed a compliance and licensing audit platform that reduced red flags from 40% to 5% by year end.

DONNA DEMAIO

LEAH FOX

PRESIDENT AND CEO

EVP, TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES DELIVERY

United Guaranty Corp.

LoanLogics

ONNA DEMAIO joined United Guaranty as chief 0perating officer in May 2012 and was appointed CEO in December of the same year. She previously served as president and CEO of MetLife Bank, and she’s used the perspective she gained as a mortgage lender to focus United Guaranty on delivering the best customer service in the mortgage insurance industry. With that approach, United Guaranty set a new sales record with new insurance written of more than $50 billion in 2015 and was ranked number one in traditional NIW for the fifth consecutive year. In 2015, she launched an initiative to invest in information technology and work one-on-one with customers to make business applications easier to use and more efficient. One early result of that ongoing effort is a mobile app for ordering mortgage insurance quotes, called MI NOW. Designed with input from loan officers, the easy-to-use app provides a response in under a minute with as few as six data elements. DeMaio was an early supporter of an effort in United Guaranty’s headquarters region, Guilford County, North Carolina, to help more students afford college. United Guaranty’s $1 million pledge to the Say Yes to Education initiative was followed by contributions by other corporate leaders to help push the initiative to its initial $32.5 million goal. DeMaio is also a member of the board of the Piedmont Charitable Foundation of the Greensboro area’s PGA Tour event, the Wyndham Championship. She is also on the boards of directors of the Guilford Education Alliance and Greensboro Partnership, and is on the Board of Advisors of Elon University and the Board of Observers of Muhlenberg College, her alma mater. United Guaranty set a new sales record with new insurance written of more than $50 billion in 2015 and was ranked No. 1 in traditional NIW for the fifth consecutive year.

United Guaranty set a new sales record with new insurance written of more than $50 billion in 2015 and was ranked No. 1 in traditional NIW for the fifth consecutive year.

EAH FOX was recently promoted to executive vice president of technolog y and ser v ices deliver y and leads LoanLogics’ Continuous Process Improvement Initiative. While she continues to lead LoanLogics’ world-class customer success organization, including delivery, account management, customer service, software engineering, software testing and quality assurance, her new role also includes responsibility for application development and technology services. Through her efforts, services delivery has been streamlined, creating positive impacts on customer satisfaction and helping clients maximize their competitive advantages. A significant accomplishment for Fox was her work in support of the development of the LoanHD Investor Module that launched in July of 2015. Fox personally provided direct support to Texas Capital Bank, the first correspondent investor to implement the solution, and she continues to lead the application development efforts with recent enhancements enabling support for delivery and underwriting of non-delegated loans. As a result of her efforts and team leadership, the LoanHD Investor Module has automated and simplified the funding process for investors, reducing the days required to fund loans by 40% to 50%. Productivity has increased, with loans per person each day increasing 2 to 2.5 times. And investors can perform timely, accurate pre-purchase audits and clear defects prior to funding. Fox is also very active in her community, where she serves as the vice chairperson of the Innovative Technology Action Group, a nonprofit organization that offers youth programs, including Girls Exploring Tomorrow’s Technology. Fox has also planned and hosted events targeted at high school students and younger professionals both at LoanLogics and eBay, and coaches girls JV volleyball and softball.

As a result of Fox’s efforts and leadership, the LoanHD Investor Module has automated the funding process for investors, reducing the days required to fund loans by 40% to 50%. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 49

JUSTINE JIMENEZ-GARCIA

ROBIN GORDON

OWNER/BROKER

CHIEF DATA OFFICER

Countrywide Properties, Inc.

CoreLogic

USTINE JIMENEZ-GARCIA is the owner/broker of Countrywide Properties, Inc, which she founded in 1998. Jimenez-Garcia was recognized as one of the top 250 Latino real estate agents by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals in 2015 and was the first incoming female president for NAHREP’s South Florida chapter. Jimenez-Garcia has owned and operated her real estate office for the last 17 years and spent more than 10 years managing and selling REO properties in Miami-Dade,Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties. She has mentored new real estate associates during much of that time, volunteering as a 2015 and 2016 state director for Florida Realtors, and serving as the 2015 vice president for membership for the Women’s Council of Realtors. With a vast knowledge of local market trends and conditions, JimenezGarcia has developed an elite, goal-centered, cooperative sales team of six licensed professionals, a full suite of REO series and property preservation services. Under her leadership, Countrywide Properties has a BPO turn time of less than 48 hours with a success rate of 95%. Jimenez-Garcia is a certified distressed property expert, a certified residential specialist, and has REO Boss certification as well as REO best practices certification. Serving as the first female president of NAHREP’s south Florida chapter, Jimenez-Garcia sought to inspire other women around her to lead out in the real estate industry and expand their business opportunities and success strategies.

Jimenez-Garcia has owned and operated a real estate office for 17 years, mentoring new associates and volunteering as a 2015 and 2016 state director for Florida Realtors. 50 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

OBIN GORDON has a proven track record of leading business growth and transformation through business process redesign, technical advancement, cultural improvements, and business reengineering. She has also applied her experiences to determine challenges and opportunities within her organization, as well as the industry; to mentor her team to improve their confidence, engagement and responsibilities and to deliver simple solutions to complex problems. As chief data officer for CoreLogic, Gordon is responsible for the acquisition and transformation of data, which provides the insight and content needed to power the company’s entire product suite. Prior to this role, Gordon served as senior vice president of application development, where she was responsible for system development and management for the data and analytics as well as the technology and processing solutions product segments, delivering $1 billion in annual revenue. During her three years at CoreLogic, Robin has been focused on building a corporate culture of “One CoreLogic” that is based on a strong foundation of collaboration, innovation and operational excellence. Recognizing that her unit, data and technology, was just one piece of the puzzle, Gordon personally met with each of the other groups to share with them the corporate objectives to better unify the company through innovative data and technology platforms. As a result, individual silos gradually broke down and strategic partnerships and enterprise processes were built across the business. Recently, Gordon led a team of more than 300 people in delivering a multi-year application rationalization strategy to simplify the technology footprint, increase system stability and reduce the cost of support by more than $10 million annually.

Gordon led a team of more than 300 people in delivering a multi-year application rationalization strategy, reducing the cost of support by more than $10 million annually.

