Taking charge in a male-dominated industry

By Lesley Collins

This year’s HousingWire Women of Influence list recognizes a remarkable group of women in housing who represent the pinnacle of excellence and innovation. These extraordinary women have shattered glass ceilings, defied expectations and carved a path of success through their dedication, expertise and unwavering commitment to transforming the housing landscape. Through their visionary leadership, they have propelled the industry forward, driving change, fostering inclusivity and taking the reigns as female executives in a traditionally male industry.

From leading mortgage companies and real estate firms to spearheading groundbreaking initiatives and driving policy reforms, these honorees are making an indelible impact on housing. Their collective expertise spans the entire spectrum of the sector, encompassing areas such as lending, tech, real estate, appraisal, compliance, operations, sales and so much more.

As President of Auction.com, Ali Haralson’s determination and grit have helped the company recently surpass 500,000 homes sold, with over $62 billion in total sales and 6.9 million registered users.

Dr. Lesli Gooch has dedicated her career to ensuring that quality, affordable housing is available and attainable for all. In her current role as CEO at Manufactured Housing Institute, she is focused on addressing the nation’s housing shortage.

President and CEO of Anywhere Franchise Brands, Liz Gehringer, is on a mission to create a better future for underrepresented groups looking to make their mark in the real estate market. She has spearheaded the growth of Agents of Change, What Moves Her and the Inclusive Ownership Program, the latter of which was created to help increase representation of entrepreneurs in the real estate industry in diverse populations including ethnic and racial groups, women, LGBTQ+ and veterans.

Cristy Conolly, executive vice president of appraisal modernization at Class Valuation, uses her 20plus years of experience in the industry to inform the policies and protocols she implements. In the past year, Class Valuation has seen an up to 80% reduction in underwriting revisions and 65% reduction in consumer requests for reconsideration thanks to the protocols implemented by Conolly.

The following list of honorees comprises many more examples of exceptional leadership from some of the industry’s most accomplished women.

Congratulations to the 2023 Women of Influence winners.

Kellie Allen Vice President of Production Synergy

One Lending

Kellie Allen, vice president of production at Synergy One Lending, is a mortgage company’s ideal leader. Allen exudes integrity and professionalism from production and P&L management to partnership.

A top-10 originator for Synergy five years running, Allen had nearly $100 million in volume in 2021 while also managing her branch. Her branch has ranked as top three in the company by volume 21 of the last 24 months and is the highest profit branch in the last 12 months. On top of her and her team’s production impact, Allen was an original member of Synergy’s Leadership Council, charged with making executive recommendations on behalf of the sales force. She was also an inaugural member of the Women’s Leadership Group, where she and other elite Synergy teammates focus on both professional and personal development that in turn lifts the entire organization. Add in that she is the primary sales advocate with Synergy’s credit policy and closing teams and does coaching sessions to help loan officers better utilize their tech stack in their business and she comes pretty close to doing it all!

Michelle Anderson Senior Vice President of Client and Investor Relations LoanCare

As Senior Vice President of Client and Investor Relations at LoanCare, Michelle Anderson leads with confidence and empathy, showing remarkable integrity in advocating for her clients, investors and agency partners. Always extending a hand to her team, Anderson is passionate about guiding future women leaders, fighting for what she believes in and jumping into any situation to help get the job done. With over 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, from loss mitigation and default servicing to exam management and performing loan servicing to her current role managing client and investor relations, Anderson has a depth and diversity of knowledge that is hard to rival and makes her an integral part of her team and the organization’s success. She understands the industry intimately and can fluently articulate goals, strategies and solutions that benefit LoanCare. With a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude to leadership, Anderson never shies away from diving headfirst into any project or problem. She is a master at facilitating conversations without losing sight of the end goal. Managing the often-competing priorities of her agency, client and internal partners is no easy task and Anderson does so efficiently and effectively.

Nancy Alley Vice Persident of Product Strategy ICE Mortgage Technology

As Vice President of Product Strategy at ICE Mortgage Technology, Nancy Alley is responsible for the strategic planning and execution of the Encompass lending platform. As a long time leader in the advancement of the mortgage industry’s digitization journey, she has an unwavering focus on her customers and leads her team to deliver the technology today’s mortgage lenders need to operate more efficiently and deliver the experience borrowers want. Beyond her role at ICE, Alley has been involved with a number of industry organizations that are focused on moving the industry forward. Alley embodies ICE’s dedication to teamwork and collaboration. She not only knows how to effectively partner with colleagues across our organization to drive results and improvements across the mortgage workflow, but she also enables those across the industry to better connect with each other as well. Everything she does comes back to the goal of helping customers succeed and ensuring that ICE’s solutions are designed to support their needs. Through Alley and her team’s work, mortgage lenders are able to drive manufacturing velocity, streamline workflows and shift their mindset of how work gets done.

Cindy Ariosa Senior Vice President Long & Foster Real Estate

As Senior Vice President of Long & Foster Real Estate, Cindy Ariosa directly manages over 40 offices, with sales in excess of $6 billion annually. She also serves as chairman of the board of directors of Bright MLS, one of the country’s largest MLS organizations. Bright MLS has over 100,000 subscribers who in turn serve millions of home buyers and sellers throughout six states and the District of Columbia in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Ariosa leads with an incredible amount of energy, passion and dedication to Bright’s subscribers and the consumers they serve. As board chair, Ariosa works with colleagues on Bright’s board to ensure the organization is constantly evolving and continues to position the organization as a leader in the industry. Ariosa’s expertise in managing operations, budgets, mergers and acquisitions gives her a valuable perspective as board chair during a critical time for Bright MLS, as the organization in partnership with other industry leaders, investors and participants launched three separate joint ventures during the past 12 months. Ariosa’s contributions to working among numerous participants to stand up the joint ventures that are reinventing the MLS’ role in organized real estate have been invaluable.

Patty Arvielo Co-Founder and CEO New American Funding

Patty Arvielo is a self-made entrepreneur who co-founded one of the nation’s largest Hispanic-owned mortgage companies, New American Funding (NAF). However, her influence extends far beyond the mortgage industry. She is an active investor and leader of companies that uplift and empower the Hispanic community. Arvielo is also an ardent advocate for education who recently became the first Hispanic woman to have a business school named in her honor. She is a leader who guides the next generation through mentorship, a sought-after expert on overcoming the racial wealth gap and much more. In 2023, Arvielo became CEO of NAF alongside her husband, Rick Arvielo, who also serves as CEO. Together, the Arvielos have led New American Funding to heights never before seen in the company’s history. In spite of the challenging mortgage market, NAF’s foundation has remained strong, enabling the company to continue growing at a time when most other companies are shrinking. This comes as the direct result of Arvielo’s efforts as a leader of the company she helped found in 2003. Today, she manages the company’s operations and sales, while overseeing 176 locations and nearly 3,500 employees nationwide.

Lysette Bailey Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer Common Securitization Solutions

Lysette Bailey joined Common Securitization Solutions (CSS) as chief risk officer in March 2022 after spending a significant part of her career at large financial institutions and regulatory entities. Since joining CSS, she has made a tremendous impact on the company in helping to lead and develop CSS as a systemically important organization critical to the success of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Uniform Mortgage-Backed Securities (UMBS) program, enabling the well-being and stability of the U.S. housing market. Bailey takes on an important leadership role within the CSS executive committee, helping to improve management and results related to the support of the core UMBS business for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Over the last year, Bailey’s exceptional leadership contributed to the issuance of $2.46 trillion in UMBS and the administration and management of a securities portfolio that exceeds $6.4 trillion in unpaid principal balances, representing 33 million loans.

Maneesha Asundi Senior Principal IT Product Manager Mr Cooper

Maneesha Asundi is a transformational leader who embraces vulnerability, builds relationships and communicates transparently. She has had a significant impact on modernizing platforms in the industry. Constantly adapting to incorporate cutting-edge technology and creating process efficiencies, she drives operational efficiencies and is instrumental in helping Mr Cooper build a competitive advantage to serve customers. As a product manager for the platform team, Asundi led multiple groups to build cloud-native solutions that captured real-time changes in loan processing and developed the B2B gateway to obtain relevant loan data from over 16 vendors and nearly 60 data points into the ecosystem. These initiatives to get digital, machine-readable data resulted in enhanced operational efficiencies, improved data accuracy and contributed to a delightful customer experience. The potential for continued efficiencies demonstrates the effectiveness of these initiatives and their ability to drive positive financial outcomes. By prioritizing process efficiency, data accuracy, vendor relationships, customer experience, scalability and continuous improvement, Mr Cooper has realized significant cost savings and positioned itself for further success.

Kathy Baker Executive Vice President of Learning Realty ONE Group

For more than 30 years, Kathy Baker has served as a consultant, coach, trainer, speaker and executive in the industry, mentoring legions of entrepreneurs and Realtors to create successful careers and live their best lives. Baker believes that teamwork, attitude and leadership are the keys to success and she’s brought all three to Realty ONE Group. Baker’s energy, humor and southern charm make her unforgettable as executive vice president of learning. She has been recognized by real estate’s most prominent organizations and stakeholders as one of the most influential leaders in the industry and was recently named a 2022 RISMedia Newsmaker. In the past five years, Baker has co-created one of the industry’s leading education and coaching platforms, ONE University, which promotes thousands of courses — online, in person, via masterminds and more — to its global affiliates. The company’s Realtors depend on the organization’s coaching systems, training and mastermind groups for their ongoing success. A consultant, coach, trainer, speaker and industry executive, Baker continues to host weekly virtual coaching calls for both real estate professionals and broker-owners, as well as in-person training and coaching around the country.

Meghan Bartholomew Executive Vice President of Credit and Counterparty Risk Management Radian

Meghan Bartholomew is the executive vice president of credit and counterparty risk management at Raidan. She ensures the health of Radian’s mortgage insurance portfolio. Bartholomew has raised her hand countless times to volunteer for meaningful initiatives outside of her core responsibilities, joining the core team of Radian’s Affordable Homeownership Advisory Council and helping spearhead the company’s cornerstone partnership with the MBA to launch CONVERGENCE Philadelphia. Under Bartholomew’s leadership, Radian is not only maintaining its strong position as a critical partner in low-cost down payment mortgage financing but also positioning itself to help solve the challenges of housing affordability and homeownership equality. Throughout her career, Bartholomew has used her influence as a senior executive to bring more women to the table where business decisions are made and has built a strong team that includes women in a majority of senior management roles. In an industry where women remain underrepresented in leadership roles, her efforts to advance high-achieving women at Radian are shifting the paradigm.

Rachel Beam Director of Collateral Policy and Equity

Fannie Mae

Rachel Beam is driving positive change to foster a more effective, efficient and impartial home valuation process. As the director of collateral policy and equity at Fannie Mae, Beam leads critical valuation modernization initiatives and actions to drive more accurate appraisals and minimize bias, which benefits lenders and mortgage borrowers. A passionate advocate for equity and diversity in the appraiser profession, Beam co-founded the Appraiser Diversity Initiative (ADI) and has guided its growth. In the past 12 months, Beam has taken on an expanded role in Fannie Mae, leading a reorganized collateral policy team and directing groundbreaking text scanning work and other initiatives to minimize appraisal bias. Beam is a passionate, charismatic leader whose belief in Fannie Mae’s mission shines through everything she does. She has empathy for people and leadership skills to match, inspiring her team by example and tone which leads to strong business results. Since its inception in 2018, Beam has provided the vision and energy that are the driving forces in the ADI. Recently, ADI has expanded to be a true industry collaboration including Freddie Mac and the Appraisal Institute.

Jennifer Battista President of Operations and Insurance, Title - Settlement Services

Anywhere Integrated Services

Jennifer Battista is a champion of growth across the Anywhere Integrated Services family of companies. Her responsibilities have continually expanded throughout her 28 years with the company. In addition to being president of multiple successful title companies — including REAL Tech Title, which she built from the ground up — Battista was named president of Anywhere Insurance Agency in 2022. As a leader, Battista performs at the highest level of excellence and encourages the next level of leaders to truly embody the same spirit. Throughout her career, Battista has maintained a strong connection and commitment to agents, consumers and her peers, earning her a reputation for being truly in touch with others’ needs. Her determination, wit and willingness to share her expertise to help colleagues grow their careers truly embodies why she is a woman of influence in the real estate industry. Battista’s demonstrated strengths throughout her career have led her to oversee six title companies, which have more than 100 employees across the country. Her unique company culture is made up of 90% remote staff, working to fulfill the needs of clients in 31 states.

