LoanDepot, Guild, Cenlar, HUD make leadership moves

June 21, 2023 4:00 AM

Cenlar adds mortgage veterans David Schneider, Thomas Donatacci

Left to right: David Schneider, Thomas Donatacci

Cenlar, the mortgage subservicer and federally chartered bank based in Ewing, New Jersey, introduced David Schneider as executive vice president and chief financial officer. In the role, Schneider will oversee vendor relationships and help to guide company strategy, including mergers and acquisitions. Previously a servicing executive for JPMorgan Chase, Schneider also headed mortgage groups at Stearns Lending where he was CEO, Ditech, Washington Mutual and CitiMortgage.

The company also added Thomas Donatacci as senior vice president and investor relations officer. Before coming to Cenlar, Donatacci held senior leadership roles at The Money Source, Impac, Selene Finance and Clayton.

Within its wholesale bank division, the company promoted Keith Austin and Tristan Watson. Austin steps up to director of asset management and valuation services, in charge of managing and mitigating default costs for the bank's loans and mortgage-servicing rights portfolio. Watson was appointed director of subservicing pricing. In his role, he will manage revenue pricing generated by Cenlar subservicing, including for business from both prospective and existing clients.

LoanDepot promotes Alec Hanson to chief marketing officer

Irvine, California-based lender and servicer loanDepot elevated Alec Hanson to chief marketing officer. Formerly a senior vice president of production in the company's West division, Hanson will be in charge of developing brand, digital marketing and lead generation campaigns to better serve loan officers and build awareness of the company's products. Hanson first joined loanDepot in 2011.

His promotion comes as the home lender undergoes a realignment, bringing back its digital business unit with originations and servicing operations in pursuit of its Vision 2025 goal to reduce expenses by up to $400 million. While it ups its marketing efforts with Hanson's promotion, several loanDepot executives recently departed as the company streamlines operations.

Fannie Mae appoints risk expert Chetlur Ragavan to board of directors

Government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae tapped risk-management expert Chetlur Ragavan as a new member of its board of directors. With a background in enterprise risk within the financial services industry, Ragavan will serve on multiple committees at Washington-based Fannie Mae overseeing policy and capital guidance, nominating and corporate governance.

Ragavan is founder and principal of Risk Response, which provides advisory and consulting services to global financial institutions. Previously, he was executive vice president and chief risk officer of Voya Financial, and earlier in his career, Ragavan held executive positions at BlackRock and Merrill Lynch.

Guild Mortgage taps Lamont Watson to head diversity efforts

Photo by Scott Krause

National residential lender and servicer Guild Mortgage appointed Lamont Watson vice president of diverse talent development. He steps into the newly created role after spending more than a decade serving Guild clients as a South Carolina-bassed loan originator and branch manager. He also previously served as a loan officer at JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

Watson will lead San Diego-based Guild's efforts to recruit, build and develop a diverse and inclusive workplace. "To attract and retain diverse talent we will improve our talent development processes, including mentorship and career advancement opportunities," Watson said. In the past year, Guild acquired three new mortgage businesses outright, as well as several branches. Longtime CEO Mary Ann McGarry also announced her retirement, effective July 1.

USMI welcomes Christina Brown, promotes Brendan Kihn

Washington-based U.S. Mortgage Insurers recently announced legal and compliance expert Christina Brown joined the group as vice president and senior counsel. With a background in senior leadership at depository banks, nonbanks and government agencies, Brown will help oversee legal affairs at USMI in support of member interests. Along with prior roles at mortgage lenders, Brown previously served as acting principal deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she helped lead reform efforts and also worked with other government agencies to address legal and regulatory issues during COVID-19.

Along with appointing Brown to her position, USMI also promoted Brendan Kihn to vice president of government relations. He most recently held the title of senior director of government relations. Kihn will continue to represent the association in front of government and housing industry officials in order to help develop legislative and regulatory strategies that will benefit the private mortgage insurance industry, particularly surrounding sustainable homeownership, the health of the home finance system and tax policy.

PRMG brings on new general counsel Aimee Eller

Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, based in Corona, California, appointed legal veteran Aimee Eller general counsel. In the role, Eller will lead PRMG's legal and compliance department, tapping into past experience with independent mortgage banks including Nationstar Mortgage, Freedom Mortgage and Finance of America. More recently, Eller led legal, compliance, quality control and risk management operations at GoPrime Mortgage, where she helped introduce servicing retention and third-party origination lending at the company. Established in 2001, PRMG has branches in 49 states.

FirstClose adds Dan Kellett, elevates Tim Smith, Craig Austin

Left to right: Tim Smith, Dan Kellet, Craig Austin

FirstClose, the mortgage and HELOC lending solutions platform based in Austin, Texas, announced the appointment of Dan Kellett as chief technology officer. Kellett will lead information technology initiatives and strategy across applications, data, cybersecurity and infrastructure at the company to help reduce costs and shorten closing times. A software engineer, Kellett most recently held the position of head of technology and architecture at Blink UX and previously led technology for marketing software firm MarcomCentral.

The fintech also elevated Tim Smith and Craig Austin within its senior executive team. Smith, a co-founder of FirstClose, was appointed chief strategy officer, a newly created leadership role. Smith will manage relationships with the lending industry and regulators to identify and develop new potential partnerships among vendors and credit union and banking associations. Rising up to Smith's former position of chief revenue officer, Austin will be responsible for increasing sales efficiencies to increase growth, overseeing business development, sales and go-to market activity. Austin most recently held the title of executive vice president of sales and business development.

