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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 14 April 2023 M O V E R S & S H A K E R S the Pacific Northwest Region, Rick Rodriguez as SVP of the Northern SW Region, and Michael Inkman as SVP of the Southern Central Region, as well as a new hire—30- year reverse mortgage veteran Susan Pomfret, who will serve as SVP for the Northeastern Region, and work alongside David Lazowski, one of Fairway's top producing managers, originating several billion in forward and reverse loans last year. "Steve Jacobson, Gregg Steinhaus, and the entire exec team have shown so much support for Reverse," Jensen said. "They are totally behind us and have our backs—that security allows for unprecedented creativity. Each member of this group has specific set of gifts, and building off those unique skillsets will diversify and grow our platform." Service Providers MBA NAMES ERIC GATES CHAIR OF THE MORTGAGE ACTION ALLIANCE The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has announced that Eric Gates, President of Apex Home Loans, has been appointed Chairman of the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) for the 2023-2024 election cycle. Gates began his term as MAA Chairman in January. Gates was appointed by Matt Rocco, MBA's 2023 Chairman and President of Colliers, and Mark Jones, MBA's 2023 Chair- man-Elect and Co-Founder of Amerifirst Home Mortgage. Gates succeeded Steven Plaisance, President–Mortgage Banking, Gateway First Bank, who served as MAA Chairman for the 2021-2022 election cycle. "Eric has been an instrumental advocate for the industry and his dedication to fur- thering MBA's legislative agenda makes him the perfect choice to lead our MAA efforts for this election cycle," Rocco said. "MAA broke membership and activation records this past election cycle, and I look forward to working with Eric to continue the momentum." Gates has served as President of Apex Home Loans since co-founding the company in 1998. Gates is a former President of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Profes- sionals, former Co-Chair of the MBA's Inde- pendent Mortgage Bankers' Network, and a member of the MBA's Independent Mortgage Bankers Executive Council and MBA's Resi- dential Board of Governors (RESBOG). He is serving his second term as a member of the MBA's Board of Directors. "I also want to thank Steven for his lead- ership and taking MAA to new and different levels of engagement, including notable accomplishments that helped our industry strengthen its collective voice and influence on Capitol Hill—and in state capitals around the country," Rocco said. MARIA ELENA JAIMES JOINS MAP TO LEAD TRAINING INITIATIVES Mortgage Advisory Partners (MAP), a strategic mortgage consultancy group, has announced that Maria Elena Jaimes has joined the firm as Managing Director of Training and Develop- ment. "We are incredibly thrilled to have Maria Elena on the MAP team," said Brian Hale, CEO and Founder at Mortgage Advisory Partners. "In today's economic climate, it is crucial that teams are properly trained. With Maria Elena's expertise in training and devel- opment, our clients will receive the next-level support they need to navigate the ebbs and flows of the mortgage industry. Maria Elena and her team can assist with outsourcing training, allowing you to reduce headcount and costs while continuing to provide quality training and high levels of support." Jaimes comes to MAP with more than 30 years of experience in the real estate and mortgage finance industries. In her role with MAP, Jaimes' focus will be to help MAP clients curate actionable tools meant to establish, execute, and enhance training and development initiatives. She will also oversee additional consulting offerings such as lead- ership training, assessment and evaluation, sales and operations training, and perfor- mance consulting. Her background includes experience in the areas of process optimization, instruc- tional design, and sales training. She has previously held executive-level roles with Homepoint Financial and Stearns Lending. Her passion for training and development evolved into her building JAI Consulting, a training and development consultancy com- pany she still operates today. SAM MARKWOOD NAMED COO OF BIRCHWOOD CREDIT SERVICES Birchwood Credit Services has an- nounced the appoint- ment of Sam Mark- wood as COO, bringing more than 17 years of experience to the role, having held various positions in customer service, operations management, and client success with CBC (now Factual Data) and Certified Credit. As COO, Markwood will be responsible for managing and directing the logistics, workflows, and operations of Birchwood's production team, as well as overseeing the sales and marketing departments within the company. "We are fortunate to have someone of Sam Markwood's caliber and experience step up to lead our bureau operations," said Larry Avery, CEO of Birchwood. "At this critical moment, we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. Sam is an operations and technology visionary with a proven track record of exe- cution. She is a strong communicator who is customer-focused with deep leadership capa- bilities. Furthermore, as a member of various mortgage industry executive teams over the past 17 years, she has a solid understanding of our products and markets." Founded in 1992, Birchwood Credit Ser- vices is a nationwide credit reporting agency that has provided financial credit services to mortgage professionals, including accurate mortgage online credit reports, tax return verifications, flood reports, collateral and property reports, credit re-scoring, and other related services for over three decades. "I am very grateful for the opportunity to join the Birchwood family," Markwood said. "I'm extremely excited to work alongside this amazing team of people who share the same core values as I do, and I'm looking forward to all the incredible things we will do togeth- er as we continue to delight our customers!"