Mr. Cooper, loanDepot, Marcus & Millichap make leadership moves

June 29, 2021 5:00 AM

Mr. Cooper promotes CFO Chris Marshall to president

Home loan servicer Mr. Cooper has appointed its vice chairman and chief financial officer, Chris Marshall, as its new president. Marshall will continue with his current responsibilities until a new CFO is named. He joined Mr. Cooper Group in 2019, with his efforts helping deliver a strengthened balance sheet and higher financial performance in the last two years. Before coming to Mr. Cooper, Marshall held leadership roles at Bank of America, Fifth Third Bancorp and Ally Bank. He was also a cofounder and CFO at Capital Bank Financial Corporation.

The Dallas-based servicer is aiming to grow its servicing portfolio to $1 trillion, according to Jay Bray, chairman and CEO of Mr. Cooper Group. “With his long track record at major financial institutions, and the contributions he’s made at Mr. Cooper over the last two and a half years, Chris is the right person to lead the business units forward towards this goal,” Bray said.

loanDepot appoints Karin Lockovitch as chief risk officer

Consumer mortgage lender loanDepot announced the hiring of Karin Lockovitch as its new executive vice president and chief risk officer. Lockovitch will manage all aspects of enterprise risk management for the real estate services provider based in Foothill Ranch, California, currently the country’s second largest retail nonbank lender. “We understand the importance of effective risk management to make certain that we continue to deliver our best-in-class experience to our customers, and Karin brings an extremely impressive track record and depth of experience in risk management and compliance," said loanDepot founder and CEO Anthony Hsieh.

Lockovitch joins loanDepot after years of risk-related leadership experience in the banking and fintech industry, including as chief compliance officer at both Bank of the West/BNP Paribas and Zions Bancorporation. She has also held risk-related management roles at SunTrust, Ally Financial, Target Bank, Lehman Brothers and American Express.

First American names Rouz Tabbador chief intellectual property officer

In an effort to grow and monetize its intellectual property portfolio, First American Financial Corporation appointed Rouz Tabbador as vice president and chief intellectual property officer, a new role for the provider of title insurance and settlement services. Tabaddor will be in charge of identifying, protecting and enforcing First American’s intellectual property assets and driving further innovation. He comes with two decades of legal experience, specializing in intellectual property, previously serving as an examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and vice president and deputy general counsel for CoreLogic.

“His expertise will build on the significant investments we’ve made in our intellectual property portfolio and will strengthen our position as the leader in the digital transformation of the title and settlement industry,” said First American Financial’s president Ken DeGiorgio. The company, based in Santa Ana, California, currently has a portfolio with 30 active patents and an additional 13 applications pending, and in 2020, generated $7.1 billion in revenue.

Cenlar hires longtime industry veteran Martin Foster as senior VP

Mortgage subservicer Cenlar FSB, headquartered in Ewing, New Jersey, appointed Martin “Marty” Foster as its new senior vice president of servicing operations. With 35 years in the mortgage industry, Foster has previously worked at companies, such as Countrywide Home Loans and PHH Mortgage, where he was senior vice president of servicing and post closing, overseeing operations across multiple sites.

Foster will apply his technology experience and expertise to automate processes for Cenlar clients and homeowners. “At Cenlar, I want to enhance the execution in operations to drive more client satisfaction while ensuring regulatory and compliance requirements are met. My goal is to build upon the current operation by leveraging both people and technology to create a seamless subservicing platform,” Foster said.

Marcus & Millichap appoints Richard Matricaria, J.D. Parker as joint COOs

Commercial real estate brokerage, Marcus & Millichap, based in Calabasas, California, promoted Richard Matricaria and J.D. Parker to chief operating officer of the firm’s western and eastern divisions. Both have been executive vice presidents with the firm since 2019, overseeing division managers and specialty directors as part of the leadership succession plan. “The vision behind this dual leadership structure is to execute the company’s growth plan more efficiently with expanded leadership bandwidth and the complementary skills of two highly talented executives,” said Hessam Nadji, Marcus & Millichap president and CEO. “This has manifested in successfully driving strategic initiatives such as the expansion of our financing division, Marcus & Millichap Capital Corporation, executing our acquisition plan and bringing new talent to the platform.”

Matricaria has been with the organization since 2000, serving as a retail broker for several years, prior to transitioning into the management team. He headed the Midwest division of Marcus & Millichap in Chicago from 2016-19, before moving to its California headquarters.

Parker joined Marcus & Millichap’s Manhattan office in 2004 as a multifamily agent, before joining management. He opened the firm’s Brooklyn office in 2007, and later, served as regional manager of the New York tri-state area. Parker has also helped lead Marcus & Milichap’s entry into the Canadian market.