SHEA HALEY

DEBBIE HOFFMAN

VP, PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ORGANIZATION

CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER

Ellie Mae

Digital Risk

S THE head of Professional Services for Ellie Mae, Shea Haley created both an internal organization and a partner ecosystem designed to grow and build business while speeding the implementation for customers. In the last year, she helped launch the Ellie Mae Pro Consulting Partner Program to accelerate the adoption of Ellie Mae’s Encompass. The program offers consulting firms the opportunity to provide a broad range of high-quality services by partnering with Ellie Mae and their customers on Encompass implementation. As a critical component of Ellie Mae’s professional services strategy, it enabled the company to leverage the skills and expertise of its partners while speeding implementations for customers. Haley has created the concept of jump-start implementations, focused on best practices. Under her leadership, she has reduced lengthy implementations to a time frame of 75 to 125 days for even the most complex processes. In the three years since Haley joined Ellie Mae, she has built and grown the professional services organization, developing a team that has grown to more than 60 people who serve as an advisory and consulting organization. There is a dedicated staff focused on customer implementation and a secondary team of advisors who work with Ellie Mae customers to ensure that their systems remain healthy. Additionally, by building an ecosystem of partners, including PwC dedicated to implementing Encompass, Ellie Mae has been able to substantially grow the network and its business. Haley is also very involved as a client satisfaction ambassador and has helped to dramatically improve Ellie Mae’s customer satisfaction ratings.

Haley has reduced lengthy implementation timelines to a time frame of 75 to 125 days for even the most complex processes.

EBBIE HOFFMAN, who is not only Digital Risk’s chief legal officer but Mphasis’ head of legal in North America, is a well-known and frequently requested thought leader in the housing sector. Her contributions have ensured that industry participants are up-to-date on new compliance measures and regulatory updates, but are also aware of best practices and how they can enhance not only their company, but also themselves. Throughout her career, Hoffman has been passionate about mentoring her team, young professionals in the industry and law students from all over the country. Hoffman is proactive in developing talent and her more than 10 legal team members are encouraged to grow their legal skills. Within the team, she has helped develop expertise in many areas of law and mortgage lending, particularly in compliance. Her team members receive both internal and external accolades, including Assistant General Counsel Jonathan Sparks, who has grown into an industry expert. Hoffman also designed, implemented and oversees Digital Risk’s legal internship program, which offers 10 law students from across the country the unique summer opportunity to be immersed in a corporate legal environment in the mortgage industry. Approximately 50 law school students have completed the program since its inception in 2011. Hoffman has led several initiatives targeting the growth and development of businesswomen, including co-spearheading the 2013 Women at the Forefront of Structured Finance Symposium and the 2013 Orlando Women’s Leadership Luncheon. She has been a member in Orlando’s Commercial Real Estate Women, participated as a Mentor in Digital Risk’s Women Who Mean Business Mentoring Luncheon in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and moderated panels at Digital Risk’s 2015 Executive Women’s Sonoma Summit.

Hoffman designed and oversees Digital Risk’s legal internship program, which 50 law school students from across the country have completed since 2011.

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KIM HOFFMAN

TERRI HUNTER

GLOBAL HEAD OF MORTGAGE OPERATIONS

SVP, ASSET MANAGEMENT AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

Sutherland Mortgage Services, Inc.

Chronos Solutions

IM HOFFMAN joined Sutherland Mortgage Services in June 2015 from Morgan Stanley Home loans where she was COO. After years of building, growing, and managing large-scale mortgage platforms, she is is partnering with industry peers to provide relief and support to them by proving world-class process and resource support through mortgage business process management. She is now responsible for managing end-to-end mortgage fulfillment, component support, underwriting and personnel to some of the most well known mortgage brands in the industry. She manages both onshore and offshore resources that strategically impact the company’s clients with improved processes, labor arbitrage, and 24-hour production cycles. Since joining Sutherland, Hoffman has re-engineered processes that have reduced loan cycle times by as much as 32 days. She’s helped realize a normal 22-day cycle time by running multiple shifts offshore and on, reducing costs to originate by thousands, and helping clients increase their positions as industry leaders. With nearly 1,500 employees, the challenge is great but extremely rewarding. Hoffman demonstrates her leadership on a daily basis by empowering her staff to function autonomously and as efficiently as possible, while also encouraging and facilitating their continuing education and professional development. One of Hoffman’s greatest experiences was teaching for the MBA’s School of Mortgage Banking and Campus MBA. Here she found her passion for educating industry personnel, especially her employees. Using tools and wisdom acquired through her years in the industry and continuing education, Hoffman educates and grooms employees in the U.S., India, and the Philippines on U.S. mortgage banking processes and concepts.

Hoffman has re-engineered processes that have reduced loan cycle times by as much as 32 days, and helped realize a normal 22-day cycle time by running multiple shifts offshore and on. 52 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

INCE JOINING Chronos Solutions in November 2013, Terri Hunter’s leadership and expertise have been vital to the company’s current growth and its ability to be a force for positive change throughout our industry. Hunter is responsible for profits and losses, as well as strategic direction for multiple, nationwide service lines, including REO, cash-for-keys, evictions, valuations and property preservation for both commercial and federal clients. In managing Chronos Solutions’ REO product vertical, which provides marketing, management, disposition, title and closing, property stabilization, and lien research and curative services for more than 10 national clients, she has tremendous personal influence over how programs are designed and implemented. Since her arrival, Chronos Solutions has continued its on-boarding of thousands of assets from both government and private sector clients, including HUD and the Department of Justice, as well as banks, mortgage servicers, and institutional investors. Her experience with customizing workflow and reporting have been invaluable in meeting the unique needs of these clients. Hunter started in 2001 with Ocwen Financial Corporation. There, while managing a staff of 30, she established a Veterans Administration REO closing department that produced monthly closings of 2,000 properties nationwide, averaging $180 million in sales. She moved to Southern California in 2005 to join Indymac Bank, where, while executing initiatives to open new REO operation facilities throughout the country, she became a leading expert on design and implementation of proprietary REO systems. During this period she managed 14 U.S.-based employees located in five remote offices. In May 2009 Hunter became first vice president REO, short sales, property preservation, valuations and inspections for OneWest Bank in Austin.

Hunter manages Chronos Solutions’ REO product vertical, which provides marketing, management, disposition, title and closing, property stabilization and lien research for more than 10 national clients.

