SPECIAL REPORT / ELITE WOMEN IN MORTGAGE
Michelle Bobart SVP of mortgage lending, Guaranteed Rate One of the nation’s foremost experts on condo financing, Michelle Bobart is also among the top 1% of originators in the nation. Responsible for $64m in production volume last year alone, Bobart is a member of Guaranteed Rate’s President’s Club for top producers. Even when she’s not at work, Bobart likes to challenge herself; a dedicated athlete, she enjoys scuba diving, mountain climbing and participating in triathlons.
Leslie Struthers
Erika Macias-White
VP of mortgage lending, Guaranteed Rate Leslie Struthers is one of the nation’s top originators, generating $68m in production volume last year. Named one of Chicago Agent Magazine’s “Who’s Who in Chicago” for three years running, Struthers is also a member of Guaranteed Rate’s President’s Club for top producers. An animal lover, Struthers volunteers with PAWS Chicago, the city’s largest no-kill humane organization.
Co-founder and SVP of operations, HighTechLending Erika Macias-White was, in a very real sense, born to work in the mortgage industry. With two parents in real estate, Macias-White was in the business early. “That’s kind of how I got my foot in the door—working in their office, making connections with their clients, making connections with their loan officers,” she says. In 2006, Macias-White and Don Currie co-founded HighTechLending, bringing paperless loan processing and simultaneous automated underwriting to the loan process to accelerate the closing process.
Debra Shultz
Karen Flores
Teresa Blake
Senior VP of mortgage lending, Guaranteed Rate One of the nation’s top originators, Debra Shultz is responsible for $71m in loan volume for last year alone. An expert in the jumbo loan market, Shultz is adept at finding sophisticated loan products for nontraditional borrowers. Shultz is also a member of Guaranteed Rate’s President’s Club for top producers.
Mortgage loan specialist, Cornerstone Community Bank With Cornerstone Community Bank since its founding in 1996, Karen Flores is able to leverage her knowledge and depth of experience to get her customers into a mortgage. A 26-year industry veteran, Flores also serves on the board of the Chattanooga Mortgage Bankers Association and has been twice named the Chattanooga Women’s Council of Realtors Affiliate of the Year.
Practice director of lending solutions team, Wipro Gallagher Solutions, Inc. With a deep background in the mortgage industry, Teresa Blake has become a trailblazer in the mortgage technology space. Blake has led numerous teams in developing gamechanging technology for the industry. Teresa’s guidance has brought point-of-sale technology to new heights,” says colleague Brad Durrer.
22 | JUNE 2014
Karen Aguayo Bates President, VAPro Network; founder, Military Home Loans In 1994, Karen Bates had a less-than-stellar experience applying for a VA mortgage. “The agent and lender working on my VA deal and impacting my financial future simply did not know enough about VA to properly advise me,” Bates says. Today, the condo she didn’t buy is worth $120,000 more than its 1994 value. After eight years as a naval air traffic controller, Karen Bates became a certified public accountant. In 2004, she combined her military experience and her financial expertise to found Military Home Loans with the goal of making sure veterans got their chance at home ownership. In 2014, Bates and her husband, Ken, founded the VAPro Network, which offers an extensive VA sales training course to mortgage lenders. Bates’ efforts led to her being named California’s 2013 Mortgage Professional of the Year.