Felecia Bowers Senior Vice President and Director of Compliance and Servicing Homeowners Financial Group

Felecia Bowers leads the distinguished compliance team at Homeowners Financial Group and is instrumental in the education and development of her industry colleagues. She is a subject matter expert for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), and has been instrumental in the development and growth of compliance programs and opportunities for compliance professionals across the country. In 2021, the MBA recognized Bowers for her contributions to the Certified Mortgage Compliance Professional (CMCP) curriculum by presenting her with the Ken Markison Legacy Achievement Award. The CMCP is the only certification and designation program geared exclusively to the mortgage compliance industry, making Bowers a key player in moving the entire field forward. In her role at Homeowners Financial Group, Bowers is responsible for overseeing all the legal regulations and requirements related to originating and servicing mortgage products. Bowers always has her eye on the big picture and is committed to maintaining the highest levels of integrity at all times, all while enabling Licensed Mortgage Professionals to succeed.

Laura Brandao Chief Strategy Officer and Partner Equity Prime Mortgage

Laura Brandao is the chief strategy officer and partner at Equity Prime Mortgage (EPM). She has made significant contributions to the mortgage business in impactful and positive ways for over 20 years by championing the values of diversity, inclusivity and equality for all. Brandao’s energy, compassion and positive mindset are well-known and respected across the mortgage industry. Brandao’s vision for that company is laser-focused on empowering clients with knowledge, opportunities and the educational tools they need to navigate the mortgage process with ease and clarity. EPM has also referred to EPM as meaning “Empowering People More” with the goal to increase the company’s clientele by embracing equality and diversity and becoming the face of the mortgage industry in all communities in the country. By working to become part of communities big and small, and including every ethnicity, creed and culture, Brandao’s vision is to provide opportunities for home ownership and financial success to everyone on an equal basis. EPM is committed to the cause of promoting and supporting women in the mortgage industry through encouragement, education and providing opportunities for women to grow and succeed in their careers.

Stephanie Casper Chief Revenue Officer Kiavi

Stephanie Casper is the chief revenue officer at tech-enabled lender Kiavi, one of the nation’s largest private lenders to residential real estate investors (REIs) with over $13 billion in funded loans. In addition to leading all of Kiavi’s revenue-driving functions, including all sales, marketing, pricing and partnership teams, Casper is an accomplished real estate investor herself with a growing portfolio of rental properties. Her leadership and creative strategies have driven unprecedented levels of growth for Kiavi. Thanks to Casper, Kiavi has reached volume milestones never before seen in the private lending industry and continues to grow in market share despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. Under Casper’s leadership, Kiavi funded a record $4.4 billion in loan volume to more than 5,600 customers in 2022, and it became the first and only private lender to real estate investors to fund over 50,000 bridge and fix-and-flip loans. She also played a leadership role in shepherding Kiavi through the most challenging and uncertain time period it has ever seen and creatively adjusted Kiavi’s pricing, sales, marketing and channel partner strategies to ensure the company not only survived the market downturn but thrived during it.

Brooke Carillo Chief Financial Officer Redwood Trust

As Chief Financial Officer at Redwood Trust, Brooke Carillo’s visionary leadership and forward-thinking mentality have transformed the company’s financial operations. Her exceptional communication skills have fostered a collaborative environment that encourages cross-functional teamwork, enabling effective decision-making and the implementation of transformative initiatives. She oversees finance, treasury, capital markets, technology, strategy and investor relations in a constantly changing market landscape. Carillo led efforts that enhanced the company’s long-term strategic positioning and optionality. These efforts included: capital optimization, new partnerships, financing enhancements, new investments and cost savings across the board. Carillo was integral to identifying and then closing Redwood’s acquisition of Riverbend Lending in April 2023, which added a new asset and complementary footprint to Redwood’s existing business. Carillo has been integral to the company’s ability to grow liquidity through financing efficiencies as well as establish various capital formation partnerships. She streamlined evolution of Redwood’s financial segment reporting, enhancing how investors and analysts are able to analyze and understand the financial results.

Tai Christensen Co-Founder and Chief Diversity Officer Arrive Home

Tai Christensen wants to close the real estate wealth gap that’s locking minority borrowers out of homeownership. Christensen recently co-founded Arrive Home, a social enterprise dedicated to helping responsible borrowers in underserved communities through alternative credit solutions and down payment assistance. It’s a systemic problem plaguing our country, according to Christensen, and anyone working in the lending industry right now should be actively solving it. Christensen is motivated by her unwavering belief that helping underserved borrowers achieve sustainable homeownership enables them to build generational wealth — a key ingredient to social mobility and financial security. Christensen works with government entities, lenders and nonprofits to offer innovative and diverse mortgage products designed to enable correspondent lenders to confidently deliver loans to reliable borrowers who qualify under FHA guidelines. Christensen’s commitment to increasing homeownership among minorities compels her to be a vocal participant in the mortgage space, speaking at multiple industry conferences and appearing regularly on mortgage-related podcasts in an effort to engage lending professionals about how they, too, can play a role in creating sustainable change.

Robin Clayton Director of Digital Lending and Marketing Paramount Residental

Mortgage Group

Robin Clayton is the director of digital lending and marketing at Paramount Residential Mortgage Group (PRMG). She has been with PRMG for just under three years and within a year she was promoted to the company’s senior management board of directors. Clayton runs PRMG’s digital marketing and lending team which is a performance marketing and metric-based approach to generating revenue from digital marketing. Clayton has a significant influence on the company’s entire 2,100-person team. In the last 12 months, she has helped grow her team to support all three of the company’s channels. She has also helped groom others on her team to be promoted and lead other initiatives. When PRMG transitioned to a new CRM platform three years ago, the company needed an expert and Clayton was the right person for the challenge. She has since helped create multiple integrations of tech vendors within PRMG’s dashboard to serve all three channels. Originators that embrace multiple technology platforms that her team supports are more successful statistically and have a very high retention rate.

Loran Coleman Vice President of Brokerage Operations, East U.S. eXp Realty

Loran Coleman brings more than 20 years of real estate industry experience to her role as the vice president of Brokerage Operations for the eastern United States. Coleman joined eXp Realty in 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic as regional operations manager-central, responsible for the operations management of 12 U.S. states. She was quickly promoted to vice president of brokerage operations for the East in March 2022, responsible for the successful operations of the eastern U.S., supporting more than 200 staff members and 45,000 agents. Coleman’s experience ranges from residential and commercial property inspector to investor and property manager. She even has experience as a licensed broker in six states and supervising broker and regional vice president for the second-largest real estate firm in the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors (KCRAR) area, covering 36 counties with 12,500 realtor members. Coleman served two terms as a board director for KCRAR and currently serves as a commissioner for the Missouri Real Estate Commission. She is masterful in taking the initiative from inception to full fruition, ensuring strategic goals are met in a manner that best serves all stakeholders.

Susan Connally Managing Director of Servicing Solutions

The Oakleaf Group

Susan Connally is the managing director of servicing solutions at Oakleaf. Her ability to understand client needs, deliver tailored solutions and foster collaboration across different sectors showcases her expertise and unwavering dedication. Moreover, Connally’s contributions extend beyond Oakleaf, as she actively contributes to advancing the mortgage industry as a whole. Her remarkable achievements and inspirational leadership make her a true role model for aspiring women leaders, setting a high standard of excellence and leaving a lasting impact on the industry. Connally’s contributions to Oakleaf since she joined in 2021 have made her an indispensable member of the company. She successfully established a new line of business focused on mortgage servicing, including loan-level reviews and advisory services. Current and recent engagements include loan reviews for service transfer data integrity, the accuracy of insurance information and fee reimbursement to borrowers, while advisory work to date includes mortgage servicing compliance requirements. Connally’s efforts in building relationships with prospective clients and partners have resulted in multiple, ongoing engagements with key customers, further enhancing Oakleaf’s position in the industry.

Cristy Conolly Executive Vice President of Appraisal Modernization Class Valuation

As a respected and influential leader, Cristy Conolly embodies her title as executive vice president of appraisal modernization at Class Valuation. Conolly focuses on a key part of valuation modernization — the responsible standardization of appraisal data. In doing so, she plays a crucial role in eradicating appraisal bias through the use of appraisal technology. Conolly joined Class Valuation in April 2022 via company acquisition. In that short time, she has proved to be a vital asset to Class Valuation and continues to be a dominant leader in the appraisal space. She uses her 20-plus years of experience in the industry and knowledge as a licensed appraiser to inform the policies and protocols she implements. She has a strong focus on collaboration with industry stakeholders to improve outdated processes and bring equality and diversity into the industry. In the past year, she has implemented the company’s first appraisal bias and diversity protocols. This includes bias-based keyword searches in appraisal reports and fair housing training for all staff. Thanks to Conolly’s efforts, every appraiser employed by Class Valuation takes an appraisal course specific to fair housing and discrimination as it relates to appraising.

Elly Cummings Divisonal Senior Vice President, Great Lakes and South Florida New American Funding

As Divisional Senior Vice President, Great Lakes and South Florida of New American Funding, Elly Cummings is one of the company’s most valuable assets. Cummings is the strong leader her entire region both loves and respects and single-handedly kept her region afloat when the industry contracted by almost 50% in 2022. Cummings made sacrifices so New American Funding could ride the rollercoaster in the market and make it to the other side without closing its doors. In the last 12 months, Cummings has been dedicated to supporting the underserved initiative and increasing our division’s reach by 28% to the underserved markets with the goal of making homeownership accessible to all. She does this by helping loan officers teach classes on home readiness and by supporting local organizations, like the Twin Cities Diversity Fair, in their mission to empower Black, Indigenous and people of color to close the racial disparity gap. Last year, Cummings was named a Twin Cities Notable Women in Banking & Finance, a Top Women in Finance and led her region to win awards like “Top 200 Workplace” and “Best Places to Work” by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal among many other accomplishments.

Julia Curran Senior Director of Product Design SitusAMC

Julia Curran, senior director of product design at SitusAMC, knows that origination, secondary marketing and servicing all are intertwined thanks to her involvement in the mortgage industry for such a significant amount of time. Curran leverages her extensive industry knowledge within SitusAMC to help develop technology that supports the industry. In the past 12 months, SitusAMC has focused on elevating its technology solutions across the real estate finance lifecycle. Curran has been committed to and leading the development of technology that creates a more connected and efficient loan ecosystem for clients from origination through securitization. To achieve this, Curran is leading the charge at SitusAMC on the implementation of innovative technology systems with comprehensive data sets that seamlessly integrate with clients’ established operations and platforms, informing better decision-making, reducing transaction times, increasing accuracy, enhancing transparency and ultimately lowering the cost to originate. Outside of her work at SitusAMC, Curran also serves as a foster family for dogs until they find homes and has helped find a forever home for over a dozen dogs.

Rachel Cunningham Vice President of Customer Service TrustEngine

Rachel Cunningham has made a great impact on TrustEngine and its clients during her multi-year tenure leading customer service at the company. Her dedication to supporting lenders’ success has netted a 97% customer support satisfaction score, strengthened customer retention and directly contributed to TrustEngine’s meteoric market adoption and revenue growth. Cunningham has proven herself to be a highly adept leader who uplifts her team, organization and lenders at every turn. During the merger of Sales Boomerang and Mortgage Coach, Cunningham restructured customer success into three divisions to better serve clients under a unified brand. Her enhancements to the company’s onboarding procedures eliminated 95% of the implementation backlog in a single quarter. Her coaching of the customer success team to take on an advisory approach to account management resulted in exceeding retention targets. In early 2023, Cunningham announced she will serve as a founding mentor in the Women in Customer Success Power Up mentorship program. Women of Customer Success is a global community for all women in customer experience and those wanting to break into the technology industry.