JAMIE KORUS

ANITA KWAN

PRESIDENT

CEO

Alliance Home Loans

LogicEase Solutions Inc. dba ComplianceEase

AMIE KORUS successfully leads and manages across multiple organizations – Alliance Home Loans, MBA, and MORPAC – setting records year over year. At Alliance, she manages company growth while still being extremely employee-centric. In fact, under Korus’ watch, Alliance has been a CareerBuilder Top Company to Work for in Arizona for three consecutive years, a distinction shared with fewer than 50 other companies. As the 2015-16 chairperson for MORPAC (Mortgage Bankers Association Political Action Committee), Korus has set record numbers for the organization. She raised over $1 million in 2015 – beating the previous record of $750,000 — and she is on pace to exceed those numbers in 2016. She accomplished all of this while overseeing a record year for Alliance Home Loans, where she serves as principal owner and president. 2015 saw a total loan volume of over $699 million, a 52% increase in loan volume and a 43% increase in loan count over 2014. Korus also serves on the MBA Board of Directors and Residential Board of Governors. As the sole proprietor and president of a thriving multi-state independent mortgage bank, Korus oversees tremendous results while still travelling the country to raise contributions for MORPAC. Her tireless efforts, many of which provide no compensation to her, promote the continued growth of the mortgage industry as a whole. Korus also shares her successes with the community; she created and continues an annual softball tournament that has raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity over the last seven years, and spends additional time and resources giving back to organizations across the state and country.

Korus raised more than $1 million in 2015 as the chairperson of the Mortgage Bankers Association Political Action Committee and is on pace to exceed those numbers in 2016.

S CEO of ComplianceEase, Anita Kwan recognized in early 2014 the strategic importance for ComplianceEase to expand its automated compliance solutions to provide the most comprehensive compliance assurance available for the upcoming TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) legislation. The legislation required ComplianceEase to commit to significant and complex technical changes to ComplianceAnalyzer. Kwan and her management team planned and led an initiative spanning more than a year to remodel ComplianceAnalyzer to enable it to tackle even the toughest, most complicated new requirements of TRID, such as the timing and tolerance provisions. Kwan’s insight and leadership served as key factors ensuring that ComplianceEase’s many clients have been empowered with a dynamic tool for helping ensure TRID compliance. Kwan has more than 30 years of corporate and operational management experience in the mortgage banking and mortgage technology sectors. From 1986 to 2000, Kwan co-founded and led Integrated Capital Group (ICG), a San Francisco based mortgage bank, which was acquired by the Money Store in 1997 and eventually became a subsidiary of the First Union Corporation in 1998. During her tenure as ICG’s President and COO, the company became one of First Union’s most profitable business units. An operations expert, Kwan ensured that her staff of 100+ employees in seven offices operated at optimum efficiency by utilizing technology to originate, underwrite, and close loans. Kwan’s time at ICG, the Money Store, and First Union also showed her that the industry was in dire need of a dynamic compliance solution. After 15 years as a mortgage banker, Kwan entered the mortgage technology space in 2001 by co-founding ComplianceEase; she later assumed the company’s CEO position in 2007.

After 15 years as a mortgage banker, Kwan entered the mortgage technology space in 2001 by co-founding ComplianceEase, and later assumed the role of CEO.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 53

DENA KWASCHYN

ANTHEA MARTIN

COO

Prospect Mortgage

Walker & Dunlop

S CHIEF Operations Officer at Prospect Mortgage, Dena Kwaschyn oversees all of mortgage operations, including policies and procedures, operations management, loan administration, servicing and operations risk management. Before joining Prospect Mortgage, Dena had partnered with Jerome Linehard, former President of SunTrust Mortgage and current chief risk officer for the bank, to rebuild and reshape mortgage operations at SunTrust. Having successfully completed this turnaround, Kwaschyn joined Prospect Mortgage on Oct. 3, 2015 — just in time for Prospect’s rollout of TRID and a new Loan Origination System, Encompass 360. Immediately, she set out to strengthen and rebuild the operations teams, while partnering with CIO Bryce Elliott to stabilize and enhance the system. Kwaschyn has embarked on a disciplined process to re-engineer the company’s business and operational workflows, driving down cycle times and improving service levels. She has also rebuilt the operations leadership team. Within four months of joining Prospect, Kwaschyn was promoted to the COO role and became a member of the CEO’s executive committee. An industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, she is a driving force is shaping and elevating Prospect’s entrepreneurial culture. While at SunTrust, Kwaschyn was responsible for managing production operations for the retail and consumer direct channels, in addition to credit underwriting for all third-party channels. In this role, she oversaw five campuses, seven divisional operational centers and 64 processing locations, totaling approximately 1,200 staff. She has also held senior leadership roles at Bank of America Mortgage, Home Equity, and Insurance Services. Prior to BofA, Dena was EVP and director of operations at American Home Mortgage.

Kwaschyn has re-engineered the company’s business and operational workflows, driving down cycle times and improving service levels.

54 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

NTHEA MARTIN is responsible for underwriting and closing more than 70 transactions with over $500 million in total volume at Walker & Dunlop. She has focused on sourcing permanent and construction financing for both market rate and affordable multifamily properties and is a multifamily specialist with an emphasis on agency financing (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD/FHA). Martin attended the University of Denver Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management and remains involved with the School of Real Estate in mentoring students and assisting the Real Estate department with their affordable housing initiatives. At the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Colorado Chapter, Martin serves on the ULI Housing Committee, which was recently awarded a $20k grant from ULI national. The group is working to improve awareness and understating of the challenges facing affordable housing in Colorado. To that end they produce content (print and digital) that is accessible and understandable to all and suggest solutions to policy makers, development professionals, invested citizens and the general public. Martin is also part of Mother’s Advocating Affordable Housing, a diverse coalition of women and men who are concerned about the lack of affordable housing throughout Colorado. The group discusses advocacy opportunities and efforts to aid in the creation of affordable housing solutions. Additionally, Martin serves on the “Build the Will” committee of Housing Colorado, which is Colorado’s affordable housing industry association, as well as the awards committee, which interviews, reviews and makes Eagle Award recommendations to the Housing Colorado Board of Directors.

Martin is responsible for underwriting and closing more than 70 transactions with over $500 million in total volume.

MARY ANN MCGARRY

CLAUDIA MERKLE

PRESIDENT, CEO

EVP, CHIEF OF INSURANCE OPERATIONS

Guild Mortgage

National MI

S PRESIDENT and CEO of Guild Mortgage, Mary Ann McGarry leads the development and execution of the company’s strategic plans and objectives to become one of the fastest-growing independent mortgage banking companies in the U.S., with a particular expertise in serving first-time homebuyers. She has led the continuing evolution of the company’s financial, operational and technology strategies. Under McGarry’s leadership, Guild has seen continued strength in the purchase loan market and major growth as it expanded from its Western base to the Southwest, Midwest, Southeast and East. McGarry has been a member of Guild’s board of directors since 1988 and she was named president in 2005 and CEO in 2007. In that role she leads the development and execution of the company’s strategic plans and objectives and has been one of the driving forces in formulating and executing Guild’s financial, operational and technology strategies. For more than 25 years, McGarry has worked to develop, empower and inspire leaders within Guild, throughout the mortgage banking industry, and in the San Diego community. In 2010, McGarry worked with her team to create the Guild Giving Program, which encourages employees to donate time to worthy causes in their own communities. Beneficiaries include Habitat for Humanity, Windward Domestic Violence Shelter, the Navy SEAL Foundation and the Children’s Cancer Association. In addition, Guild become one of the first independent mortgage banking firms to support The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Opens Doors Foundation. The Foundation’s first initiative makes mortgage and rental assistance payment grants to parents and guardians with critically ill or injured children, allowing them to take unpaid leave from work without jeopardizing their homes.