DLP Real Estate taps Sandy Jacolow as chief information officer

DLP Real Estate Capital, a financial services and real estate investment firm with headquarters in St. Augustine, Florida, hired Sandy Jacolow as its chief information officer. He will be in charge of DLP’s IT team, responsible for overseeing business capabilities, such as enterprise applications, enterprise architecture, infrastructure, security, and support services, across its entire family of companies. He will also develop strategies to support DLP’s various businesses.

In his three-decade career, Jacolow has held similar CIO positions at other real estate and financial firms, including Meridian Capital, Silverstein Properties, Newmark Knight Frank, Clarion Partners and Jones Lang Wootton. “He comes to our organization with an incredible amount of experience, and I look forward to working closely with Sandy in order to develop strategic and operational plans that will foster innovation, prioritize initiatives, and manage our current and future IT infrastructure across the DLP companies,” said CEO Don Wenner.

Freddie Mac appoints former NY Fed leader Alberto Musalem to board

Freddie Mac announced the election of Alberto Musalem to its board. Musalem is CEO, co-chief investment officer, and a founder of Evince Asset Management, a company developing portfolio technologies and managing a quantitative global fund. Prior to founding the company, he served as executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2014-16 and also previously held roles at Tudor Investment Corp. and the International Monetary Fund.

“Mr. Musalem brings significant finance, capital markets, economics and public policy expertise to our board,” said Sara Mathew, non-executive chair of Freddie Mac’s board of directors. “We welcome him as a highly qualified new member, whose decades of experience position him to play an important role on our risk committee and our compensation and human capital committee.”

Voxtur promotes Jim Albertelli from president to CEO

Data solutions provider Voxtur Analytics Corp. appointed its president Jim Albertelli to CEO at a shareholder meeting in June. Through its proprietary data hub, the company offers analytic solutions to simplify tax, valuation and settlement processes for investors, lenders, servicers and government agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Formed in February 2021 in an acquisition by iLOOKABOUT Corp. of Voxtur Technologies, Bright Line Title, and certain assets of Albertelli, the company has headquarters in Toronto and Tampa. “The business is evolving from data and tech-enabled services to software as a service. The Voxtur team is passionate about innovation, experienced in the real estate finance transaction chain,” said Albertelli.

Albertelli has served as company president since February and possesses over a quarter century of experience in building real estate and technology platforms, such as the first distressed-asset auction website. He was also a founding partner of ALAW, a leading provider of legal services to financial services and the mortgage industry.

NewDay USA adds tech leader Tal Gozhansky in partnership with INVISR

Fulton, Maryland-based Chrysalis Holdings, parent company of Veterans Administration mortgage lender NewDay USA, announced a major investment in INVISR, a digital technology firm focused on streamlining processes for companies across financial services. With the investment, INVISR CEO and cofounder Tal Gozhansky will become chief technology officer of Chrysalis Holdings’s portfolio of companies, including NewDay USA, while he continues his leadership role at INVISR. Through the new partnership, NewDay USA will gain access to INVISR’s proprietary software, Polystack.

Gozhansky previously helped launch Salesforce’s financial services practice in New York and served in other technology roles at major firms before founding INVISR. “Working with a leader like Tal Gozhansky will enable NewDay to establish a unified end-to-end information ecosystem integrating marketing, origination, credit risk and loan-servicing data,” said Rob Posner, CEO of Chrysalis Holdings and NewDay USA. “Partnering with the talented team at INVISR will allow us to provide the right product to the right customer, at the right time, to improve the lives of the veteran families we serve.”

Greystone hires former Barclays leaders Eliav Dan and Alison Coen

Greystone announced the hiring of two senior managing directors, Alison Coen and Eliav Dan, both of whom come to the New York commercial real estate finance company from Barclays.

Coen will be based in Greystone’s New York CMBS lending group, responsible for loan production. She has 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry and most recently served as a managing director at Barclays, where she closed and securitized over $2.6 billion of conduit loans. Prior to joining Barclays, Coen worked at Natixis Real Estate Finance as a CMBS and loan originator and at Citigroup. “Greystone’s ambitions to grow in the CMBS sector was the main draw for me, as I’ve been involved with CMBS lending for the past 10-plus years,” she said.

Dan will be based with the Los Angeles commercial team, focusing on structured large-loan originations, CMBS, balance sheet lending, and Greystone Agency and FHA programs, particularly for institutional and middle-market borrowers. As West Coast head at Barclays, he was responsible for large loan, CMBS, and balance sheet originations. Before coming to Barclays, he headed Ladder Capital’s Los Angeles office. Dan also founded Verona Capital Markets, a boutique real estate advisory firm, and cofounded Morgan Stanley’s West Coast CMBS lending operation. “Eliav’s leadership and long track record of success will be a valuable addition to the team as we expand Greystone’s industry-leading Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD-insured lending platforms into the commercial-lending space,” said Scott Chisholm, Greystone’s executive vice president and head of commercial.