Roxana Davidoff CEO Big Purple Dot

Under the guidance of Roxana Davidoff, the CEO and founder of Big Purple Dot, the organization has revolutionized the real estate and mortgage industry with its cutting-edge software solutions. Davidoff’s relentless drive, strategic vision and dedication to empowering women in business make her an exemplary role model for aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere. In the past 12 months, Davidoff has demonstrated outstanding professional excellence and leadership within Big Purple Dot, propelling the company to unprecedented heights. Her strategic decision-making and innovative approach have resulted in remarkable milestones and achievements. Davidoff played a pivotal role in spearheading strategic partnerships — including a collaboration with CoreLogic — positioning Big Purple Dot as a key provider of recruiting solutions in the industry and expanding its presence into new markets. Davidoff has fostered a culture of collaboration and excellence, leading to notable advancements in product development and remarkable revenue growth for the company. As a result of this culture, Big Purple Dot was also the first company in the industry to successfully launch the industry’s first integrated platform with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, revolutionizing the way lenders and real estate agents engage with clients.

Jan Davis Vice President of Operations MISMO

Jan Davis is recognized as a leader in the mortgage finance industry with expertise in managing standards development, mortgage operations and data warehousing activities. This year, she stepped up to serve MISMO, a subsidiary of the MBA, as its acting president during a leadership transition while continuing to maintain her current responsibilities. Currently, she serves as the vice president of operations at MISMO, where she is responsible for managing MISMO operations and governance. Davis has played an important role in MISMO’s work to increase efficiency and reduce costs, enhance interoperability and accelerate the industry’s digital future. Her unmatched attention to detail and team management skills are an asset to the organization. As part of her work leading operations at MISMO, Davis brings together experts and practitioners across the mortgage finance industry for events focused on pressing business topics. The MISMO Winter Summit, held in January 2023, had a record number of attendees and Davis regularly plans three MISMO Summits each year.

Sarah Dekin President and Chief Operating Officer Hometap

Sarah Dekin brings a powerful combination of strategy, product and marketing experience in both the consumer and B2B spaces to her role as president and chief operating officer at Hometap. Prior to joining the team, she successfully built and led highly motivated, effective teams for many well-known brands, including Zipcar, House of Blues, California Pizza Kitchen and Virgin. Dekin was one of the company’s very first employees. She joined as chief marketing officer in 2017 and has continually and tirelessly worked not only to create and refine the marketing organization but also to establish home equity investments as a new, credible product category within the home financing industry. Since her early days with Hometap, Dekin has been a consummate leader and collaborative colleague that is dedicated to both her team and the homeowners Hometap serves, always working to ensure clear communication, transparency and focus. Dekin also serves as an inspiration to other women in technology and recently participated in a virtual fireside chat in which she shared her story, career background and strategies for success with fellow female colleagues at Hometap.

Victoria Garcia DeLuca VIce President of Marketplace Diversity Strategy Guild Mortgage

Victoria Garcia DeLuca’s journey from a loan officer to sales manager, regional manager and now a senior leader in the mortgage industry demonstrates her exceptional leadership skills and relentless work ethic. Throughout her career, DeLuca has consistently surpassed expectations, driving growth and achieving remarkable results. DeLuca has demonstrated exceptional professional excellence and leadership within her organization, particularly in the last 12 months. Her contributions have been instrumental in driving the success and growth of Guild Mortgage. Commitment to mentorship and professional development is evident in her active involvement in trade organizations and volunteer work. As a corporate board member of NAHREP, an advisory council member for the American Mortgage Diversity Council and a board director for TLACC, she plays a crucial role in advancing the industry and fostering diversity and inclusion. Her efforts have not only helped Guild establish strong relationships with these trade organizations but have also made a significant impact on the communities they serve. She is recognized as a thought leader in the mortgage industry, regularly speaking at conferences and industry events.

Jenna Evans Executive Vice President, Deputy Counsel, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer

Ocwen Financial Group

Jenna Evans is a talented and well-respected leader at Ocwen and has more than 12 years of experience with the company. As executive vice president, deputy counsel and chief risk and compliance officer, she has led Ocwen through the ever-changing and complex regulatory environment. At the same time, Evans continues to be a champion for diversity and developing women leaders as the executive sponsor of the Ocwen Global Women’s Network, composed of more than 2,000 employees. Evans has served as the company’s lead attorney for regulatory affairs since 2016 and expanded her leadership responsibilities since then. She is adept at handling sensitive and critically important regulatory matters and is a trusted adviser to the board of directors, CEO and broader management team. Evans consistently demonstrates outstanding leadership skills and has been instrumental in further strengthening the company’s compliance and control environment.

Susan Falsetti Managing Director of Origination Title and Close ServiceLink

Susan Falsetti, managing director of origination title and close at ServiceLink, is a servant leader with a people-first mindset. Taking exceptional care in the development and success of her team, her willingness to roll up her sleeves and assist when facing a challenge has helped her earn their respect and admiration. Falsetti’s impact on the origination title and close group at ServiceLink is vast and meaningful. She is a mentor to many within the organization and always makes time to sit with direct reports and mentees and provide a listening ear or coach them through challenges they may be facing; an approach that is all too rare in today’s fast-paced world. Over the last 12 months, Falsetti doubled down on her customer-centric and people-first approach. She, along with her team, took the time to speak with clients one-on-one and understand their unique challenges. Her approach was effective, demonstrating to clients that she and her team will go above and beyond to help them continue to grow their market share, regardless of market conditions.

Stephenie Flood Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Operations RE/MAX Gold Nation

Stephenie Flood has become a key leader not only with RE/MAX Gold Nation but within the whole RE/MAX world as a visible leader of her company. Through her efforts in creating The Juggernaut Podcast, MEC “Wins-Days” and the partnership with Children’s Miracle Network, which will lead to total donations in excess of $2 million during 2023, she has established herself as a leader and expert in speaking and motivating others both within the company and beyond. Flood leads a team of dedicated directors and staff who oversee the relationship between RE/MAX’s amazing real estate agents and the rest of the company. Flood focuses on leading and cheering on a team of more than 70 administrators, transaction coordinators, accounting staff and directors to help take them to new levels of productivity and job satisfaction. She has created a culture that drives engagement within the employee population at the service center that makes them want to come to the office.

Vanessa Famulener President of HomeLight Homes HomeLight

Vanessa Famulener, the president of HomeLight Homes, which encompasses HomeLight’s flagship financial products, HomeLight Cash Offer and HomeLight Buy Before You Sell, is a driving force within the real estate industry. Her leadership and innovation have and will continue to empower top real estate agents and their clients to compete and win in today’s market. Throughout the past year, Famulener has demonstrated remarkable resilience in navigating a dynamic and increasingly uncertain real estate market. Despite these challenges, she has played a pivotal role in propelling HomeLight’s growth, transforming it into the country’s largest agent-focused cash offer program. Moreover, she has consistently been a backbone for her team, colleagues, real estate agents and buyers and sellers. Famulener’s strong leadership and unwavering confidence have been instrumental in overseeing the continuous development and expansion of HomeLight’s flagship financial products. While other property-tech companies have retreated, she has paved the path and steered HomeLight and its agent partners in the right direction toward exponential growth and success.

Erika Franks President ACT Appraisal

Erika Franks has a long-standing love for real estate. She is the president of ACT Appraisal Inc. She has worked hard to establish excellent working relationships with thousands of appraisers across the nation over the past 20 years. Franks has surrounded herself with an excellent team that assists her on a daily basis. Her interest in real estate developed from an interest in purchasing property and the feeling that everyone deserves a place to live. Since 1998, Franks has excelled in several leadership roles at ACT Appraisal, a full-service real estate appraisal management company that operates nationally and handles everything throughout the appraisal process. Attributing much of her success to her magnificent team, who have been with her since the beginning, Franks is perpetually motivated by her customers and finds great satisfaction in ensuring that her clients receive the best possible experience and outcome with their transactions. She helps clients find their dream homes and has made a name for herself in the field by adding a personal touch to every single transaction.

Maria Gallucci Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary Freedom Mortgage

Maria Gallucci serves as executive vice president and corporate secretary for Freedom Mortgage Corporation. She has over 30 years of tenure at the company, and she is an authorized signatory of Freedom Mortgage who oversees all of corporate funding. She has been instrumental in ensuring Freedom Mortgage funds all loans it has undersigned or purchased. In just 2022 alone, Freedom Mortgage serviced the mortgages of nearly 2 million homeowners representing over $452 billion in loans — the majority funded by Gallucci’s team. Gallucci has extensive experience in all aspects of mortgage lending and has repeatedly proven herself to be a trusted leader. Her leadership and attention to detail have earned her the authority to sign documents like contracts and checks on behalf of Freedom Mortgage, one of the largest VA and FHA mortgage lenders in the country. In addition to being the corporate secretary, Gallucci oversees a team of nearly 50 professionals in funding, collateral, post-closing and insuring, which includes the responsibility of all daily fundings for all divisions, including loan modifications and daily reconciliations.

Alayna Gardner Director of Sales and Marketing LodeStar Software Solutions

As a veteran of the luxury hospitality industry, Alayna Gardner brings a standard of excellence, personality and service to her sales and content marketing strategies in the mortgage tech industry. As director of sales and marketing, she innovates effortlessly, plans tirelessly and enjoys surprising and delighting leads and clients alike with unexpected perks, benefits and solutions. Throughout 2022, Gardner designed a sales and marketing budget that took all of the anxiety out of embracing new opportunities and investing in key relationships. She helped collaborate on the design and launch of different usage tiers and price levels for LodeStar’s Closing Cost Calculator. This initiative took the stress off of the implementation team and better served lower-volume clients. Gardner regularly shocks veteran lenders in demos with her specific knowledge both of the industry and mortgage lending software. She designed a workflow to help LodeStar’s marketing and customer success teams collaborate on user guides and howto articles so that neither team’s primary work fell by the wayside. She invests in and supports her team members to ensure their work is never too burdensome, and that they feel empowered and valued.

Mosi Gatling Sales Manager loanDepot

With more than 20 years of experience coaching, encouraging and supporting un-served communities into homeownership success, Mosi Gatling has emerged as a top 1% loan originator and a nationally recognized advocate for creating a more equitable and inclusive path to homeownership. In 2023 she was ranked 15th in the nation for FHA volume, underscoring her success serving diverse and first-time homebuyers. Gatling began her career in banking but moved to the mortgage field because she believed her financial knowledge could be better utilized in helping people realize their goals of homeownership. Gatling plays the long game and throughout her career has committed herself to helping people understand the steps to becoming “mortgage ready.” Even today she routinely holds workshops teaching potential homebuyers about financial literacy, responsible credit decisions and the power of creating generational wealth through homeownership. Gatling is a respected thought leader who regularly shares her perspective on how the mortgage industry can make homeownership more accessible, affordable and sustainable for all families. In the past year, she’s been featured at local and national conferences hosted by the MBA, National Mortgage News, NEXT and Nevada’s affordable housing agency.

Liz Gehringer President and CEO of Anywhere Franchise Brands Anywhere Real Estate

Liz Gehringer has distinguished herself time and time again as a leader within the Anywhere Real Estate family of companies. In 2023, she was appointed CEO of Anywhere Franchise Brands — an expansion of her previous role as president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates to include operational oversight of CENTURY 21, ERA Real Estate and Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate. In her new role spanning the three franchise brands, Gehringer is responsible for driving growth for their franchise networks, which collectively include more than 2,700 global offices and 200,000 agents. A pioneer for building world-class programs from the ground up and a triple threat for operational, franchise and legal experience, Gehringer is the epitome of professional excellence and leadership in the industry. Gehringer is determined to create a better future for her peers as well as those underrepresented looking to make their mark in the real estate market. She has spearheaded the growth of many initiatives, including Agents of Change, What Moves Her and the Inclusive Ownership Program, the latter of which was created to help increase the representation of entrepreneurs in the real estate industry in diverse populations.