McGarry worked with her team to create the Guild Giving Program, which encourages employees to donate time to worthy causes in their own communities.

MAJOR FACTOR behind National MI’s success has been the executive charged with running the company’s insurance operations and its sales and marketing functions — 25-year industry veteran Claudia Merkle. As National MI’s chief of insurance operations, Merkle played an instrumental role in doubling National MI’s lender clients in the past two years alone, to more than 1,000 clients today. National MI has also seen extraordinary growth in its new insurance written (NIW) and tripled its market share in 2015, becoming the only mortgage insurance company that consistently grew its NIW every quarter of the year. In the first quarter of 2016, National MI wrote $4.3 billion of NIW, and is poised to reach profitability later in 2016. Merkle is also the mastermind behind National MI’s groundbreaking new insurance coverage that shortened the traditional industry time frame for rescission relief from 36 to 12 months. Merkle introduced an innovative way to perform National MI’s underwriting, which served as the basis for the National MI SafeGuard product, which made 12-month rescission relief feasible and started a trend in the industry. In September 2015, Merkle assumed additional responsibilities at National MI, which include managing national sales, regional sales, marketing, product development, sales support, training and competitive intelligence. Her new duties added roughly 80 more employees to the number of people she manages, bringing the total number of employees who ultimately report to Claudia to about 160. Merkle continues to oversee all of National MI’s insurance operations nationwide as well as underwriting fulfillment, servicing and quality assurance.

Merkle is the mastermind behind National MI’s groundbreaking new insurance coverage that shortened the traditional industry time frame for rescission relief from 36 to 12 months. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 55

TERRI MERLINO

BLISS MORRIS

CHIEF CREDIT OFFICER

FOUNDER AND CEO

New Penn Financial

First Financial Network

ERRI MERLINO joined New Penn Financial in September 2013 as chief credit officer. New Penn operates three business channels, originating through direct relationships with the agencies and via non-agency loan originations with its parent organization, Shellpoint Partners. In addition to her ongoing job responsibilities of managing credit policy and execution, Merlino led the effort to select and implement LoanScoreCard’s Custom AUS to aid in underwriting jumbo, non-agency loans in a timely and efficient manner. Underwriting these loans manually meant that just one loan could take hours. Merlino has transformed New Penn Financial’s credit function, formalizing basic functionality in the group and leading the company from the start-up phase to a more mature model. She has partnered with risk management to create an industry-leading product development and execution team, clearly articulating the company’s credit quality standards and credit appetite. Merlino is a key member of New Penn Financial’s senior management team, and has served on several industry committees, including Fannie Mae’s Risk Management Forum and Freddie Mac’s Credit Advisory Board. Prior to joining New Penn Financial, Merlino spent many years at PHH Mortgage. In her roles as senior vice president, credit and operational risk at PHH Mortgage, she was responsible for fostering a risk-aware culture through her leadership of all aspects of credit and operational risk management. In addition, Merlino serves as president of the American Cancer Society South Jersey Region Board of Advisors and as vice president of the Society’s Eastern Division Board of Directors. She was a founding member of the South Jersey Hope Gala, which has raised $1 million dollars to fund the mission of the American Cancer Society.

Merlino is a key member of New Penn Financial’s senior management team, and has served on several industry committees, including Fannie Mae’s Risk Management Forum and Freddie Mac’s Credit Advisory Board. 56 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

N 1989, Bliss Morris established the first loan sale advisory firm in the nation, First Financial Network, and is recognized as a pioneer in creating the market for whole loan sales . Her ability to value complex portfolios and structure loan sales has played a critical role in resolving the U.S. housing crisis and restoring liquidity to the capital markets. Morris has served in advisory roles to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC and many of the nation’s banks in the valuation and sale of over $5 billion in residential loans this year alone. Morris utilizes her entrepreneurial spirit, combined with strong leadership skills to position FFN as the industry’s recognized authority. FFN has served as loan sale advisor to more top 10 financial institutions than any other U.S. firm and has sold loans and other assets in 28 countries. Over the past three years, FFN has advised on, valued, prepared, marketed and/or sold over $100 billion of loans. Morris, is widely recognized as a thought leader in the industry. For 26 years, FFN’s hallmarks have been relationship-based marketing and a strong commitment to innovative sale structures and solutions to foster recovery and stabilization in the mortgage markets. Additionally, in the first quarter of 2015, Morris began serving as a consultant and advisor to Urban Partnership Bank, a Chicago bank with a mission of promoting economic sustainability and stabilization through its lending. As a successful culmination of Morris’s advisory role to the bank, FFN valued and sold the bank’s $154 million single-family residential loan portfolio in 4Q2015 and 1Q2016 Morris not only maximizes value for her clients’ residential loan sales to reduce losses and taxpayer risk, but also advises on marketing and trading to the appropriate investors to ensure positive borrower outcomes and stabilize neighborhoods across the country.

Morris established the first loan sale advisory firm in the nation, First Financial Network. In the past three years FFN has advised on, valued, prepared, marketed and/or sold $100 billion of loans.

ELISABETH MURPHY

PENNY NELSON

VP, MARKETING

EVP, TECHNOLOGY

Altisource

Altavera Mortgage Services

IZ MURPHY joined Altisource in the fall of 2014 and had an immediate impact within the company. She leads the business-to-business marketing efforts, which includes over 12 business units across three of the company’s major initiatives: servicer solutions, origination solutions and real estate investor solutions. Murphy comes from a diverse background, spending many years working at a marketing agency with clients in a variety of industries. She quickly became an expert in all things real estate and was rapidly able to gain the respect and support of the business unit leads throughout the company. During her time at Altisource, Murphy launched Investability One, helping to increase membership to over 87 members, managed the process of relaunching the Lenders One Cooperative brand to celebrate its 15-year anniversary in August 2015 and rolled out the new brand to more than 260 cooperative members. She also facilitated the Altisource corporate rebrand and complete revamp of the Altisource website, which launched in spring 2016, helping to increase brand sentiment over 121% from the first quarter in 2015 to the first quarter in 2016. Murphy integrated two acquired companies into the marketing fold, allowing for open communication across all teams and providing strategic partnership to all Altisource business units, and led the process of overhauling the Altisource CRM systems to help better serve the business unit specific sales teams as well as enterprise sales. Murphy has worked in conjunction with the CMO to develop and build out a marketing team that now includes over 35 people. She was an instrumental part of growing the B2B-focused team with the goal of providing exceptional service to the business units across servicer solutions, origination solutions and real estate investor solutions.