FormFree taps Accenture alum Jonathan Nahil to head technology

Asset-verification technology provider FormFree recently named software architect Jonathan Nahil chief technology officer. Nahil joins the Athens, Georgia-based company from customer-service automation platform Ada and previously held the role of global head of architecture for Accenture's Mortgage Cadence arm. Earlier in his career, Nahil was a senior leader at Twilio and Amazon. In his role, Nahil will lead efforts to develop products enabling lenders to serve a wide range of mortgage borrowers.

Dovemuehle adds Georgeo Pulikkathara, welcomes back Ron Malik

Left to right: Georgeo Pulikkathara, Ron Malik

Mortgage subservicer Dovenmuehle recently announced the addition of Georgeo Pulikkathara and Ron Malik to its leadership team. As the company's new chief information security officer, Pulikkathara will oversee data safety and privacy while ensuring the company has in place necessary controls for financial reporting and client protection. A cyber safety specialist, he has helped lead information security and protection efforts at Bank of the West and DataStax, and worked on teams at Avanade, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.

The Lake Zurich, Illinois-based company also welcomed the return of Ron Malik as senior vice president of default servicing, in which he will be responsible for special initiatives, ensuring regulatory compliance while prioritizing customer needs. Malik recently held a similar servicing leadership role with Wintrust Mortgage, and in a prior tenure with Dovenmuehle, he was the company's vice president of loss mitigation and collections.

The Mortgage Collaborative appoints Melissa Langdale president

Home lending cooperative network The Mortgage Collaborative tapped board member Melissa Langdale president and chief operating officer. With professional background in mortgage, real estate and construction industries, Langdale was first voted onto the TMC board in 2021, and most recently held the role of vice president of mortgage operations at Tomo Mortgage.

As president of the San Diego-based organization, she'll work to grow TMC's value to members during an "ever-changing technology landscape." TMC was established in 2013 in order to serve business needs of small and mid-sized mortgage lenders.

Open Mortgage adds veteran leaders Kathryn Edelen, Ryan Rathert

Austin, Texas-headquartered lender Open Mortgage recently added a new sales director, Kathryn Edelen, and a new vice president of finance, Ryan Rathert. Edelen comes to Open Mortgage from Planet Home Lending, where she was a divisional manager. Previously, she held leadership positions at Nations Lending, Homebridge Financial Services, SunTrust and Bank of America, and served as vice president at loanDepot. Edelen will concentrate on developing Open Mortgage's retail branches and training loan officers.

Rathert was most recently chief financial officer at Panorama Mortgage Group. Before that, he spent eight years at Stearns Lending, leading finance and wholesale lending operations. He has also served at Nationstar Mortgage and Wells Fargo. In his new role at Open Mortgage, Rathert will focus on financial planning, risk management and regulatory compliance.

HUD welcomes return of affordable housing veteran Richard Monocchio

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently swore in Richard Monocchio as principal deputy assistant secretary for public and Indian housing, marking the beginning of his second tenure with the agency. A government policy expert, Monocchio rejoins HUD after several years in the Chicago area, most recently serving as executive director of the Housing Authority of Cook County. Previously he held several leadership roles for the city of Chicago, including first deputy housing commissioner. Earlier in his career, Monocchio served on the federal level as a senior advisor to the late Rep. George Sangmeister and worked at HUD during the Clinton administration.

In his new position, Monocchio will work with public housing organizations and tribal groups to address affordable housing development, access to building capital and support services to youth.

Union Home Mortgage names Linda Thomas Florida regional manager

National lender Union Home Mortgage promoted Linda Thomas to regional manager of Florida operations. Thomas spent the last four years as a Tampa-based district manager of Southwest Florida for Amerifirst Home Mortgage, which UHM acquired last December. In her new role, Thomas said she plans to focus on recruiting more Florida-based loan officers to expand UHM's network in the state. Headquartered in Strongsville, Ohio, UHM merged with Amerifirst last year to expand its national reach, according to company officials.

Mutual of Omaha hires reverse mortgage specialist Geoffrey Wallace

Following a recent acquisition of Keller Mortgage, San Diego-based Mutual of Omaha Mortgage named Geoffrey Wallace director of strategic business. Wallace joins the company after most recently serving as Western regional sales manager of Reverse Mortgage Funding, which ceased originating new loans at the end of 2022. Wallace's experience in the reverse-mortgage segment also includes tenures at Evergreen Home Loans and Metropolitan Home Mortgage.

The addition of Wallace at Mutual of Omaha comes as the lender stands to gain larger market share following the bankruptcy of Reverse Mortgage Funding as well as the merger between industry leaders Finance of America and American Advisors Group. Mutual of Omaha has added over 15 former employees of RMF this year, according to Reverse Mortgage Daily.

Down Payment Resource grows sales and business relationship teams

Left to right: Keith Futrell, Tani Lawrence, Angel Romero, Kathy Gault

Atlanta-based Down Payment Resource, the housing-assistance data provider serving home buyers, lenders and brokers, recently added four new members to advance its sales and relationship-management efforts. Tani Lawrence joins as enterprise sales executive, tasked with driving growth of DPR tools through outreach to housing professionals. She comes to the firm after serving in senior-level sales positions within fintechs and housing technology firms, including Black Knight's Optimal Blue, where she worked in business development.

Also new to DPR is Angel Romero, housing finance agency relationship manager. In the role, she will be responsible for maintaining relationships with HFAs across the country. Romero most recently served at Cherry Creek Mortgage in roles, such as post-closing manager and housing program expert, helping to drive the lender's growth in underserved markets and building awareness of down payment assistance programs.

The company also added Keith Futrell and Kathy Gault as DPA program specialists. With previous roles as a mortgage account manager, processor and underwriter with specialized knowledge of down payment programs, Futrell comes to DPR after most recently serving at Allen Tate Cos. Gault starts at DPR following a tenure at Mountain West Financial, where she curated and managed the company's DPA program roster, ensuring originators were properly trained on their utilization