Samantha Giuggio Chief Operations Officer Fathom Realty

Chief Operations Officer of Fathom Realty, Samantha Giuggio’s, innovative ideas, unwavering commitment to agents and extraordinary leadership have propelled Fathom Realty to new heights. Fathom was ranked as the No. 2 Top Mover in the 2023 RealTrends 500. Giuggio is a proven leader with decades worth of experience in the real estate industry. Leading a nationwide team of more than 10,000 agents and local leaders, she is dedicated to Fathom’s service culture that provides an exceptional transaction experience for home buyers, sellers and investors. Certified by both The John Maxwell Company and Buffini & Company, Giuggio is an accomplished speaker and coach with a deep commitment to authentic leadership. She brings her expertise and passion to Fathom Realty, where she is committed to positively influencing agents and industry peers alike. Giuggio inspires others to make a difference in their lives and the lives of those around them. Her extensive experience in real estate sales, leadership, management and training makes her uniquely qualified to build and lead a successful corporate brokerage office while fostering a culture of excellence, retention and growth throughout the company.

Amy Gromowski Executive of Science and Analytics CoreLogic

Amy Gromowski leads the CoreLogic science and analytics data science innovation team. She is a proven leader, driving AI and machine learning and science-based solutions for the mortgage and real estate market. Gromowski helps CoreLogic’s clients drive profitable growth and offer their customers an excellent user experience. Gromowski works across CoreLogic providing leadership for transformation initiatives including data science, imagery analytics, weather forensics and thought leadership. Gromowski has been highly successful at building and innovating in AI, machine learning and data science, which requires influencing on multiple fronts. These include setting the vision for growth and innovation through AI/ML and science-based solutions, aligning initiatives with the company’s vision and selling the value of those initiatives to secure funding from the executive leadership team. She partners with product executives to bring solutions to market, leading through the AI/ML/science development lifecycle. Gromowski takes the initiative to deliver new solutions to the market, supporting marketing, pricing, sales and client engagement. Gromowski is successful in motivating and engaging high-level teams that have members with advanced degrees in math, science and computer science.

Lesli Gooch CEO Manufactured Housing Institute

Lesli Gooch has dedicated her life’s work to ensuring that quality, affordable housing is available and attainable for all. In her current role as CEO of Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI), she is focused on addressing the nation’s housing shortage and her passion is making the American Dream of homeownership possible through quality, energy-efficient, homes at attainable prices. Gooch has successfully elevated manufactured housing as a critical component to addressing our nation’s affordable housing supply challenges and secured the support of our nation’s top housing officials for seeking ways to make manufactured housing available to more people. She has differentiated herself from others by accomplishing federal policy changes and policymaker support for the industry that prior to her tenure at MHI were out of reach. Gooch’s ability to inspire and mobilize her team and industry members, advocate for and drive policy changes and foster collaboration among stakeholders can be easily measured by the impactful results she has produced. She also serves on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the boards of the Systems Building Research Coalition and the Bollinger Foundation.

Rola Gurrieri Chief Fulfillment Officer Guaranteed Rate

Rola Gurrieri leads all aspects of operations, credit policy and collateral at Guaranteed Rate as chief fulfillment officer. She has made significant contributions to the company by leading initiatives with her extensive expertise in credit policy and underwriting strategies. Her commitment to knowledge, leadership and team collaboration has made her a key woman of influence in the industry. During her time at Guaranteed Rate, Gurrieri helped form the credit concierge department, which is now staffed with some of the industry’s most highly skilled credit underwriters, in order to support the company’s loan officers to deliver the best options and solutions to homebuyers. She also established an underwriting development program to mentor and teach industry newcomers to become efficient, competent and knowledgeable underwriters. Her team of underwriters helped pioneer the Same Day Mortgage initiative, which has set a new industry standard for mortgage processing speed. Gurrieri is involved in local fundraising and is on the board of her local educational committee — the main focus of which is to raise money and issue grants for the public school districts in the area. She is also involved in a family foundation supporting pediatric cancer.

Carrie Gusmus President and CEO Aslan Home Lending

Carrie Gusmus is the president and CEO of Aslan Home Lending. She is always looking for ways to help other women in the mortgage space grow. Not just within her own company but within the mortgage industry as a whole. Gusmus is a member of Colorado Business Women, a group focused on helping women in business in the state of Colorado grow and connect with other business owners. She is also a member of Vistage which focuses on helping her become the best leader she can be. 2022 was a challenging year to be a mortgage broker. Gusmus brought her energy, encouragement, coaching and wisdom to Aslan and the mortgage industry to help everyone grow and thrive. She challenged people to look for opportunities where others saw obstacles. She even spoke on a Women of Influence panel at HousingWire Annual. Over the last year, Gusmus has pushed Aslan and its loan officers to grow and thrive. She has held monthly and weekly coaching sessions with the team to focus on growth and opportunity. And, she has worked with Aslan’s leadership to bring in new investors, products and software to help the team thrive.

Kimberly Hare President Fay Servicing

Kimberly Hare is the president of Fay Servicing. She is responsible for setting strategic goals to meet company and client expectations while adhering to compliance guidelines and controls to manage risk. Hare is a critical problem solver and collaborator and is well respected for her ability to build, mentor and lead teams. Hare brings decades of experience in the mortgage industry to her role at Fay Servicing. As an executive leader, Hare has transformed how customers can make payments and worked to position Fay Servicing as an early adopter of alternative payment methods. Her focus on driving online self-service and convenience for Fay Servicing customers is a core initiative. She has advanced the process by removing trouble spots while making improvements to the overall borrower experience. During her tenure at Fay Servicing, Hare has broadened the scope of the business to include commercial servicing, now over one-third of the loans the firm services. To do so, she built out an infrastructure of people, processes and technology to become one of the largest business purpose loan servicers in the country.

Ali Haralson President Auction.com

Auction.com President Ali Haralson is a dynamic executive with over 20 years of experience in the servicing and distressed disposition industries. Her determination, leadership and grit have helped Auction.com surpass 500,000 homes sold, with over $62 billion in total sales and 6.9 million registered users. She guided the company through the COVID-19 pandemic, led the industry through adopting its first FHA First Look program and steered the company’s efforts in giving generously to significant causes related to veterans and housing. She helps set the industry standards for all other distressed auction companies and has helped push the industry toward higher-level goals, such as neighborhood stabilization and community development. Haralson has played a pivotal role in securing 2022’s annual revenue total of over $37 million. Her comprehensive understanding of client needs has helped spearhead revolutionary products and improve their evolution, allowing for better outcomes for mortgage servicers, distressed homeowners, distressed property buyers and surrounding communities.

Kim Harland Senior Vice President and Regional Manager PrimeLending

In the fast-paced and ever-evolving mortgage industry, individuals who have the drive and determination to make a positive impact will stand out. Kim Harland, the senior vice president and regional manager of the Desert District at PrimeLending, is one such individual. With her extensive experience, dedication and passion for helping others, Harland has left an indelible mark on PrimeLending and the mortgage industry as a whole. Harland’s journey in the mortgage industry began at age 17 when she fell in love with the industry’s fast pace, constant variety and the opportunity it provided to positively impact people and communities. Having worked her way through various roles in the mortgage process, including servicing, closing, processing, underwriting and finally production, Harland gained a comprehensive understanding of the industry from multiple perspectives. Harland’s leadership philosophy revolves around empowering her team. She understands the importance of putting employees first. As a leader, she is intentional in her approach, consistently questioning whether she is effectively serving her team. This emphasis on leadership ensures that her team members feel supported and empowered to reach their full potential.

Ines Hegedus-Garcia Chairman Miami Association of Realtors

Ines Hegedus-Garcia is a trailblazer, leader and nationally recognized speaker on tech adoption among Realtors. She was one of the first Realtors to adopt social media and still writes her award-winning real estate blog, Miamism.com, which she began in 2006. Through her many speaking engagements all over the world and her 2023 MIAMI and national leadership roles, Hegedus-Garcia has influenced thousands of Realtors in her industry to use media and data to further their business. HegedusGarcia is the executive vice president for Avanti Way Realty, an award-winning brokerage business that has expanded from 300 to 1,500 agents in the last year and recently opened its 13th office. Hegedus-Garcia is the 2023 Chair of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Federal Technology Committee. She also sits on the board of directors of Second Century Ventures, NAR’s Capital Venture Arm overseeing NAR Reach’s technology incubator program as well as new artificial intelligence and virtual reality initiatives in real estate and more. She is also the 2023 vice-chair of the Board Leadership Forum for Florida Realtors.

Lora Helt Chief Growth Officer BOSSCAT

As the Chief Growth Officer at BOSSCAT, Lora Helt has been instrumental in guiding the company’s substantial expansion into a diverse client portfolio of more than 200 brokerage and institutional partners, including a coveted national partnership with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Even in the challenging housing market of 2022, her strategies led to a quadrupling of the company’s revenue. BOSSCAT’s position as the 774th fastest-growing company on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list further cements Helt’s status as a real estate tech and services industry leader. Helt has displayed extraordinary leadership in the past year, driving an impressive expansion that diversified the company’s client portfolio. Her relationship-building prowess has secured key enterprise partnerships with national brokerages and institutional clients. Helt navigated BOSSCAT to a four-fold revenue increase in 2022, highlighting her strategic resilience. Embracing the startup mindset, Helt instills a culture of innovation and tenacity. Her hands-on leadership style and her role as an industry thought leader inspire employees at all levels. She mentors and contributes to national discussions on real estate, embodying the essence of influential leadership.

Shawna Hernandez Chief Operating Officer Endpoint

Shawna Hernandez has been looking at the real estate transaction process through the eyes of the consumer for more than two decades. Since joining Endpoint in 2020, she has been a key driver in joining people, processes and technology to rebuild the settlement process from the ground up. Hernandez has overseen the development of Endpoint’s proprietary closing software that automates many of the redundant tasks associated with the settlement process. As Endpoint has tailored its operations to serve the settlement needs of proptech companies, real estate investors and digital-brokerage firms, she has spearheaded the creation of a centralized team of experienced closing specialists to service transactions at a national scale. Hernandez is the type of leader people want to follow because she champions collaboration and is credited with the close working relationship between the operations and product teams at Endpoint. This has resulted in developing solutions that align with how closing professionals work and the natural progression of the real estate transaction in the real world.

Lana Izgarsheva Chief Operating and Compliance Officer A&D Mortgage

Lana Izgarsheva is not one to be satisfied with the status quo but rather motivated by the challenge of blazing new trails and finding a path forward that is all her own. As chief operating and compliance officer at A&D Mortgage, Izgarsheva has pushed the company to see past internal expectations and focus on diversifying everything — from its corporate makeup to its product offerings and its charitable ventures. With Izgarsheva, the possibilities are endless. Her enthusiasm is contagious, no idea is too big and no goal is too lofty. It is this attitude that has buoyed A&D in a tough market and united the company under a common purpose. Izgarsheva’s enthusiasm and creative thinking when it comes to possibilities within mortgage are infectious, and it is this spirit that has attracted top talent within the mortgage industry. Company execs credit her inspired leadership for A&D’s impressive growth, as employee numbers have doubled from 250 to 500. Izgarsheva has made it her mission to help female professionals ascend the ranks at A&D. Thanks to her relentless push, 51% of A&D employees and 33% of the C-suite are female, a fact Izgarsheva embraces as a personal accomplishment.

Janet Jozwik Senior Managing Director and Head of Product RiskSpan

Janet Jozwik is the senior managing director and head of product at RiskSpan. She relies on a strong background in mortgage credit modeling, loss forecasting and data analytics to oversee the overall strategy and development of RiskSpan’s data and analytical products used extensively by more than 80 mortgage loan and MSR investors, mortgage broker-dealers, and mortgage REITs. She has attracted industry attention recently for her role in integrating climate risk into mortgage credit analytics and seeking to quantify the various ways in which the increasing risk of climate events impacts mortgage and housing markets. Jozwik’s thought leadership has benefited the organization both by raising its industry profile and educating the workforce. Earlier this year, the Structured Finance Association recognized Jozwik’s industry contributions with a Leader Spotlight during its Women in Securitization “WiS Week 2023.” Jozwik’s writing and frequent panel participation at industry events have contributed to her being widely regarded as an industry expert and thought leader, especially when it comes to climate risk and the mortgage industry.