Murphy facilitated the Altisource corporate rebrand and complete revamp of the Altisource website, which launched in spring of 2016, helping to increase brand sentiment more than 121%.

NDER PENNY Nelson’s leadership as senior vice president of mortgage operations, Altavera Mortgage Services has seen tremendous growth. In the last 12 months the company has expanded its service offerings, doubled its customer base, grown its licensing footprint by 30%, increased its staff by 350% and established new branch offices in Arizona and Texas. At Altavera, Nelson oversees all mortgage operations, including processing, underwriting, closing, quality control and training. Nelson joined Altavera from Urban Lending Solutions, where she led the mortgage origination services group and oversaw its growth from 10 staff members to over 300 staff members in 12 months. She was also responsible for client on-boarding and implementation. Nelson was a founding member of Altavera and has had an extensive career in multiple facets of the housing finance industry. Prior to joining Urban, Penny spent over three decades as a mortgage executive, senior underwriter, loan officer and processor. More than 20 of those years were spent in operations management at start-up or high-growth companies, where she focused on procedural development, risk management, training and staff development. This expertise informs Nelson’s position as a thought leader in the industry. Drawing on her historical perspective of compliance regulations and implementation alongside her hands-on experience with clients, Nelson provides unique and beneficial analysis of the early challenges with TRID and offers guidance to those still struggling to achieve compliance. Beyond benefiting the organizations that she has led to year-after-year growth and profitability, Nelson also shares her knowledge with newcomers, ultimately advancing not only individuals but the companies they represent.

In the last 12 months, Altavera Mortgage Services has expanded its service offerings, doubled its customer base, grown its licensing footprint by 30% and increased staff by 350%. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 57

DESIREE PATNO

AMANDA PHILLIPS

CEO

EVP, LEGAL AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

NAWRB

Mortgage Cadence

S CEO of the National Association of Women in Real Estate Businesses, Desiree Patno champions the contributions women are making in the industry and works to support and sustain women-owned businesses. As part of that effort, Patno created the Women’s Global Resource Center to connect women in housing with a depository of vendors and clients to increase opportunities for inclusion at all levels. She also created the Women in Housing Financial Fitness Road Show, partnering with the Small Business Administration to increase business growth and opportunities. Patno led NAWRB’s Women’s Homeownership Initiative, dedicated to preparing women for owning a home and improving data collection for women’s homeownership. By increasing women’s homeownership throughout the nation, NAWRB is helping decrease women’s poverty and cement women’s personal and professional strides. Patno also filled a pivotal role in creating conversation between the FDIC, CFPB, FHFA and SBA regarding housing issues and the manners in which they could best serve and aid consumers. In addition, Patno created NAWRB Magazine, an international publication featuring exclusive interviews, business development tools, access to capital and market studies, in addition to federal initiatives and legislation updates affecting the housing economy’s women. She also made history for women with NAWRB’s inaugural conference as she interviewed Dodd-Frank’s Section 342 author, Rep. Maxine Waters, and associated OMWI executive directors. She brought women-owned small businesses full circle by featuring Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae supplier diversity, financial institutions and several of the agencies associated with the Small Business Administration, including the oversight of the use of small businesses.

Patno created the first-ever Women’s Global Resource Center to connect women in housing with a depository for vendors and clients to increase opportunities for inclusion at all levels. 58 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

N PREPARATION for the TRID effective date last fall, Amanda Phillips led Mortgage Cadence’s product and compliance teams that reviewed the final TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule and drafted requirements on system enhancements. Over 14 months prior to the TRID effective date, Phillips traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with the CFPB leaders and discuss the new rule first hand. Throughout this process, Phillips worked with outside legal counsel, MBA, and MISMO, participated in CFPB roundtables and webinars, and met with other advisors in the industry to validate the company’s proposed implementation of the rule. Phillips also assisted with a series of monthly webinars beginning over a year in advanced to provide customers with timely information. Ultimately, Mortgage Cadence was the first loan origination technology provider able to say their customers were closing TRID-compliant loans as early as October 2015 due to rolling the product releases out ahead of schedule. Phillips distinguished herself in guiding Mortgage Cadence through the largest regulation change within the mortgage industry in more than 30 years. To ensure the receipt of timely and accurate information on TRID, Phillips fostered a critical relationship with CFPB decision-makers and she is already blazing a path that will set Mortgage Cadence up for early compliance with the HMDA regulation changes scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2018. On a daily basis, Phillips also works closely with the Mortgage Cadence product and development teams to help interpret compliance requirements and assist in developing strategies and implementing changes within the Mortgage Cadence platforms. Prior to joining Mortgage Cadence, Phillips served as director of compliance for a mid-sized independent mortgage bank based out of Plano, Texas.

Phillips distinguished herself in guiding Mortgage Cadence through the largest regulation change within the mortgage industry in more than 30 years.

NANCY PRATT

PATRICIA RAYMO

VP, PARTNER RELATIONS AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

COO, RETAIL

Pavaso

loanDepot’s Mortgage Master

30+-YEAR VETERAN of the mortgage and title industries, Nancy Pratt has been an evangelist for the adoption of technology in the mortgage industry. Leveraging Pratt’s extensive eMortgage background and leadership, Pavaso has been able to provide a technology solution to the industry that reduces closing times to an average of 30 minutes, with some taking 15 minutes or less. Furthermore, Pratt played a pivotal role in Pavaso’s selection for the CFPB’s eClosing pilot, bringing the firm to the CFPB’s attention during the selection process. As a relative newcomer to the mortgage industry, Pavaso’s selection for the pilot was significant, as most of the other vendors had long-established histories in this space. Pratt’s experience in conducting these types of transactions in her previous position enabled Pavaso to achieve outstanding results that far exceed the overall results reported by the CFPB in early August 2015. With Pratt’s efforts and leadership at Pavaso, more than 25 companies are currently conducting eClosing transactions using Pavaso’s solutions, totaling over 2,300 transactions in 2015. Her direct involvement and understanding of government regulations has enabled her to provide top-notch guidance and insight to the overall strategy of Pavaso and, in turn, usher in advancements of eClosings by delivering leading edge technology to the industry. Pratt was a member of the Fannie Mae eMortgage innovation team, performing the first complete eMortgages with lenders, and conducting the first ever FHA and VA eClosing. The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) recently elected her as co-chair for the eMortgage Workgroup. She is a member of the ALTA government affairs, public relations, state regulatory action and technology committees. She is a member of PRIA, MBA, MISMO, ESRA, RESPRO and the National eNotarization Board.

