Selene's growth chief eyes scale, innovation

Selene Holdings' Doug Whittemore on scale, cost, niche loans

August 12, 2025 2:00 PM

Since taking on responsibility for all Selene Holdings' business lines earlier this year, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer Doug Whittemore has been focused on product development and scale by drawing on his 25 years of bank and nondepository experience.

Whittemore — who previously led teams at U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Cooper and Citibank — said he's focused on helping Selene achieve scale while addressing diverse needs clients of the servicing, diligence and title solutions provider have.

"Doug, a seasoned veteran in the industry, brings over two decades of leadership experience in mortgage banking, default servicing operations and strategic growth," Selene CEO Joe Davila said in a press release announcing Whittemore's appointment in May. "His experience leading major strategic initiatives will play a crucial role in Selene's continued advancement in innovation to meet the needs of today's market and tomorrow's opportunities."

In a conversation with National Mortgage News, Whittemore weighed in on the distinct needs of loans that lie outside the qualified mortgage definition, and those that are non- or reperforming. He also discussed technology such as artificial intelligence, industry best practices.

In addition, Whittemore talked about how he works in partnership with Selene Finance President Jocelyn Martin-Leano, who bears responsibility for oversight of that unit's operations and also joined the company earlier this year.

His remarks on all these topics, edited for clarity and length, follow.

A convergence in experience and company goals

Whittemore: Selene continues to grow each year, and at a rapid pace. The company had reached a point where it needed to start thinking about a much larger, scalable operation in terms of how to budget and plan for that.

When I think about my background and what has led me to join Selene, I think about my experience with scale. I worked with large portfolios and learned how to build consensus across a lot of different verticals. It's a balancing act because you have got to be precise and still act fast with a big machine which isn't naturally agile. I know how to drive down costs through innovation.

On Selene’s growth potential

When I heard about this opportunity, I saw this company as one that had potential to grow in innovative ways while focusing on non QM, RPLs, and NPLs. I have a lot of historical experience with all these products and have been thinking about how to innovate on a lot of levels, whether it's in terms of servicing, structure, capital markets or AI. These were the opportunities Selene had been looking at.

My role here is chief of strategy and growth. Jocelyn Martin-Leano will be running the operations and I'll be more focused on clients, new products, and innovation in the way that we service loans.

How servicing needs are shaping up

Whittemore: The capital markets are changing. On the buyside for servicing assets, they've been concentrated more than ever among top 5 servicers out there.

Non QM is a growing segment but it's an estimated 5-7% of the outstanding mortgage debt and we're continuing to help partners focus on that.

Why the current cycle is unique

Whittemore: This cycle is unique because of the home price appreciation that we saw during Covid. If you originated your loan prior to 2022 you have a substantial amount of equity.

Also, home insurance and taxes are starting to put pressure on people's affordability, and it's leading to certain defaults.

The question now is, how do we manage those types of situations to ensure that we're helping our customers with the best solution.

Addressing the needs of niche products

Whittemore: Then you've got RPLs and NPLs that are continuing to trade out there with the non QM loans. The servicing question when it comes to all three of these loan types is how do we preserve, retain and keep the borrowers in their homes?

Before a loan transfer, servicers should use the prior servicer's payment history to identify customer payment patterns, reducing potential payment shock and enabling targeted outreach to customers who deviate from their past behavior.

Where technology makes a difference

Whittemore: We're getting closer and closer to a real estate market that is going to be more and more digital, and it starts with the way buyers are discovering a house. The digital experience has been really focused on the front end. Servicers are starting to catch up with that. But the key is, can you deliver DIY digital solutions to your customers, make them have a much simpler experience with the least amount of friction possible?

Servicers should be focused on ways to create digital content for their customers as opposed to just throwing them in their autodialer.

One of the things I want to do is create digital content for the different messages we want to deliver to customers.

What the advantages of digital content are

Whittemore: Through digital content we want to cater to individual needs and tone to create higher response and customer engagement.

The idea is that once they have the message, they can watch the video at any time. Those are the types of things that I'm excited to bring to Selene's platform.

The great thing about digital content is it's trackable.

Another thing I'm thinking about in my new world is the urgent need for AI. That's something I've seen give companies a huge lift. There's an AI committee here.

Best practices for a variety of loan products

Whittemore: The fact that I get to deal with multiple clients and institutions here is an opportunity because the practices followed on behalf of different investors gets you exposed to multiple ways of doing things. That helps you identify best practices.

We have a long list of third party clients that have varying strategies, opinions and views that we can derive some best practices from.

Some practices may be more effective for some portfolios than others. Whether it's an RPL, non QM or business purpose loan, all those need to be acted on differently.