TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1085198
12 | TH E M R EP O RT MCROWD 12 | TH E M R EP O RT GOVERNMENT MICHAEL BRIGHT After stepping down as EVP and COO of Ginnie Mae, Michael Bright has joined the Structured Finance Industry Group Inc. (SFIG) as President. Bright will lead SFIG's education, policy, and advocacy initiatives, helping to achieve the group's goal of building the broadest possible consensus among members across the industry and reinforcing the understanding that securitization is an essential source of core funding for the real economy. "The securitization industry plays a fundamental role in our economy and it is vital that policymakers and the industry work constructively together as the market continues to evolve. I am honored to join the SFIG team and see tremen- dous opportunity to build on this group's success as the voice of securitization," Bright said. "I look forward to working with all of our members to represent the diverse views of this critical field and continuing to provide meaningful education, advocacy, and connection for our members across all aspects of securitization." SERVICE PROVIDERS KELLY KUCERA DAN SOGORKA Cloudvirga, a digital mortgage software provider, announced the appointments of Dan Sogorka as Chief Revenue Officer and Kelly Kucera as SVP of marketing. Sogorka, a seasoned mortgage technology executive, will drive Cloudvirga's continued revenue growth and oversee the firm's sales and marketing strategy with the help of veteran cloud technology marketer Kucera. Sogorka brings two decades of experience as a business unit leader and senior sales executive at private and publicly traded firms specializing in mortgage and real estate technology. Kucera has over 20 years of experience in senior-level marketing, sales, and product management roles for global firms in the B2B cloud technology sector. Before joining Cloudvirga, she was head of commercial and global marketing at Arcules, a Canon Group company. Prior to that, Kucera oversaw global industry and commercial marketing in her role as head of marketing at global product content cloud platform 1WorldSync. TRAVIS LAMAR Blue Water Financial Technologies (BWFT) announced it has added to its growing executive team and hired Travis LaMar as Managing Director, Head of Capital Markets. As Managing Director, LaMar joins a strong data science and analytics team and brings 20 years' experience in mortgage secondary and capital markets to BWFT. LaMar will focus on MSR brokerage, structuring solutions for MSR, and hedging solutions. "I'm thrilled at the opportunity to join Blue Water, as it is a homecoming on two fronts; a return to Minnesota and the chance to be reunited with Al and a core group of individuals with whom I have worked over a number of years," LaMar said. "At Blue Water, we are committed to capital markets and technology innovation and with my years of secondary marketing and mortgage servicing experience, I'm confident I can help deliver better outcomes, deeper insights, and greater efficiencies to our customers as we expand our capital markets capabilities." ISSI ROMEM California-based Trulia has named Issi Romem its new Chief Economist. "Finding a new home and neighborhood is no easy task, especially as the real estate market continues to shift over time. With our housing research, Trulia has always strived to help people understand what trends and policy changes they need to consider during their home search," Trulia said in a statement. At Trulia, Romem will spearhead economic research and use Trulia's neighbor- hood-level data to provide timely industry insights on both national and local housing market trends, demographic shifts, and economic policies that matter most to buyers and renters. "In the coming weeks, you can expect to see more research and data analysis from Issi and the team, and we look forward to sharing his insights on the housing market," Trulia said. The company also stated that they are extremely excited to announce the appointment of Romem. Who's moving on and who's moving up in the industry This month, some of the industry's largest companies saw significant changes to their corporate lineups.