With Pratt’s efforts and leadership at Pavaso, more than 25 companies are currently conducting eClosing transactions using Pavaso’s solutions, totaling over 2,300 transactions in 2015.

ATRICIA RAYMO skillfully led the implementation of the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Rules – a complex, government-mandated overhaul of lending industry procedures. She created internal processes for the company’s partners and customers that provided superior training for all involved. Under Raymo’s leadership, the operations department of nearly 400 employees was trained and prepared for the new regulations before they went into effect in October 2015. Raymo oversees all aspects of Mortgage Master’s loan origination, underwriting and closing functions. In her position, she continually reinforces loanDepot’s dedication to the strict principles of integrity and quality, allowing the division to thrive over the past two decades. Because of her efforts, loanDepot’s Mortgage Master has been able to close more than 99% of all loans on time since the implementation of TRID. Raymo offers mentorship and guidance to any employee, at all levels, and is highly respected among her peers. She has helped build numerous educational programs for the company’s loan officers so they can continue to expand their knowledge, which helps them provide optimum service to their clients. Raymo is an inspiration to her team of managers, and has mentored many female managers throughout her career. This is evident by the leaders they have become — Raymo has encouraged them to not just manage, but to truly lead their teams so the company can achieve its highest aspirations for success. Having mentored hundreds of lending professionals, Raymo remains focused on the next generation of modern lending and the advances it will bring to borrowers.

Raymo skillfully led the implementation of the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Rules, a complex, government-mandated overhaul of lending industry procedures, for loanDepot’s Mortgage Master. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 59

JEANNA ROACH

MARISA SHAPTER

VP, SALES AND MARKETING

VP, SECONDARY MARKETING

Betenbough Homes

Churchill Mortgage

EANNA ROACH joined the Betenbough Homes team in 2006 as the company’s public relations specialist. She went on to serve as marketing manager, chief marketing officer, and now serves as vice president of sales and marketing. She has launched, expanded and improved many of the company’s marketing efforts, including creating Betenbough Homes’ expansive social media presence and overhauling the website. Under her leadership, website traffic grew by nearly 25% year-over-year. In 2015, Roach pioneered the company’s first online sales program and helped introduce the current sales process that is used in every Betenbough Homes region. Due to the online sales program, response rates to inquiries increased resulting in more educated buyers, and a quicker onsite sales process. With training from the new sales process, Betenbough Homes has seen a 35% increase in net sales year to date. Roach has created and successfully executed large-scale, free community events in all regions in which Betenbough Homes builds. This includes family-friendly Christmas events with free Santa photos and activities for children, which almost 1,600 people attend annually. This event and others like it continue to grow in all regions and build relationships with customers while increasing sales. Roach has served on the CASA of the South Plains board of directors, Advertising Federation board of directors, Association of Women in Communications board of directors, Young Professionals of Greater Lubbock board of directors and the Leadership Lubbock steering committee from 2011 to 2013 and as chairwoman from 2013 to 2014. Under her leadership, website traffic on the Betenbough Homes site grew by nearly 25% year-over-year.

Roach created and successfully executed large-scale, free community events, which almost 1,600 people attend annually. She has also grown website traffic by nearly 25%. 60 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

ARISA SHAPTER has served as vice president of secondary marketing and licensing for Churchill Mortgage Corporation since January 2006. In her role, she serves as the liaison for the retail channel and manager of investor relations, product offering and pricing models for correspondent loan programs. She has developed a wide product offering for the retail channel to include state bond programs and portfolio investors. Shapter is also responsible for post-closing and ensuring every mortgage loan is salable in the secondary mortgage market and every government loan is insurable. She plays a large role in managing risk and engineering the processes that have resulted in the company having one of the lowest buyback rates in the nation. Shapter has built an exceptional team of highly capable and dedicated individuals who play a pivotal role in keeping Churchill Mortgage competitive from a pricing, rate standpoint. Shapter’s relationships have also played a key role in helping Churchill Mortgage maintain fiscal soundness. Shapter has successfully negotiated on Churchill Mortgage’s behalf with large institutional investors in order to keep the company’s pricing highly competitive. In turn, Churchill Mortgage continues to do record volumes of business, while at the same time having minimal loan buybacks, some of the lowest in the industry. With more than 16 years of experience in the financial industry, Shapter has honed her craft working with companies such as Nations Home Funding, Inc., Cingular Wireless and Salem Saxon, P.A.

Shapter plays a large role in managing risk and engineering the processes that have resulted in the company having one of the lowest buyback rates in the nation.

SUZANNE SHUCK

JANIS SMITH

EVP, CHIEF OF RISK

VP, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

Freedom Mortgage

MERSCORP Holdings

UZANNE SHUCK oversees a team of 178 employees at Freedom Mortgage, and is responsible for all of risk management including areas of operations risk management, credit and regulatory compliance quality control and special investigations. Shuck launched and provided leadership throughout the implementation and success of Freedom Mortgage receiving its first-ever SSAE16 for both origination and servicing. She brings the discipline of a depository banker to the current regulatory environment without compromising Freedom Mortgage’s organizational agility. In addition, she is an active member on the House Policy Council and HPAC as a leader in the industry. Shuck also steered the Chief Risk Officer Forum for MBA and the executive steering committee through the preparation, launch, and oversight of TRID. Her leadership of compliance and quality control resulted in Freedom Mortgage receiving A+ results when audited by Fannie Mae and the Veterans Administration. Shuck also proactively launched and led readiness assessments of CFPB audits. In addition, Shuck established various programs and teams related to risk management that include: the change management committee, enterprise vendor management, a robust risk assessment program, complaint management and monitoring, gap analysis and corrective action monitoring.

Shuck launched and provided leadership throughout the implementation of Freedom Mortgage receiving its first-ever SSAE16 for both origination and servicing.