Marcia Kaufman CEO Bayport Funding

Marcia Kaufman, CEO at Bayport Funding, is an innovator in the commercial real estate finance space with a proven track record of driving growth for her firms and her clients. Her ability to manage capital activity and strategically advise investors seeking opportunities in a complex market has solidified her status as an industry leader. Under Kaufman’s leadership, Bayport Funding secured a $200 million senior credit facility from Webster Bank, helping the firm expand its portfolio throughout the U.S. and significantly furthering its ability to help investors meet their goals. In her role, Kaufman continues to accelerate the firm’s growth across the eastern seaboard in key markets such as North Florida and the greater D.C. metro area, as well as other areas such as the Dallas metroplex. Kaufman continues to showcase her leadership through strategies that move the real estate investment market forward and develop expansive relationships with investors. Under Kaufman’s direction, Bayport Funding continues to navigate the shifting landscape of the housing market with impressive efficiency, especially when compared to institutional lenders that have adopted a more reserved approach to providing capital.

Arlyn Kalinski Vice President of LEP Compliance Guaranteed Rate

Arlyn Kalinski’s forward-focused leadership is driving major change in the mortgage industry by building the infrastructure to support Limited English Proficiency (LEP) consumers throughout the mortgage process. Kalinski is a pioneer in her field, as she implemented and supports Guaranteed Rate’s Language Access Program, with the goal to educate and empower LEP consumers to make one of the most complex financial decisions of their lifetime in their preferred language. Kalinski has held numerous leadership roles spanning multiple lines of business including home lending, loss mitigation, foreclosure, regulatory operations and risk management and compliance. She currently serves as the vice president of compliance where she promotes financial inclusion through enterprisewide programs such as language access, community engagement and diverse recruiting with a goal to help underserved or marginalized communities have access to credit, while increasing diverse representation across the company. Kalinski focuses on strengthening the company’s efforts to engage a broad range of homebuying communities and works to enhance the social and economic mobility of consumers.

Sara Knochel CEO of Data and Analytics Candor Technology

For data scientist Sara Knochel, the thing about data analytics is that to apply it successfully, you have to understand the business you’re in. Knochel has made a career applying her skills to all things mortgage — topping it off with an MBA to refine her business acumen — which has led her to assume her role as CEO of data and analytics at Candor Technology. Knochel is guiding a team at the forefront of mortgage technology through the use of cutting-edge AI that effectively automates an underwriter’s thought process while performing credit and information risk assessments. Knochel and her team have built Candor’s CogniTech Expert System Technology, which simulates the decision-making ability and high-level cognitive tasks of human experts and recently earned a U.S. patent. The impact of this technology is groundbreaking, promising to change the face of mortgage lending by automating the costliest and most time-consuming portion of origination: how underwriters conduct credit and information risk assessment. Thanks to Knochel’s leadership on this project, CogniTech’s results have been extraordinary, with clients reporting significant improvements to cycle times and pull-through rates.

Kim Krick Vice President of Wholesale East Freedom Mortgage

Kim Krick serves as vice president and wholesale east regional manager at Freedom Mortgage. She oversees 14 account executives covering multiple states from Miami to Maine. She has single-handedly built the company’s east coast wholesale team, closed thousands of loans over the last year and is on target to beat that by the end of 2023. Last year, Krick led her team to bring in more than $1.7 billion in loans and she is projecting a higher target this year. Krick leads one of three key regions in the Wholesale Division at Freedom Mortgage. She is one of a few employees who launched and built Freedom Mortgage’s Wholesale Division in a single executive suite in Orlando, Florida, nearly 40 years ago. Krick’s leadership has helped in growing and shaping the company from a handful of employees to thousands across the country. She has more than 30 years of experience in the mortgage industry with in-depth knowledge of underwriting guidelines and the intricacies of the broad array of loan programs.

Kamini Lane President and CEO Coldwell Banker Realty

Kamini Lane was appointed president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Realty in 2023. She was tasked with leading one of the largest real estate brokerages with a network of more than 55,000 sales professionals in 55 major markets, ensuring her position as one of the most influential women in U.S. real estate. Lane brings exceptional leadership experience and a unique blend of expertise to empower the thousands of Coldwell Banker Realty entrepreneurs who run small, medium and large real estate businesses. Her innovation, commitment to diversity and inclusion and dedication to leveraging technology make Lane a true influencer in the field. Lane has achieved success throughout her career, demonstrating leadership and expertise in the real estate industry. As the president of Sotheby’s company-owned brokerages, she managed over 48 offices and led the company to earn a sales volume of $23 billion in 2022. Lane’s visionary approach was evident when she organized the first-ever virtual national sales meeting at Sotheby’s, which garnered significant attendance and showcased her leadership in driving the adoption of technology and operational evolution.

Odeta Kushi Deputy Chief Economist First American

First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi is a prominent voice in real estate, providing analysis, commentary and forecasts on trends in the U.S. real estate and mortgage markets. In her role at First American, a premier provider of title, settlement and risk solutions for real estate transactions, she plays a critical part in furthering First American’s industry leadership. She provides a data-driven analysis of economic and housing market trends and the impact of policy changes. Because of her expertise and ability to distill complex topics, she is a go-to expert for journalists, industry professionals, policymakers and executive leadership. Kushi is a leader on First American’s economics team and manages the day-to-day research, forecasting, analysis and commentary on the state of the housing market and the broader U.S. economy. She regularly provides commentary to media outlets regarding various economic reports — everything from the U.S. Census Bureau’s New Residential Construction Report to the Employment Report — with the goal of helping both businesses and consumers understand the state of the markets and the impact of shifts in supply, demand, policy and beyond.

Laura Lee Senior Vice President and General Auditor Freddie Mac

Laura Lee is senior vice president and the general auditor of Freddie Mac, directing the internal audit division which is responsible to provide better assurance and reduce its footprint by focusing on the value and impact to the enterprise. She and her team make homeownership possible by evaluating the safety and soundness of the company. They make affordable housing a reality for more people. As a leader, she embraces a culture of trust, which enables courageous conversations, allows the team to learn from failures, encourages collaboration and promotes creativity. Her work is an essential part of our corporate focus on risk management, which is central to fulfilling our mission. This year, Lee is directing an enterprise risk assessment methodology revision to support critical thinking, curiosity, efficiency and risk management through collaboration across the company. She encourages her division to focus their thinking on the company’s highest risks and align with corporate priorities. She is investing in expanding automation to streamline administrative processes and provide continuous assurance while continuing to strengthen the leadership skills of all employees.

Shelley Leonard President Xactus

Throughout Shelley Leonard’s successful career spanning more than 25 years, she has gained deep executive experience in leading companies to drive growth, improve performance, increase market share, launch successful new products, expand into adjacent markets and manage M&A activity. As president at Xactus, she is guiding the company through its culmination of acquisitions and working to redefine the way mortgage verification services are delivered. Leonard is a significant contributor who is impacting mortgage banking by leading a transformative industry movement that seeks to advance stagnant processes and develop innovative workflows and technologies to accommodate a more consumer-centric mortgage experience. Her impact is already being felt in how she is redefining the way mortgage verification services are delivered. Leonard is using her decades of experience to steer Xactus with a fresh approach toward advancing the modern mortgage experience. Her expertise in developing workflows, motivating people and anticipating trends enables Xactus to deliver innovative solutions, reliable technology and unmatched support that enhance lenders’ profitability by allowing them to close more loans more quickly.

Katharine Loveland CEO Volly

Katharine Loveland brings a dynamic, knowledgeable and thoughtful approach to leadership. Since she assumed the role of CEO, Loveland has identified and implemented new strategic initiatives and growth plans with the goal of further positioning Volly as an industry-leading provider of dynamic, cutting-edge technology and compelling, personalized marketing. Loveland set Volly on a path toward market leadership and sustainable long-term growth. Despite the current challenges of the housing and mortgage markets, the first 10 months of Loveland’s tenure were full of record-breaking milestones and tremendous company success. She oversaw the expansion of existing relationships with enterprise-level clients in an effort to grow Volly’s reach in the lending space. She spearheaded an extensive rebranding effort in response to accelerated company growth and a renewal of Volly’s mission, vision and values. Under Loveland’s guidance, Volly has focused on refining, optimizing and maximizing the value of its client relationships. She has emphasized the corporate values that define how Volly operates every single day: ethical, innovative, kind-hearted and supportive. Loveland has helped drive a healthy and supportive work culture that ensures clients, partners and employees feel happy and valued.

Jennifer Lind Regional President, West Coldwell Banker Realty

As of early June 2023, Jennifer Lind was promoted to regional president, West, for Coldwell Banker Realty. In this newly expanded capacity, she now oversees 124 offices throughout all of California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington state. An accomplished real estate professional with a strong track record of leadership and making an impact, Lind has over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, including leadership roles at Coldwell Banker, Windermere Real Estate and John L. Scott. Lind has a passion for success, natural leadership skills and integrity. She has been a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion and has worked to create opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in the industry. She has been recognized for her leadership in areas such as innovation, sustainability and customer service. Her influence in the industry and her ability to drive positive change sets her apart from others in real estate. Throughout her real estate career, which began as a licensed agent in 2003, Lind has also managed to acquire the Certified Negotiation Expert and Commitment to Excellence (C2EX) certifications.

Kelly Kennedy Mack President Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group

Kelly Kennedy Mack is president of New York City-based Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, the country’s new development market leader for the planning, design, marketing and sale of luxury residential developments. She has played a significant part in the company’s expansion and has preserved Corcoran Sunshine’s women-led legacy of innovation while significantly building its industry presence. The organization has generated over $40 billion in residential sales since Mack became president in 2006, all while continuing to work alongside the most distinguished leaders in real estate, including world-renowned architects, developers, designers and hospitality brands. Under Mack’s leadership, Corcoran Sunshine has marketed the decade’s biggest condominium housing projects including Hudson Yards, 30 Park Place, 220 Central Park South and 56 Leonard. Mack leads with enthusiasm and transparency, creating an engaged team with a direct line of sight into the value they provide to their developer clients. As a result, Corcoran Sunshine continues to be ranked as New York’s top new development marketer, selling over $3.6 billion in real estate in the past year alone.

Sandra Madigan Chief Digital Officer Black Knight Inc.

As Chief Digital Officer, Sandra Madigan is leading Black Knight’s efforts to transform the mortgage industry. The organization is developing numerous digital capabilities that support the American aspiration of homeownership, exceed the needs of homeowners throughout their mortgage journey and offer mortgage providers more intuitive, user-friendly products, faster speed-to-market and the ability to stay ahead of changing market dynamics. These efforts include digital solutions that help improve operations for Black Knight’s clients throughout the loan life cycle, including those that support keeping customers in their homes during periods of financial hardship. In addition, Madigan has shared her experience as a female executive in a male-dominated tech industry and is a champion for diversity and women’s initiatives at Black Knight. Madigan commands Black Knight’s application programming interface-first (API-first) approach to software development. Under Madigan’s leadership, Black Knight applies a design-thinking approach to APIs by following a set of guidelines that provides an intuitive API experience for those who consume the APIs, such as developers, architects or designers.

Rayman Mathoda CEO Anchor Loans

Rayman Mathoda is a transformative leader with a track record of driving growth in all market cycles. In her first three months as CEO of Anchor Loans, she has formulated and begun executing a plan to expand Anchor’s national footprint, attracted senior-level talent to the company’s leadership team and explore innovative ways — beyond financing — to create value for sophisticated real estate investors. Mathoda has more than 25 years of experience across the real estate, finance and technology sectors and has an extensive track record of delivering transformational growth and value creation. Within the mortgage and real estate sectors, she previously served as CEO at Xome and co-CEO at Genesis Capital. Mathoda has been an investor in a number of co-founded startups focused on expanding access to novel genomic and therapeutic products in emerging markets including India and Asia. In addition to her extensive business-building experience, she is currently an independent director at Mosaic Sustainable Finance and serves as chairperson of the board at Desi Rainbow Parents & Allies, the leading 501(c)(3) non-profit serving South Asian LGBTQ families and persons in the U.S.

