TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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M R EP O RT | 9 large retail team, joint ventures, and other strategic initiatives to expand our reverse mortgage presence," said Rick Seehausen, President and COO of Cherry Creek Mortgage. "With the recent strong rise in home price appreciation around the country and our ability to securitize and service the reverse product, it's an opportune moment to showcase reverse mort- gages, which can be a valuable tool for seniors. We are very committed to this business and are here to stay." GARY D. MCKIDDY Mid America Mortgage, Inc. (Mid America), announced that Gary D. McKiddy has rejoined the organization in the role of Chief Risk Officer (CRO). McKiddy will leverage his nearly 40 years of experience in corporate financial management across multiple verticals, including mortgage banking, to help Mid America Mortgage manage risk and improve operations amidst the ongoing expansion of its product line. "Our proprietary Rosebud Down Payment Assistance program and Power Buyer program, which enables homebuyers to purchase their new home before selling their exist- ing home, have been tremendous drivers of growth for Mid America over the last year to 18 months. As such, we plan to continue adding these kinds of complex and creative products to address the challenges of today's home buying market," Mid America Owner and CEO Jeff Bode said. "Given his experience with our organization and wealth of industry knowledge, Gary McKiddy is the per- fect addition to our executive team to help us mitigate risk as we expand our product lines. On behalf of the entire Mid America Mortgage team, I'd like to welcome him back into the fold and look forward to his contribu- tions to our strategic plan for 2022 and beyond." For the last 19 years, McKiddy has served as CFO at NTFN, Inc., where he was responsible for managing finance, accounting, compliance, servicing, quality control, human resources, and IT departments. There, he negotiated and maintained $200 million warehouse line commitments with multiple financial institutions, reduced financial closing timelines by 50%, and converted $10 million nonperforming assets into cash. Prior to McKiddy's tenure at NTFN, Inc., he held various financial roles at Ascent Energy, Inc., the pre-2003 iteration of Mid America Mortgage, Atlantic Richfield Co. and Arco Corporate. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) and has a Master of Business Administration from Oklahoma City University. "While my title has been in the financial arena for many years and my responsibilities have not necessarily been traditional in nature, I have been charged with overseeing compliance, quality control, and other mortgage operational areas throughout my career, which has well-positioned me for this wonderful opportunity to serve as Mid America's first Chief Risk Officer," McKiddy said. "I look for- ward to adding value to this already stellar organization from a risk and business management perspective and further enabling the company to continue serving homebuyers nation- wide with innovative and competitive products and service." ADAM O'DANIEL Open Mortgage has tapped Adam O'Daniel as its new SVP of Marketing, managing a team of marketing, and learning and development members, responsible for driving the company's enterprise marketing functions. In addition to leading customer relationship management (CRM) and market research initiatives, O'Daniel will oversee brand strategy, paid advertising, social media, email marketing, product marketing, media relations, and communications. "Adam is an exemplary leader with a proven track record for successfully building high-performing teams of both strategic and creative market- ing professionals," said Scott Gordon, Founder and CEO of Open Mortgage. "Open Mortgage is consistently ranked a top lender thanks to our continued focus on our origination and servicing platform, as well as brand evolution and the enhance- ment of our customer-centric experi- ence, which Adam will be an integral part of." As a member of the execu- tive leadership team, O'Daniel will also collaborate on setting Open Mortgage's overall vision, mission, values, and strategic goals while defining and delivering on Open Mortgage's marketing strategy. O'Daniel has 15 years of experience in marketing, communications, public relations, content strategy, finan- cial journalism, writing, and editing. Prior to joining Open Mortgage, he served as the Director of Marketing and Communications at Movement Mortgage, where he led marketing strategy for a retail sales division of 1,500 loan officers, including overseeing digital and social media content, email campaigns, custom marketing, and loan officer recruit- ment marketing. In his role as SVP of Marketing, O'Daniel will work to identify oppor- tunities for improvement and insights to expand the growth of Open Mortgage. He will be responsible for developing marketing campaigns to support the business's loan origina- tors and provide guidance across the company on how to leverage social media to attract talent and promote the company's messaging. SERVICE PROVIDERS BLAIR DRAKE BRIAN KIELIAN Proptech provider Spruce has appointed Brian Kielian as the company's first Head of Customer Experience, and Blair Drake as the company's first Head of Service Delivery. Both Kielian and Drake will report to EVP of Real Estate Operations Lisa Robertson. "Our customers are at the heart of what we do here at Spruce," said Patrick Burns, CEO and Co-Founder of Spruce. "As we continue to expand our service offering and deepen our customer-centric, tech-focused ap- proach, it's absolutely critical that we make big investments in improving the customer experience of the real estate transaction." In his new role, Kielian will drive Spruce's customer service initia- tives, working to ensure operational efficiency and scalability. He brings an extensive background in customer experience to the company, having held positions as VP, Global Customer Support & Operations Planning at PayPal for nearly eight years; VP MCROWD "Our customers are at the heart of what we do here at Spruce. As we continue to expand our service offering and deepen our customer-centric, tech-focused approach, it's absolutely critical that we make big investments in improving the customer experience of the real estate transaction." —Patrick Burns, CEO and Co-Founder, Spruce