ANIS SMITH believes the long-term ideals of the housing movement are best served by the collaborative efforts of varied participants. For over three decades, she has professionally communicated in strong support of the U.S. mortgage banking and housing finance industry, affordable housing, sustainable homeownership, community development and housing policy. Moreover, Smith freely devotes her own resources, talent, time, and financial, to organizations and initiatives that move the nation’s housing economy forward. Smith is a stalwart in the field of housing and mortgage industry communications, and she is known for navigating organizations through rough terrain with a keen emphasis on bringing true stories to light in a clear and compelling way. Now in her fifth year as MERSCORP Holding’s first communications officer, Smith has been instrumental in shaping a new image and changing the tone of the conversation about the company and its role in the mortgage finance industry as the parent of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, and operator of the MERS System. Smith maintained focus and steadily communicated about MERS’ strengths, its importance to the housing economy and the company’s potential as provider of e-commerce solutions for a changing housing industry, modern homebuyers and a new economy. In the past year, the MERSCORP Holdings Communications team, under Janis’ leadership, has revamped corporate websites; developed new public information materials, messaging and marketing images and organized events. Smith began working as a housing communicator at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston in the early 1980s and then held several positions with financial regulatory agencies, establishing a reputation for bringing diverse constituents together by effectively communicating on issues related to Community Reinvestment Act reform, affordable housing and community development.

Smith has been instrumental in shaping a new image and changing the tone of the conversation about MERSCORP and its role in the mortgage finance industry.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 61

SANDHYA SUKU

EVA TAPIA

DIRECTOR, CONSUMER LENDING PRACTICE

SVP, FORECLOSURE TRUSTEE OPERATIONS

Tavant Technologies

Auction.com, a Ten-X company

ANDHYA SUKU led the first all-woman project leadership team at Tavant Technologies to develop an enterprise MI servicing platform from ground-up in a record time of six months. Suku uses her expertise in developing impactful solutions with innovative software development methodologies. Suku leads global software delivery for Tavant’s consumer lending business and has played a key role in the company’s growth over the past two years as she is responsible for teams based in the U.S. and India. She leads by example, attracts talents, motivates and coaches them that significantly helped in nurturing Tavant’s mortgage innovation lab. Suku devised an innovative mortgage software development methodology that employed distributed agile process, design thinking concepts, reusable mortgage software components and solutions accelerators that allowed cost effective custom solutions in as little as three to four months. In addition to enabling the business with best solutions, this methodology reduced time to market by 50% and achieved 100% customer satisfaction. Suku is focused on progressive technology improvement, robust knowledge management and continuous value addition. These solutions have been transformative for the mortgage industry and have helped in shaping a brighter, inclusive future for Tavant in the industry. With her passion for innovation and incredible determination, Suku has helped Tavant’s consumer lending business achieve 100% growth year over year for the past three years. Her team is today recognized industry-wide for its simple, efficient, user friendly and engaging mortgage solutions specially created for each lender, addressing their unique challenges delivered in an accelerated fashion.

Suku led the first all-woman project leadership team at Tavant Technologies to develop an enterprise MI servicing platform from the ground-up in a record time of six months. 62 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016

S SENIOR vice president of foreclosure trustee operations for Auction.com, Eva Tapia manages and has significantly grown the company’s third-party sales program, which provides a marketing, educational, training and auction disposition service for lenders and servicers intending to sell properties in default at foreclosure sales. This program, which is by far the largest of its kind in the country, has transformed what was previously the purview of “industry insiders” into an open environment where anyone who is financially qualified can bid on property, thereby improving both the sell through rate and return of Auction.com’s clients. In 2015 Tapia oversaw the sale of more than 100,000 residential assets in foreclosure and expanded Auction.com’s third-party sales program to meet the needs of the industry’s top servicers, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and HUD. She also expanded the footprint of Auction.com’s third-party sales program to reach all 50 states and revolutionized how her clients market their foreclosure properties prior to auction by leveraging Auction.com’s online, global reach. Tapia also met with and expanded upon partnerships with key decision makers in the industry, including HUD and Freddie Mac, and presented suggestions to these agencies for setting up successful foreclosure disposition programs. Prior to her work at Auction.com, Tapia worked for Bank of America for 19 years, where she managed the largest independent foreclosure trustee in the nation, ReconTrust Company. While at BofA, Tapia pioneered the first non-courthouse location trustee sales event with Auction.com and managed the expansion of the company’s portfolio. Tapia participates in Women in Legal Leadership as a part of her membership with ALFN.

In 2015 Tapia oversaw the sale of more than 100,000 residential assets in foreclosure and expanded Auction. com’s third-party sales program to reach all 50 states.

CHERYL TRAVIS-JOHNSON EVP AND COO

SALLY FRENCH TYLER EVP AND DIVISION PRESIDENT

VRM Mortgage Services

HERYL TRAVIS-JOHNSON is making a lasting impact on housing and, more importantly, on the homeowners and families that each of those homes represents. Travis-Johnson’s career in mortgage banking spans over 30 years and includes leadership roles in lending, loan servicing and real estate. Her extensive experience enables her to recognize industry trends and proactively address operational challenges with creative perspective and innovative solutions. Travis-Johnson serves as a director on the board of the non-profit organization, PCV|VRM Seeds of Hope, where her leadership through philanthropy serves to educate, enable and empower homeowners in an effort to stabilize neighborhoods and breathe new life into communities. As housing continues to right size and foreclosure volumes decrease, Travis-Johnson has facilitated a significant transformation to VRM Mortgage Services. Under her leadership, the company has evolved substantially from a singular provider of comprehensive outsourced REO services into a multi-faceted servicing solutions company with offerings ranging from managing performing mortgages and assets through default servicing and claims. Travis-Johnson also oversaw the formation and expansion of The Mortgage Collective, an organization developed to bring together industry leaders to examine servicing’s operational challenges and develop intelligent, innovative solutions. The group serves to facilitate meaningful dialogue and produce actionable outcomes that help mitigate risk, and drive performance for lenders, servicers and investors. The organization expanded to include thought leadership events and the newly formed Solutions Group, which offers a singular industry source to deliver unified, component-based outsourcing and technology solutions.

Travis-Johnson oversaw the formation and expansion of The Mortgage Collective, an organization developed to bring together industry leaders to produce actionable outcomes for lenders, servicers and investors.

First American Title Insurance

ALLY FRENCH Tyler’s business achievements include driving one of the highest revenue growth years in her business’ history in 2015. She has led her national division of 1,200 people to deliver financial results that exceed expectations for First American, while simultaneously creating more opportunities for women to excel within First American and across the commercial real estate industry. Tyler inspires amazing results with a people-first approach that has translated into an 87% employee engagement score for her division, according to a recent employee survey. Achieving this feat, impressive financial results combined with high employee engagement scores, is difficult in any large organization, let alone for an industry leader in the dynamic, deal-centric world of commercial real estate title insurance. Tyler helped to found the First American’s Women in Leadership program which, during the past year, has evolved to include a project which addresses enterprise-wide challenges. The cross-divisional female leaders in this group not only identify corporate needs, but work to address them to the benefit of the company. This has increased the visibility of participants to senior executives and stretched their experiences beyond their current role. Tyler’s leadership extends well beyond First American as she has impacted the commercial real estate industry at large and local communities through a multitude of philanthropic activities. She currently serves on the board of the First American Community Fund, and over the course of her career, she has been deeply involved in the CREW Network, the industry’s premier business networking organization dedicated to advancing the achievements of women in commercial real estate.