Heidi Mason Executive Vice President and General Counsel Freddie Mac

Heidi Mason joined Freddie Mac in 2022 with more than 25 years of experience in mortgage lending, financial services, consumer protection and securities law. She has brought her deep expertise to help Freddie Mac develop the legal framework necessary to propel its mission and advance the most significant projects in its equitable housing priorities. Mason has provided critical legal leadership at the center of Freddie Mac’s most pivotal projects to advance equity in housing in the last year. Mason is regarded for her informed counsel and collaborative leadership style. Her team knows she values ideas and innovation and is known for her sound decision-making at critical times. In her short tenure at Freddie Mac, Mason has quickly become a valuable member of Freddie Mac’s executive team. Prior to Freddie Mac, Mason spent 17 years at Wells Fargo, serving as executive vice president and senior deputy general counsel leading legal support for all of its consumer businesses, including mortgage operations. Just prior to joining Freddie Mac, Mason served as a partner at ElevateNext Law, a majority-women-owned law firm.

Jennifer McGuinness President Invigorate Finance

President of Invigorate Finance, Jennifer McGuinness is not only an innovator but a thought leader. She built the first hedge fund issuer of AAA rates securities collateralized by newly originated loans, bringing products to market in a way that had never been done. McGuinness ran the first women-owned mortgage loan aggregator and now is bringing the market forward again, with the first multi-dimensional aggregator and asset management business. In the last 12 months, McGuinness’s business has become stronger while others have faltered. Now, she is entering the AAA-rated securitization third-party due diligence space as well, with all five rating agency approvals. Invigorate Finance has had significant growth and has also enhanced its asset management channel significantly. By diversifying its business lines to be multi-channel, Invigorate is now capable of aggregating loans and handling the entire lifecycle of the mortgage loan as well as conducting AAA-rated securitization due diligence, structured finance, loss mitigation oversight, loan-based triage, optimized liquidation and other structured resolutions.

Candice McNaught Senior Vice President of National Sales Supreme

Lending

Candice McNaught has a passion for mentoring and developing others, implementing innovative technology, and helping those in the community achieve homeownership. McNaught is a true leader, not only at Supreme Lending but in the industry and the community. Serving as the senior vice president of national sales, McNaught plays a significant role in marketing, products and finance, and oversees the sales team by aligning sales strategies with programs and ensuring the achievement of target goals. McNaught served as director of marketing for one of Supreme Lending’s highest-performing branches and becoming a branch manager to lead a team that averaged $330 million in annual loan production. Through her perseverance, drive and leadership, McNaught overcame the challenges of growing her team during the COVID-19 pandemic and booming market by focusing on her people — specializing in personalized professional development, placing team members in the right roles and implementing an internship program that resulted in creating full-time jobs. It’s rewarding to McNaught to identify her employees’ strengths and see them grow.

Maria Moskver CEO Cloudvirga

Maria Moskver is a mortgage industry veteran with more than 25 years of executive management and regulatory compliance experience. Moskver has amassed significant expertise in acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, data privacy and security, consumer lending and employment, all of which have contributed to her proven record of driving new business and innovation in the mortgage industry. She is a seasoned fintech and compliance professional with a diverse skill set that few other executives have. In fact, she’s one of the only females in mortgage tech with a legal background. As CEO of Cloudvirga, Moskver is leading the firm’s strategic growth in building the preeminent digital mortgage automation company in the point-of-sale space where she is responsible for technology investments, new products, brand awareness and enhancing the Cloudvirga customer experience with end-to-end mortgage services and solutions. She leads with passion and purpose and is attentive to instilling that in others, creating strong followership and camaraderie. As a leader, she respects her team’s opinions, differences, and contributions, encouraging them to focus on their strengths and passions, which drives Cloudvirga’s success.

Sarah Middleton Chief Growth Officer Movement Mortgage

Sarah Middleton has worked in the mortgage industry for over 34 years and joined Movement Mortgage in 2022 as chief growth officer. Prior to her time at Movement, Middleton spent the last nine years as president of sales development and recruiting at Fairway Independent Mortgage. She also served as CEO of Fairway’s internal coaching platform, Fairway Ignite, which she helped launch in 2016. Previous roles include leadership positions at Guild Mortgage Company and Liberty Financial Group. As an originator, Middleton holds the record for the most volume and units closed in Colorado as an individual loan officer, closing over $2 billion and 11,700 units in her career. In her current role, Middleton leads Movement’s efforts to attract, onboard and develop sales leaders across the country. Middleton loves to create, build and grow with a passion for helping loan officers and managers dream bigger and achieve their personal and professional goals. Having been a top producer for so many years, and most recently as a coach and leader, Middleton has left her fingerprints on so many people and organizations.

Laura O’Connor President and Chief Operating Officer JPAR Real Estate Franchising

As President and Chief Operating Officer of JPAR Real Estate Franchising, Laura O’Connor focuses on leading by listening and empowering the people around her. A seasoned industry executive, O’Connor is responsible for developing and leading JPAR’s strategic direction, nationwide expansion and continued delivery of services to affiliates across the national footprint. She has nearly 20 years of experience in business operations, strategy and finance management. O’Connor has directed countless complex projects, from concept to fully operational status. She is passionate about seeing brokerages, and their agents, achieve their growth and development goals. O’Connor’s consistent project success, collaborative approach, problem-solving skills, leadership and commitment to customer satisfaction shine. Her collaborative nature and strong communication skills make her an invaluable team player. Her ability to foster a positive and inclusive work environment has resulted in improved team dynamics and enhanced productivity. O’Connor has been recognized by her peers for her exceptional teamwork and supportive approach.

Kathleen Pagliaro Vice President of Capital Markets - Credit Risk Fannie Mae

Kathleen Pagliaro, vice president of capital markets - credit risk at Fannie Mae, leads efforts for the new issuance execution of Fannie Mae’s flagship Connecticut Avenue Securities (CAS) program. Through her dynamic leadership style, she motivates her team to perform at their best, while managing the CAS program in an ever-changing and sometimes challenging market environment. Pagliaro spearheads Fannie Mae’s Women of Capital Markets group, which fosters a community of networking and advocacy where women come together to share ideas, discuss challenges and celebrate wins. Pagliaro is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to transfer credit risk associated with Fannie Mae’s single-family guaranty business to capital markets and private investors. Her contributions to the development of the CRT market, which has been a strategic priority for Fannie Mae since 2013, have been instrumental in moving U.S. housing finance forward. In 2021, Pagliaro led the effort to restart the issuance of Fannie Mae’s flagship CAS offerings following an 18month pause. Since restarting the program, more than 50 new investors have participated in new issue CAS transactions.

Georgia Perez Chief Growth Officer LiveEasy

As Chief Growth Officer at LiveEasy, Georgia Perez uses a wholistic approach to business growth. By analyzing every detail of our business, engaging each member of the team, and incorporating 25+ years of insights and expertise as a startup and turnaround expert, Perez establishes well-defined initiatives, identify and solve gaps and incorporate and streamline processes essential to achieving the organization’s goals. Recognized nationally for her tenacious appetite to deliver unprecedented growth, Perez’s innate ability to garner a wholistic view of a company has served as her greatest strength throughout her 25+ year career. Perez can define and drive strategies that generate revenue, create a pull demand for corporate expansion and engage and empower employees throughout an entire organization. Recently, she launched the Brand Engagement Division, bringing on a real estate industry insider expert to drive agent engagement across 800+ brokerages, representing 120,000 agents, a move few other PropTech leaders have made.

Melissa Peregord Chief Growth Officer QC Ally

Melissa Peregord is the chief growth officer at QC Ally. She is credited with helping organizations build structure and procedures to help manage enterprise relationships. Peregord sees organizational growth through the lens of partnership. Instead of just looking to get deals across the finish line, she takes a consultative approach, listening to each client partner’s unique needs in order to guide them toward the best fit. As a growing organization, QC Ally relied on a few tenured team members for tasks beyond their respective departments. When Peregord came on board, she immediately saw these challenges as an opportunity to strategically bring in the right technologies and processes that would allow the company to grow at scale and free teams up to handle duties more specific to their departments. Through the implementation and early adoption of her vetted technology solutions, the company is already seeing tremendous success. The pipeline is growing, deals are closing, and the company’s growth will now be sustainable thanks to her hard work and dedication.

Raveen Phifer Business Development Manager ValueLink Software

Raveen Phifer is the business development manager at ValueLink Software. She is an outstanding, dedicated professional who entered the mortgage industry with ValueLink, nearly three years ago, armed with technical knowledge, a passion to learn and excel in mortgage and mortgage finance industry. Phifer’s relentless pursuit of acquiring major business accounts, active involvement in trade shows and events and strong representation of ValueLink have consistently highlighted and increased the organization’s value and expertise. Phifer’s contributions to ValueLink have been exceptional. Despite her non-mortgage background, she quickly adapted to the industry and leveraged her fresh perspective to bring valuable insights to the company. She consistently goes above and beyond to provide the best customer service, ensuring client satisfaction and fostering long-lasting relationships. Her knowledge and expertise in appraisal software implementation play a crucial role in successfully transitioning and acquiring key customers. Over the last 12 months, despite the industry slowdown, she managed to bring in clients and has grown her network and accounts by 30-40%.

Susan Portnoy Senior Vice President of Product and Enterprise Operations LERETA

Susan Portnoy is the senior vice president of product and enterprise operations at LERETA. She has transformed LERETA’s operations and product development, ushering in automation and efficiencies that significantly improved service and product offerings for LERETA clients. Her inspirational, entrepreneurial and team-focused leadership style has brought together staff from various departments to work together on common initiatives. Portnoy has focused on product development, leading development efforts for the company’s Total Tax Solutions’ product. Over the last year, Portnoy has been focused on optimizing the user experience and making improvements to workflow and operations modules with particular emphasis on finding new efficiencies and economies of scale. Portnoy’s contribution to LERETA’s bottom line through Total Tax Solutions is significant. Total Tax Solutions is an enhancement to the company’s standard tax service that pulls together all of the tax information from a servicer’s loan servicing system and combines it with LERETA’s data. This allows the servicer to see what LERETA and their own internal teams are doing and where they are at every step of the tax process.

Courtney Poulos Broker, Founder and CEO ACME Real Estate

Courtney Poulos continues to lead the charge as one of Los Angeles’ only female-founded and led real estate brokerages, ACME Real Estate. In addition to running ACME’s powerhouse teams in Los Angeles and Florida, Poulos focuses on her main mission, which is empowering women to achieve financial independence through real estate. If she has her way, every woman on the planet will have the tools they need to do just that. She maintains a full slate of speaking engagements and has written the premier book on the subject, “Break Up! With Your Rental: The Professional Woman’s Guide to Building Wealth Through Real Estate.” Additionally, she runs the 11week ACME University program to train rookie agents in ethics, etiquette, protocol and practice. In the saturated world of Los Angeles real estate, agents need a leader that cuts through the noise and provides a platform from which they can be competitive. She is an advocate for equality and transparency and is willing to speak the truth to power. She is inventive, creating a social media studio out of ACME’s retail space so that agents are encouraged to self-promote. She is a leader who teaches the agents at ACME to fish so that they may have a career for a lifetime. She has expanded the team to 45 agents and two offices, with more to come.

Michelle Post Retail Market Manager Sierra Pacific Mortgage

Michelle Post is a change maker and legacy creator in the mortgage industry. Whether she is lending loans as one of the nation’s top-producing originators or lending her wealth of expertise to those she mentors, Post is an influential leader who lives by the mantra “givers gain.” Over the years, Post has become one of the top retail leaders at Sierra Pacific Mortgage (SPM) and a revered voice in her local community. Post has invested her heart and soul into helping improve the lives of the customers she works with and the staff she oversees at SPM. Her value to the SPM team goes well beyond her production numbers. She continually demonstrates her compassion, understanding, and integrity as a leader who is always willing to go the extra mile on behalf of her customers. Even while managing a production pipeline double that of other top performers, Post always makes time to be responsive to scenario questions and help others around her grow. While other originators may be consumed with their personal progress, she finds the greatest satisfaction in watching someone she coaches close their first loan and build the next generation of loan officers.