Homeowners Financial hires Leonard Cullip to continue Western growth

Full-service mortgage banker Homeowners Financial Group named 30-year industry veteran Leonard Cullip its West regional manager. Cullip served as senior vice president of strategic growth at Guaranteed Rate prior to joining HFG, and has also held roles at Stearns Lending, PrimeLending and Bank of America. He will oversee market development and analysis across California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii, as HFG continues expansion efforts in the region. HFG is licensed to operate in 31 states. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company generated $3.44 billion of residential mortgages in 2020.

“Len is exactly the type of leader we are looking for as we continue to enhance our retail presence across the country,” said Bill Rogers, president and CEO of HFG. “Len has a proven track record of building and fortifying retail markets on the West Coast.”

Covius appoints Tom Coffey as VP in its Clayton due diligence unit

Covius Holdings, a technology services provider to the financial industry based in Denver, announced the return of Tom Coffey to Clayton, the due-diligence unit of Covius he worked at for 20 years. As Clayton’s vice president of business development, he will be responsible for building and maintaining client relationships related to due-diligence activity. He previously held various roles at Clayton, including in operations, transaction management, sales and human resources. More recently, he was vice president, IT group executive, at FIS Global.

“We are pleased that Tom has returned to Clayton. Our clients and our organization will benefit from his deep industry expertise,” said Pete Pannes, chief business officer of Covius. “At the same time, his leadership and business development skills will accelerate Clayton’s growth as we continue to invest in new technology and resources.”

ChainLogix hires Tim Moreland to grow title and settlement services

Fort Lauderdale based-ChainLogix, which serves the title insurance, settlement and lending industries, announced the appointment of Tim Moreland as senior vice president of operations and strategic business development of its ChainLogix Mortgage Solutions division. Moreland previously held the role of senior vice president, global operations, at Sourcepoint Mortgage. He will be responsible for development of title and settlement offerings, including through acquisitions.

“ChainLogix’s focus on quality and customer service is an essential component of success in title and settlement as well as loan processing services,” Moreland said. “It’s an exciting time for growth in this industry.”

MobilityRE adds Jonas Kruckeberg to manage client growth

MobilityRE, a real estate intelligence provider based in Salt Lake City, announced the hiring of mortgage-technology expert Jonas Kruckeberg as director of growth and client success. Kruckeberg will be in charge of customer engagement with the company’s Mobility Market Intelligence product and also manage sales and customer relationships in an effort to expand the product’s market footprint. “Bringing him on board to spearhead customer engagement and success for MMI is going to help our customers work smarter and grow revenue as the pendulum shifts from red-hot refi to purchase market,” said MobilityRE founder and CEO Ben Teerlink.

Kruckeberg has been responsible for sales and strategy at other mortgage-technology firms, including Top of Mind, a customer relationship management and marketing-automation platform that was recently acquired by Black Knight. Most recently, Kruckeberg held the position of chief revenue officer at Knowledge Coop, a provider of continuing education to mortgage lenders.

Revolution Mortgage taps Chad Hayes to lead new Maine branch

Revolution Mortgage, based in Westerville, Ohio, named Chad Hayes as branch production manager of its newly opened location in Falmouth, Maine. Following a career as an NFL pro, Hayes joined the mortgage industry over a decade ago and has served customers at Nation One Mortgage and Residential Mortgage Services, where he was a senior loan officer, before coming to Revolution Mortgage.

The Falmouth branch is Revolution Mortgage’s second in Maine, continuing the company’s expansion this year. The lender has added 13 new branches to its network so far in 2021, with plans for an additional 15 by the end of 2021. The company currently serves clients in 31 states via its digital lending platform and brick-and-mortar offices.

Geneva Financial names Alex Milburn first Kentucky branch manager

Direct mortgage lender Geneva Financial announced the opening of a new branch in Lexington, Kentucky — its first in the state — to be led by native Kentuckian Alex Milburn as branch manager. Milburn has extensive experience in the Kentucky market, becoming a top producing originator in the state while with Fairway Independent Mortgage. He started his industry career at Movement Mortgage in 2018.

Geneva Financial, with headquarters in Chandler, Arizona, currently operates more than 130 offices in 45 states, with plans for additional expansion and hiring this year.

Ross Mortgage hires Scott Morris as manager of new Virginia office

Full-service residential lender Ross Mortgage opened its first branch in Virginia, appointing Scott Morris to lead the office in Culpeper. An expert in the local market with over four years of experience, Morris will be responsible for loan origination, branch operations and community outreach to the real estate community.

Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, Ross Mortgage is licensed to operate in 14 states and has 17 branches spread across Michigan and four Southern states.

Mortgage Network names Craig Skinner loan officer in South Carolina

Independent lender Mortgage Network announced the addition of Craig Skinner as a loan officer at its branch in Lexington, South Carolina. A native of the state, Skinner served as a personal financial advisor with Edward Jones prior to joining Mortgage Network.

Based in Danvers, Massachusetts, Mortgage Network is licensed to operate in 27 states and has 35 branches.