Tyler led a national division of 1,200 people to deliver financial results that exceeded expectations for First American, driving one of the highest revenue growth years in her business’s history. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 63

SARAH VALENTINI

MARINA WALSH

PRINCIPAL

VICE PRESIDENT OF INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Radius Financial Group

Mortgage Bankers Association

ARAH VALENTINI has 20 years’ experience in residential lending and under her leadership Radius Financial Group, launched in 1999, has grown from a small, local lender to one of New England’s leading private mortgage banks with nearly 100 employees and eight satellite offices throughout Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. In 2015 Radius was named by Boston Globe magazine and the Commonwealth Institute as one of the top 100 women-led businesses in Massachussetts. Valentini’s influence extends to other parts of the county as well, as she spoke to more than 140 Realtors in South Florida about her current insights and perspective of the real estate industry, and how Radius can help in Florida. Valentini is also active in many professional and volunteer organizations. She assisted in bringing MBA Opens Doors — a nationwide program helping families pay rent or mortgages when a child is in critical care — to Boston Children’s Hospital and was named the 2016 South Shore Habitat for Humanity Women Build Chairwoman, taking over for HGTV host Taniya Nayak. Valentini is also a current mentor for Interise, an organization dedicated to stimulating economic revitalization in lower-income communities. The organization offers a StreetWise ‘MBA’ program to connect small business owners with other CEOs who can mentor them. In 2014, 68% of Interise small businesses increased their annual revenues by an average of $419,000. Valentini is a current member of the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Women Presidents’ Organization, the Committee of 200 and the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts.

Valentini serves as a mentor for Interise, an organization dedicated to stimulating economic revitalization in lower-income communities.

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ARINA WALSH is vice president of industry analysis in MBA’s research and economics department, specializing in data analysis with respect to industry benchmarking for residential lenders and servicers. Currently, she is the lead at MBA for the annual and quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Reports for Independent Mortgage Bankers, the Servicing Operations Study and Forum, the MBA-Stratmor Peer Group Roundtable Program, the Mortgage Banking Compensation Survey Program, the National Survey and other ad hoc surveys. These data are key inputs and guideposts for business decisions by lenders, as well as being incredibly useful information for investors, other market participants, and policymakers. Walsh leads a team of highly skilled analysts at MBA who focus their efforts on these benchmarking programs. Her expertise regarding all aspects of financial analysis of mortgage lenders has made her a key source of data and analysis for mortgage executives across the industry. In addition, Walsh conducts workshops and roundtables on a variety of current topics critical to the mortgage industry and provides program advisory support for several conferences, particularly MBA’s Accounting and Financial Management Conference and its National Servicing Conference. She is an instructor for several MBA Education webinars and courses, including the Introductory and Advanced Schools of Mortgage Servicing and the Future Leaders Program. Prior to joining MBA, Walsh was a manager in Ernst and Young’s Real Estate Advisory Services Group where her focus was Federal credit program design, implementation and performance measurement. She started her career in the Management Training Program, then subsequently the financial planning division, of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Walsh’s expertise regarding all aspects of financial analysis of mortgage lenders has made her a key source of data and analysis for mortgage executives across the industry.

MELINDA WILNER

SERENA YANG

COO

VP, MARKETING

United Wholesale Mortgage

Civic Financial Services

ELINDA WILNER has been an integral part of the success of United Wholesale Mortgage, guiding the rapid business growth that catapulted the company into being the No. 1 wholesale lender in the nation for 2015 production. Over a 12-month period, UWM increased loan production volume by nearly 50%, up to $13.1 billion, and increased the number of closed loans by 33%, up by more than 12,000 loans. The company’s 2015 production volume was 30% over its forecasted goal, and was our best year in company history. Wilner oversaw the roll-out of innovative proprietary tools that proved to be a difference-maker in the industry. These tools include UWM’s custom loan origination system (EASE) and UClose, a self-closing platform that empowers mortgage brokers to go from clear-to-close to closing in just minutes, and made the loan process easier and faster for mortgage brokers. In a time, post-TRID, where just about all lenders were slowing down, these tools helped UWM speed up. Wilner stays in the weeds of her business. She is very hands-on and available to the team and is heavily involved in the day-to-day efforts to help the company achieve its goals. She leads all company operations and oversees more than 500 team members in the company’s underwriting, closing and technology teams. Throughout her career at UWM, Wilner has proven to be a selfless leader, taking great pride in developing and growing her team members, and helping them to achieve their career goals. She has a talent for simplifying the complexities of the mortgage industry in order to train UWM team members and put the company in the best possible position to serve its clients.

Wilner guided the rapid business growth that catapulted UWM into being the No. 1 wholesale lender in the nation in 2015.

ERENA YANG is the director of marketing for Civic Financial Services, a nationwide private money lender offering fix and flip loans and term financing for the single-family rental investor. Civic Financial Services is a subsidiary of Wedgewood, one of the top distressed asset buyers in the nation. Previously, Yang served as the director of marketing for Colony American Finance, a subsidiary company of Colony Capital and Colony American Homes. Yang launched Colony American Finance to be recognized as one of the top private lenders in the SFR commercial loan market, reaching the pinnacle of funding $1 billion in loans within one year. At CAF, Yang developed and implemented marketing initiatives and strategies which included brand development, digital marketing, lead generation, social media, CRM/email campaigns, event sponsorships, conference management, website development, direct mail, public relations, paid search marketing and business development with industry partners. She also launched and created the #houseoftheweek campaign. Yang created content strategy and social media channels on over six platforms, managed more than 30 conferences, a company summit and special events nationwide, with more than 200 guests. She also set up four partnerships that included affinity programs/ referrals and cross promotions and oversaw $300,000 annually in PPC advertising. Yang increased and built contact lists by 200%, managed web development and website updates, and integrated and project managed the setup of CRM platforms. Earlier in her career, Yang held an executive position at the Carlyle Group, where she was in charge of business development and marketing their portfolio of real estate developments.

Yang created content strategy and social media channels on more than six platforms and set up four partnerships that included affinity programs, referrals and cross promotions. HOUSINGWIRE ❱ AUGUST 2016 65