Kathy Randich Area Manager Academy Mortgage Corporation

It would be difficult to find a mortgage professional who has more heart for the business and her people than Academy Mortgage Area Manager Kathy Randich. With more than 25 years of industry experience and having worked in almost every area of the business, Randich has an invaluable perspective that allows her to view both sides of the business to help promote unity among the team. She is a standout leader who truly gives everything she has so that others can be rewarded, learn, and grow. 2022 was a challenging year for many in the industry, but Randich’s leadership and coaching helped three of her team members achieve top producer status both at Academy and in the industry. Not only is she a top-notch manager, but she’s also a multiple-decade top producer in her own right, being one of Academy’s top producing females and being named to Scotsman Guide list of Top Women Originators for 2022. She is a motivated, consummate professional with a business savvy mindset who gives her all each day to be the best she can be for her customers, partners, team members and Academy. For Randich, the answer will always be “yes” regardless of the question, because she will give it her all to find a solution to help others and get the job done.

Tanya Reu-Narvaez Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Anywhere Real Estate

Tanya Reu-Narvaez, has served as Anywhere’s chief people officer since January 2021 and is relentlessly focused on the talent strategy for the enterprise, including employee acquisition, management and ongoing development. Recently, she led the development and launch of a new company purpose tied to the company’s rebrand from Realogy to Anywhere, including the organization’s Winning Behaviors, guideposts for employees designed to drive the Anywhere strategic transformation forward, inspire culture shifts and lead the company to long-term success. Additionally, she led the company as it moved to an unlimited time off PTO policy for salaried employees. She also helped to oversee the implementation of our hybrid work strategy, culminating in the reopening of our corporate headquarters. As a Hispanic woman in the real estate industry, Reu-Narvaez has discussed the feeling of looking around a room and not seeing anyone else that looked like her. She keeps this feeling as motivation for change and serves as a champion for our DEI initiatives, many of which she founded or initiated decades ago.

Tamra Rieger President Evergreen

Home Loans

Tamra Rieger is a 27-year veteran of the mortgage industry and currently serves as the president at Evergreen Home Loans. In a male-dominated industry, she is one of the few women who serves as president for an IMB. Rieger has established herself as a prominent figure in the mortgage industry, particularly in the realm of digital transformation. Rieger, with her 19 years of leadership experience, remains committed to ensuring that female voices are heard. She strives to open doors for other women to follow in her footsteps. In her role, Rieger identifies and communicates Evergreen’s key differentiators, oversees production leadership and growth strategies and implements new models including technology and process to drive customer value, loan officer engagement and company profitability. Rieger’s ability to drive innovation, embrace technology and make strategic decisions has proven instrumental in her growth and success. Her contributions have led to the launch of innovative products that address the Realtor and borrower’s pain, increased adoption of e-closings, significant funding production and expanded loan closing.

Eloise Schmitz Co-founder and CEO LoanNEX

Eloise Schmitz, co-founder of LoanNEX, revolutionizes the mortgage industry with a dynamic pricing engine platform. With a background in media and communications, Eloise leverages her expertise to bridge the gap in the market by opening access to a wider range of products. Under Schmitz’s guidance, LoanNEX has emerged as the leading platform for non-agency loans, pricing an impressive volume of over $15 billion in loan scenarios per month from 350 originating companies. Schmitz’s leadership style is characterized by empowering her team to actively listen to the market and develop innovative solutions that address existing limitations in access and opportunity. Her commitment to talent development and diversity has resulted in a highly diverse team at LoanNEX, united by a shared drive to revolutionize market access through intuitive innovation. With her extensive experience in emerging technology companies, she brings a wealth of knowledge and insights to the organization. Her visionary product roadmap, honed through leadership roles in the media and telecommunications industry, has been instrumental in driving LoanNEX’s growth and success. By implementing fiber technology and strategically pursuing M&A opportunities, Schmitz has propelled LoanNEX to exponential growth.

Nomi Smith CEO PMI Rate Pro

As a female, minority entrepreneur within the mortgage technology sector, Nomi Smith is a trailblazer. Since founding PMI Rate Pro in 2020, Smith has leveraged innovative strategies to position PMI Rate Pro as a unique and trusted MI pricing engine. Smith sought ways to provide better service to her borrowers like finding better ways to quote Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). Smith saw an opportunity to connect all six national PMI providers and create a new pricing engine, which would allow loan officers to offer borrowers the best possible deal, win their client’s trust and save homeowners money. Her company’s cutting-edge technology has set a new standard in the mortgage insurance industry, and she is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of mortgage insurance tech. Within the last 12 months, Smith has progressed her company, earned recognition as a leader in fintech, and served as a mentor within the Kansas entrepreneurial community. Smith’s dedication to mentoring and supporting fellow entrepreneurs has had a profound impact on many business owners in Kansas City. Her unwavering optimism and passion for entrepreneurship make Smith a tremendous mentor and influencer.

Stacy Speas Senior Vice President of Loan Servicing Cornerstone Servicing

Stacy Speas is the senior vice president of loan servicing at Cornerstone Servicing. Over the past year, Speas’ servicing expertise and ability to effectively communicate with clients, regulators and senior leadership teams played a huge part in building Cornerstone Servicing. She has a track record of leading high-performing teams, enhancing customer experiences, implementing robust business controls and establishing key performance metrics. Since joining Cornerstone Servicing in 2021, Speas has consistently demonstrated professional excellence and exceptional leadership — particularly in the past year as the company successfully launched in-house mortgage servicing operations followed closely by a visionary third-party sub-servicing business. Under her guidance, the team achieved remarkable results, exceeding mission-critical performance targets and delivering immediate improvements for Cornerstone, as well as for borrowers, with respect to quality and efficiency of service compared to the prior sub servicer. Ultimately, her strategic thinking and dedication to enhancing homeownership for borrowers have made her an innovative and influential leader within Cornerstone Servicing.

Agnes Standowicz Senior Vice President of Underwriting United Wholesale Mortgage

As Senior Vice President and Head of Underwriting, Agnes Standowicz provides the foundation for elite client service at UWM. Her commitment to unparalleled support to ensure loans are processed accurately, quickly and consistently has helped elevate internal and external operational efficiencies. Her leadership was a driving force as UWM became the top overall lender in 2022, and her tremendous capability to get in the weeds with her team and our clients continues to create a positive impact companywide. As the leader of underwriting, Standowicz ensures that there is clear communication and detail-oriented action. While leading over 1,400 team members, she maintains exceptional attention to detail and continuously overcomes challenges. She works rigorously to guarantee her team members possess a clear understanding of guidelines, processes and goals to achieve success. She also supported the development of PA+, a tool that allows UWM clients to focus on what’s most important to them — originating more loans. Standowicz is an impactful force, not only for her team of underwriters and for UWM, but also the mortgage industry.

Sasha Stair Senior Director of Customer Success Snapdocs

As Senior Director of Customer Success at Snapdocs, Sasha Stair is a mortgage industry and digital closing strategy expert. Stair’s role requires her to work closely with challenges that stifle innovation in our industry. With her knowledge, she helps inform Snapdocs’ strategy in developing technology solutions that enable lenders to reduce costs, spend more time with their customers and strategically plan for the future. Her efforts have been essential in pulling the industry forward and driving real results for lenders nationwide. Stair has advised lenders over the past year to use this time as an opportunity to prepare for the next upcycle. She’s spoken on multiple industry panels and worked directly with many lenders to identify strategies that will help them process loans faster, more efficiently and at a higher profit all while driving a better borrower experience. Stair wholeheartedly believes in being the trusted partner that stands in the trenches with customers, ensuring each lender achieves its e-closing goals in support of its greater business strategies. In all of these partnerships, she has demonstrated a deep understanding of each organization’s unique needs and developed a custom roadmap to e-close success.

Karen Starns CEO OJO Canada

Karen Starns recently took the leap to become CEO of OJO Canada as part of its February 2023 acquisition by Royal Bank of Canada. Starns’ track record of building a fast-growing brand, establishing an earned media foothold in a very crowded marketplace and serving as an outstanding cultural and operational leader at OJO Labs made her a natural choice to step into this role. Through the acquisition and early months as an RBC company, Starns has led the business strategy, built an outstanding executive team, developed the organization structure and established an operating model that enables the businesses to continue to be agile and deliver high-value experiences to consumers, Realtors and mortgage specialists. Excellence in business and operational leadership has positioned Starns to shepherd the organization through a tremendous change and onto new heights as a Canadian homeownership platform. In her previous role as chief marketing officer of OJO Labs, Starns’ leadership propelled the company to repeat recognition on the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Fast 500 in the past year. OJO also ranked 36th on the Financial Times’ list of the fastest-growing companies in the Americas, alongside some of the biggest names in tech.

Jessica Sturm Executive Vice President Opteon

Jessica Sturm brings nearly 20 years of industry experience to her role as executive vice president of Opteon Appraisal, Opteon AMC’s sister company. She began her career as an appraiser in 2007 and brings this unique perspective when guiding clients and the appraisal team. She inspires her team and fosters a culture of opportunity for those eager to learn and expand their skill set. Under Sturm’s leadership, Opteon Appraisal has grown into one of the largest appraisal firms in the nation. Sturm plays an integral role in helping the company achieve its overarching strategic goals, such as its Staff Appraiser growth initiative. With Sturm at the helm, Opteon increased Staff Appraiser utilization by 78% since last year. Sturm’s impact on Opteon comes from her keen ability to run staff operations, build processes and her innate ability to anticipate customer needs in an ever-evolving industry. A technology-forward appraisal business like Opteon requires a certain employee aptitude and Sturm has built a culture of high-performing innovators with her appraiser staff, eager to be at the helm driving change within the industry.

Dawn Svedberg Vice President, Director of Customer Success and Head of Fintech Product Sales Tavant

Dawn Svedberg is a true trailblazer in the lending industry, dedicating over two decades to revolutionizing the landscape. She serves as vice president, director of customer success and head of fintech product sales at Tavant. From her groundbreaking work in real estate valuation, where she introduced innovative appraisal techniques and expanded geographical reach, to her groundbreaking development of Automated Valuation Models (AVM), Svedberg’s contributions have redefined the concept of “valuation without the appraiser” in major banks. Svedberg has been instrumental in driving the company’s growth and success through her professional excellence and leadership. Under her guidance, Tavant’s Touchless Lending platform has become a leading force in the industry, offering a world-class consumer and originator POS and introducing modules that automate manual processes, paving the way for touchless lending. Her visionary leadership and passion for automation have positioned her as an invaluable asset to the lending community. Svedberg’s unwavering commitment to excellence and her ability to push the boundaries of what is possible in the mortgage industry has solidified her reputation as a true leader and innovator.

Marianne Sullivan Chief Operating Officer Sagent

Marianne Sullivan serves as the chief operating officer at Sagent. She turned to the mortgage servicing sector for her latest challenge: architecting the industry’s first and only cloud-native software platform that powers homeownership and loan servicing lifecycles. Now accelerating progress on Sagent’s next-gen software platforms, Sullivan drives nuanced, progressive innovation in the highly regulated servicing space and plays a crucial role in advancing Sagent’s aim to fundamentally change the dynamics of the U.S. housing ecosystem. Sullivan injected the expertise gleaned from her time at the top GSE into the mortgage fintech world. Her influence was crucial in the renewal of key Sagent customer relationships, the integration of the Mr. Cooper fintech team into the wider organization and the rapid advancement of the next-gen suite of platforms. Throughout an acute market cycle adjustment that began in 2022, Sullivan simplified the extremely complex servicing space for Sagent clients and promoted its openAPI enterprise platform so servicers could configure workflows to their unique needs. She encourages thoughtful, iterative innovation, building highly compliant operational pathways within the old systems while incrementally replacing them with the new.

Katie Sweeney Chairman and CEO AIME

Katie Sweeney is the chairman and CEO of AIME. Throughout 2022 and 2023, Sweeney established and successfully spearheaded dozens of advocacy initiatives to benefit the Broker channel and homebuyers nationwide through AIME’s Broker Action Coalition (BAC), which led to the introduction and passing of legislative bills on Capitol Hill. Her influence has bettered the wholesale mortgage industry, and her dedication has directly impacted homeownership accessibility for military veterans, first responders, educators, low-credit families, minorities and first-time homebuyers. Under her leadership, the association has increased its revenue, more than doubled the team’s headcount and optimized the businesses’ profit margin, budget and processes. In the past 12 months, Sweeney spearheaded not just advocacy, but resources. AIME’s largest national conference, the fifth annual Fuse, was the largest Fuse ever despite the declining mortgage market. This was due to her headlining keynote, and the other high-quality content that she was integral in conceptualizing. Sweeney continues to prioritize mentoring female leaders within AIME, aiming to empower more women in the mortgage industry by appointing female AIME leadership, and personally mentoring female mortgage professionals whenever possible.

