TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1294972
TH E M R EP O RT | 9 MCROWD safe and sound manner and serve our clients and customers with excellence. Citi is an incredible institution with a proud history and a bright future. I am excited to join with my colleagues in writing the next chapter." SERVICE PROVIDERS CHETAN PATEL Verity Global Solutions, an outsourced solutions provider specializing in the mortgage industry, announced that veteran mortgage industry leader and entrepreneur Chetan Patel has joined the company as COO. In addition to expanding Verity's breadth of services, Patel will be responsible for growing the company from 600 employees to more than 3,000 over the next 24 months. Patel plans to expand Verity's services beyond loan manufacturing and back office accounting services to include all origination and servicing capabilities. His immediate goal is to hire between 50 to 100 mortgage servicing specialists and fill over 100 underwriter positions at the com- pany's offices in India and the U.S., as well as recruit sales and relationship management teams. Patel has over 25 years' leadership experience in the mortgage industry. In 1998 he co-founded MortgageHub. com and rebranded the company to ISGN, one of the nation's largest and most diverse providers of mortgage products and services. There, he created a portfolio of companies that were the best in their respected fields and supported more than 600 cus- tomers, including some of the largest banks in the world. Patel most re- cently served as SVP of Lending and Servicing for Advantium Mortgage Banking Solutions. "I couldn't be happier to join Verity, as I firmly believe the company has a strong foundation to become one of the largest and most diverse provid- ers of mortgage services," Patel said. "Today's mortgage lenders and ser- vicers face no shortage of challenges, including the current obstacles created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and they need our assistance more than ever. I look forward to helping to build a company capable of serving all of their needs while doing our part to keep the housing market moving forward." CATHLEEN SCHREINER GATES SimpleNexus, developer of a digital mortgage platform for loan officers, borrowers, real estate agents, and settle- ment agents, announced the appointment of Board Member Cathleen Schreiner Gates as company President. Schreiner Gates is a career tech- nologist who for the last 35 years has played a prominent role helping early-stage and global software organizations drive growth. Schreiner Gates began her engagement with SimpleNexus in April 2020 when she was appointed to the board of direc- tors. Previously, she served as EVP of Sales and Marketing at cloud-based mortgage technology provider Ellie Mae. During her tenure, Ellie Mae spent six consecutive years on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and negotiated a $3.7-billion purchase by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo. Schreiner Gates is founder and CEO of independent consulting firm Trifecta. "Cathleen's wealth of experi- ence successfully scaling innovative software companies to new heights makes her an invaluable addition to the SimpleNexus senior leadership team," said SimpleNexus Founder and CEO Matt Hansen. "She will play an important role helping us deliver increased value to our customers and expanding SimpleNexus' market footprint." "Helping emerging companies grow into their full potential has been a career-long passion of mine. I am thrilled to join SimpleNexus as president, because I truly believe the company's vision is one whose time has come," Schreiner Gates said. "I look forward to helping SimpleNexus transform the mortgage technology landscape with its innovative, from- anywhere digital mortgage platform." CINDY SNOW FormFree has promoted Cindy Snow to the position of COO. In her role, Snow will craft efficient systems that elevate FormFree's performance while directly oversee- ing business operations, product management, business intelligence, integrations, and customer support. Snow joined FormFree as a Product Manager in May 2019 and quickly advanced to Director of Product. During her tenure at FormFree, Snow has facilitated part- nerships and product updates that enhance lender speed, pull-through rates, and security at a time of accel- erated growth for FormFree. Notably, Snow's initiatives have led FormFree to see a surge in user adoption, with the organization rounding out 2019 with a 65% increase in AccountChek verification reports over the previous year. "Since day one, Cindy has created operationally excellent processes that have helped FormFree deliver top-tier service to our 1,000-plus mortgage lender customers," said FormFree Founder and CEO Brent Chandler. "Her collected and methodical ap- proach to complex challenges has earned her the respect of the entire organization, and I know she will excel in a position of executive leadership." "An agile and innovative organi- zation, FormFree engages my full pro- fessional skill set, which both gratifies and motivates me," Snow said. "I'm excited to have a hand in FormFree's mission to revolutionize the credit decisioning landscape." JON WIERKS First American Financial Corporation, a global provider of title insurance, settlement services, and risk solutions for real estate transac- tions, announced the appointment of Jon Wierks as VP in First American's data and analytics division. In his new role, Wierks is respon- sible for further enhancing existing automated valuation and collateral risk analytics initiatives and products. Wierks will leverage First American's best-in-class data assets to develop new, innovative solutions to help mortgage lenders, portfolio manag- ers, and investors reduce risk and increase efficiency through accurate and predictive analytics tools. "Jon is among the most influential experts in valuation analytics and has helped shape many of the valuation models in use today, so we're pleased to welcome him to First American," said Dennis Gilmore, CEO at First American Financial Corporation. "His expertise will strengthen our position as a leader in valuation analytics and enhance the value we provide to customers across the mortgage loan lifecycle." Wierks joins First American with nearly three decades of experience in the real estate and valuation industry and is recognized for developing automated valuation models (AVMs) that have been widely emulated across the industry. He has extensive experience collaborating with the largest users of AVM products in the industry and is a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences. Know someone moving up in the industry? Email us at Editor@theMReport.com.