Ashley Terrell Chief Revenue Officer

Milestones

Ashley Terrell is a master at connecting people and businesses with solutions that not only scale value, but also create lasting relationships. Terrell is the chief revenue officer at Milestones. She has helped bring the Milestones homeowner management solution to over 300,000 real estate and mortgage professionals in under 12 months. Terrell brings a wealth of proptech industry knowledge to the Milestones team and isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves to get any job done. She is relentless in her pursuit to bring the best solutions to her partners and clients, and challenges her team members to constantly push beyond the norm. She coordinated partnerships with the California Association of Realtors, the Miami Association of Realtors, top-producing brokerage RE/ MAX Results and Town Square Mortgage to name a few. She is a sought-after expert, speaker and panelist, having been featured on numerous podcasts, videos and marquee events. Her extraordinary commitment to success and growth has been instrumental to Milestones’ success.

Lauren Trevathan Chief of Staff ATTOM

Lauren Trevathan is ATTOM’s chief of staff. She drives companywide initiatives, as well as ensuring alignment and success across the organization as a whole. Trevathan’s proven track record of cross-departmental collaboration, leadership and organizational accomplishments over the past three years at ATTOM have positioned her as a key contributor to the company’s primary objectives. At ATTOM, she has led multiple teams with increasing scope and responsibility and serves as a key contributor to the organization as a whole. A proven leader, Trevathan excels at communicating the vision to her team members, as well as the broader company, ensuring everyone is focused on universal initiatives, with the same focus on the end goals. In August of 2022, Trevathan was key in the divestiture of RealtyTrac, the longest-held ATTOM affiliate. From there, she was able to work closely with the company’s product and marketing teams to develop GeoData Plus into a more robust nationwide replacement product. In February of 2023, Trevathan and the team launched ATTOM’s Property Navigator, a rebranded and revamped version of GeoData Plus. In the last year, Trevathan has also been pivotal in the onboarding of ATTOM’s other new acquisitions, overseeing operations and strategy initiatives.

Andria Thomas Head of Product FinLocker

Andria Thomas is the head of product at FinLocker. She helped transform FinLocker into a product-centric company, with an emphasis on data-driven approaches that keep FinLocker laser-focused on outcomes. She places a premium on serving and is inspired by the opportunity to help many build wealth through homeownership, especially those who find homeownership out of reach. She has brought her diverse expertise to bear and is driving innovation and growth for FinLocker’s next-gen data and analytics product focused on improving homeownership literacy and readiness. Thomas is a seasoned strategy executive and product leader, committed to helping improve people’s lives and accelerating positive change in the world. She enjoys solving problems, analyzing customer needs and the business case, working with teams to prioritize and act, developing partnerships and fostering talent. She has a range of diverse experiences that make her an extraordinary leader. She moved from tech startups to the Peace Corps, to most recently being the product and business lead for a standalone app at Capital One. She brought a data-driven discipline to FinLocker, continuously measuring a product’s performance in the marketplace with precision.

Amanda Tucker Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Atlantic Bay Mortgage Company

Amanda Tucker is the chief risk and compliance officer at Atlantic Bay Mortgage Company. Simply put, Tucker is a groundbreaker. She confidently stands at the forefront of companywide engagement initiatives and shatters the boundaries of our business by moderating industry-leading products and frameworks for our communities and corporate partnerships. But most importantly, Tucker is not afraid to give back to the industry she loves through her regular speaking engagements and conference appearances. Tucker oversees Atlantic Bay Mortgage’s enterprise risk management, regulatory and operational compliance, financial intelligence and people engagement functions. Tucker is Atlantic Bay’s guide and legal expert in every new loan product or corporate partnership. She is well known for her commitment to giving back and exchanging thoughts and practices with other industry professionals, and she is unafraid to be a true ambassador of the Atlantic Bay name. Tucker runs the backend of two in-house, employee-run impact committees: AB Life and AB Cares, to ensure our offerings meet our industry’s specifications and guidelines.

Jennifer Vallinayagam Chief Operating Officer

Sun West Mortgage Company

Jennifer Vallinayagam is the chief operating officer at Sun West Mortgage Company. She has been a driving force in propelling Sun West Mortgage Company forward and significantly impacting the industry in the past 12 months. Her unwavering commitment to service has been evident through her tireless efforts in contributing her time and energy to employees, clients and borrowers alike. As a true role model, Vallinayagam’s exemplary leadership skills have inspired and motivated her team to strive for greatness. Her relentless pursuit of excellence and unwavering dedication to growth has resulted in improved retention and recruitment of top talent, bolstering the company’s success. Vallinayagam’s visionary leadership has been instrumental in driving positive changes within the company. Through her keen insights, she has identified areas for improvement and provided valuable feedback and suggestions that have streamlined processes, enhancing efficiency and productivity. Over the past 12 months, she has been a driving force in propelling Sun West Mortgage to new heights, making significant positive impacts on the mortgage industry.

Madhavi Vellore Senior Vice President of Technical Product Management Mr Cooper

As Senior Vice President of Technical Product Management at Mr. Cooper, the largest non-bank mortgage servicer, Madhavi Vellore has led both the servicing and technology teams through major transformations across the business. Her work and leadership mobilized a 50+ person team to create a personalized customer experience by automating key tasks and in turn generating new revenue streams. Within the last year, Vellore successfully reimagined the loan boarding process by meeting the customer where they are through the development of a technological advancement named Pyro. Pyro automates tasks to reduce friction for customers and addresses the functions that add value. As Pyro’s established champion, Vellore receives asks from team members across the business for insight on how to convert their ideas into products. Throughout the company, she is a go-to leader who is willing to brainstorm solutions with people in order to make a bigger impact across the business and customer base. She has been a pioneer in reinventing mortgage servicing with machine learning. She led the charge to not only build products that understand originations and underwriting documents but also to collect insights that foster digital impact both internally and externally.

Telle VanTrojen Partner and Chief Operations Officer

Geneva Financial Home Loans

Chief Operating Officer and Partner in Geneva Financial, Telle VanTrojen has been with the organization since its inception in 2007. VanTrojenn created Geneva’s Secondary Department and Disclosure Desk, which enabled the company to grow. And, she spearheaded the transition from a banker and broker platform to a 100% banked product line. VanTrojen makes time to ensure that the company fulfills its responsibility to the communities it serves through initiatives that promote giving, recognition of community leaders and kind actions through Geneva’s own Geneva Gives initiatives. VanTrojen’s core focus in her role is to skillfully navigate a temperamental industry to help ensure the company’s survival under any market condition. She has spearheaded countless new initiatives to broaden Geneva’s offering, encourage continued learning and foster deep relationships between herself, her company and her community. This year she led the encompass development team in rolling out Geneva’s new mortgage platform to promote the use of the newest and best technology in the mortgage industry. She has been a leader in innovation, expansion and inspiration for all levels of the organization.

Irene Wahl Vice President of Quality Assurance American Financial Resources

Irene Wahl is American Financial Resources‘s vice president of quality assurance. She has more than 30 years of experience and developed the quality assurance department and created the pre-funding quality control review process. She is a mentor and leader among her peers and team members. Over the past 12 months, Wahl has consistently demonstrated exceptional professional excellence and leadership. Wahl took the initiative to revamp and optimize the quality assurance processes, resulting in increased efficiency and accuracy. She introduced advanced tools and methodologies, ensuring that quality control measures align with industry best practices. Wahl has also proven to be an outstanding mentor and leader, guiding and inspiring her team to excel in their roles. She has implemented mentorship programs, providing junior employees with invaluable guidance and support. By fostering a culture of growth and learning, she has successfully nurtured talent within her team, leading to professional development and career advancement opportunities for her subordinates. The last 12 months presented numerous challenges for the mortgage industry, but Wahl demonstrated exceptional crisis management skills, adapting swiftly to the changing landscape and ensuring business continuity.

Shelby Washington Vice President and General Manager of Growth Businesses Divvy Homes

Shelby Washington is the vice president and general manager of growth businesses at Divvy Homes. She built the title and agent teams that help people achieve homeownership and bring in millions in revenue to the business. Washington led teams at Divvy during a period of hypergrowth in 2022, and is navigating them through the uncertain market of 2023. Able to shift quickly and keep her teams motivated and engaged, she kept the teams building ancillary services like title and brokerage completely on track and has been able to create a growth division at Divvy that serves the needs of the current and future customers. She leads a team that focuses on growing the business — no easy feat among current macro conditions, rising rates and fluctuating consumer demand. Divvy Title was born out of the desire to create a fully integrated title experience that’s custom-tailored to the unique needs of a Divvy transaction. Divvy has been able to streamline communications, resolve escalations faster, and ensure that transactions close on time. These services have transformed the customer and agent experience and are already generating millions in ancillary revenue. They are expected to represent a meaningful portion of Divvy’s revenue over time.

Jillian White CEO and Founder Appraisal Insights

Jillian White is the CEO and founder of Appraisal Insights. She has a unique perspective on homeownership as one of the very few Black and female real estate appraisers across the entire industry. From taking on the supervisor-trainee model that’s resulted in a homogenous talent pool, to leveraging technology to create more defensible reports, White is offering ideas and solutions to decision-makers through her firm and is making a generational impact on the profession by entering it into the 21st century. White has become a leading voice in the fight to eradicate appraisal bias from homeownership. As an SRA-designated appraiser, White puts her years of knowledge and experience to work in the community, currently serving on The Appraisal Institute’s Government Relations Committee and on The Appraisal Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Motivated by her personal and professional experiences as one of the industry’s few black female appraisers, White has made it her mission to educate and empower all homeowners. The value generated by White as CEO and founder of Appraisal Insights extends well beyond the walls of her office to reach the homeownership industry at large to confront the injustices of today and prevent the inequities of tomorrow.

KimArie Yowell Chief Learning and Diversity Officer Rocket Companies

Marilyn Wright is a broker at Premiere Sotheby’s International Real Estate. With her unparalleled expertise and keen business acumen, she has successfully navigated the complexities of the market, consistently achieving outstanding results for her clients. Wright’s commitment to excellence, integrity and innovation sets her apart as a trailblazer, inspiring and empowering others to follow in her footsteps. For three consecutive years, she is the unrivaled market leader in western North Carolina, while also securing the prestigious position of the No. 2 agent in the entire state of North Carolina in 2021. Additionally, her commitment to preserving and safeguarding the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is evidenced by her active role as a board member of the Friend of the Smokies organization, dedicated to raising funds for this cherished natural treasure. In 2023, Wright has achieved an impressive sales volume of $75 million, demonstrating her remarkable expertise and dedication. Furthermore, she has set a new standard for the local market by securing the highest-priced sales and single-handedly raising the price threshold for properties valued over $7 million. Wright is the leading agent in the markets she serves and earned her recognition as one of the top realtors in all of North Carolina, based on 2022 sales volume.

KimArie Yowell is the chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for Rocket Companies and chief learning officer for Rocket Central. She has dedicated her career to integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into all company practices. Her goal as DEI officer is to create and sustain an environment where every team member and leader can thrive and do their best work. Yowell leads with four strategic DEI pillars — talent, culture, community and marketplace — that are all rooted in creating inclusive and equitable experiences and outcomes. Through these pillars, she gives team members the agency to share their voices and pride to champion inclusivity in every interaction. As part of her mission to invest in team members as chief learning officer, Yowell led the creation of Rock Academy — an investment in team members by reducing the financial burden to achieve their educational and career goals. Yowell frequently speaks at TMRN events to empower team members. At a recent event for both the Black and women’s networks, Yowell led a powerful discussion about bringing one’s whole self to work and understanding what it means to be authentic and navigate a career as a woman and person of color in the organization.

The following conversations are a transcript of panels at HousingWire’s ‘Affordable Housing Mini Con’ held earlier this year. Scan the QR code below to view the panels.