When MortgagePoint Editor-in-Chief mentions to 2025 Five Star Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Patrick Coon that many of the people we have interviewed over the years entered the mortgage industry in weird or roundabout ways, Coon doesn’t hesitate to reply with a laugh, “I’ve got that weird covered.” Like many of his colleagues, he never planned this career in particular. Yet, over the span of more than four decades, Coon has built a legacy of leadership, resilience, and mentorship that has now earned him the Five Star Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded during this year’s Five Star Conference in Dallas in the last week of September.
Currently serving as SVP of Default and Loss Mitigation for U.S. Bank, Coon’s path began not in mortgage but in consumer services, with career stops at Ford, American Express, and Associates First Capital. By the late 1990s, a well-timed phone call changed everything. “In 1998, I’m sitting here working for the Associates, and I get a phone call from Chase Manhattan,” he recalls. That call, facilitated by a former American Express colleague, led to his first role in mortgage, as head of U.S. operations for Chase Manhattan.
It was a leap into unfamiliar territory. “It was a huge adjustment,” he says. After 16 years working in credit cards, he was suddenly managing seven sites and thousands of people in mortgage servicing. The transition was daunting, but Coon found himself buoyed by the team around him. “The team that I was fortunate enough to manage was a group of senior vice presidents who were all industry savvy, from investor relations to collections to customer service to technology. [I] just walked into a wonderful situation.”
Lessons in Leadership
Coon’s career is defined not just by titles held, but by a philosophy of leadership shaped by decades of experience. He points to four guiding principles: 1) give people the tools they need, 2) balance short-term and long-term vision, 3) stay optimistic, and 4) always remember that people matter most.
“You always want to give your people the best, so they can be their best,” he says of his early lessons at American Express. From his time at Associates First Capital, he learned the importance of sustainable vision beyond quarterly results. At Fairbanks Capital, later SPS, he led in a moment of crisis. “I learned then that, regardless of how frustrated people must be or the anxiety they must feel, in those situations, I had to be the most positive guy in the room and let them know that we’ve got this as we worked. If we work together as a team, we’ve got it.”
The final principle, he says, comes not from the boardroom but from home. “The best role I have ever had is a husband. My wife, Alison, is the most caring person I’ve ever met.” Coon describes his life partner as someone who goes the extra mile, and who, throughout their 46 years of marriage, has consistently and lovingly held his feet to the fire when it comes to character, growth, and empathy toward others: “When I get home, the question she asks is not, ‘How was your day?’ It’s more like, ‘What have you done nice for someone today?’”
That sense of caring is evident in and echoed by Coon’s colleagues.
David Little, EVP Consumer and Business Banking Operations for U.S. Bank, who has worked closely with Coon within that organization, describes it simply: “When I asked our colleagues here to describe Patrick, one word that’s often used is caring. Patrick has a deep level of caring that goes beyond what I would consider normal.” Little recalled, “We’ve had a lot of conversations about what it means to be a second-miler: somebody who goes that extra mile in all circumstances.” He says that Partrick has demonstrated this quality throughout their time working together.
The admiration runs in both directions, with Coon saying of Little, “He makes sure that people are cared for. I try to emulate his passion, his faith, his love of family. He’s an absolute professional. David’s the real deal.”
Guided by Mentors
Reflecting on a career that began in 1979, Coon credits mentors and colleagues who shaped his professional path. From Jim Overby, his first manager at Ford Motor Credit, he learned diligence, humility, and patience. Coon recalls Overby as the type who “walked in the door at 8:00 a.m. and walked out at 5:00 p.m.” One particular conversation between the two has stuck with Coon over the years: “He called me in and said, ‘You’re gonna go places, but you’ll only get there if you appreciate the people every step of the way.’”
At the outset of Coon´s mortgage career, Robert Caruso—now President & CEO of ServiceMac—modeled what it meant to be humble and to lead with character. Coon remembers how Caruso carried himself upon their initial encounter, amid a meeting in a sea of big egos: “Amongst all the chest-puffing, here was Bob, just sitting and being a man of character. Didn’t have to raise his voice. Didn’t have to get anybody’s attention. And I realized that you don’t have to be the loudest. You just have to think things through and speak when it’s appropriate. That sticks with me.”
Paying It Forward
For Coon, leadership has always meant mentorship. One story, in particular, stands out. At SPS, more than two decades ago, he met a talented young professional named Douglas Whittemore. Their relationship began not with flattery but with frank advice. “The mentorship didn’t kick off in a true mentorship fashion. It kicked off like a father talking to a son. It was, ‘Slow down. You’re getting ahead of yourself.’”
Whittemore echoes the familial comparisons. “What can we say about Patrick Coon other than ‘executive dad?” jokes Whittemore, currently serving as Chief Strategy & Growth Officer for Selene Finance. He has known and worked with Patrick for more than 20 years. “The one piece of coaching he offered to me was to be the first one in and the last one out, every single day. I’ve taken that to heart to this day as one of the values that I try to instill in my daily routine.”
That mentorship has extended far beyond office hours. “Patrick invited me to his house for Thanksgiving,” recounts Whittemore. “He made sure that I was never left alone during the holidays. … He was one of the voices that helped convince me to propose to my beautiful bride, Lindsay, and he was one of the first to arrive at my household when we brought our little girl home back in 2015. Patrick is more to me than just an executive, a boss, a friend, or a colleague. He’s been there for every single one of my major life events.”
Shaping Future Leaders
Coon’s influence is visible in the next generation of leaders he has helped to nurture. James Campbell, EVP, Head of Servicing at Roundpoint Mortgage, reflects on this legacy: “Patrick has left many distinguishing marks on this industry throughout his career. However, if you ask me to key in on just one, that would be the development of future leaders in organizations that have been fortunate enough to have Patrick in their ranks. Their passion for this business was ignited under Patrick.”
Campbell likens Coon to a coach. “He sees the talent that is there. However, as with all good coaches, that talent often needs to be molded, developed, and refined.” He says Patrick commits the patience, the commitment, and the time to raise these future leaders by helping them to realize the talents he saw in them at the beginning. According to Campbell, “You could not have chosen a better recipient for this year’s lifetime achievement award.”
A Legacy of Caring
For Eric Kramp, SVP Business Development for Assurant, Patrick’s legacy is one of care. “When I think about Patrick Coon, I think about a coach—your favorite coach, your favorite teacher, someone you talk to when you have a challenge or a problem, whether personal, business, or maybe both. Patrick’s the kind of person who will ask you 20 questions to help you talk through wherever the answer may lie or may not.”
That care isn’t abstract. “Patrick thinks about others first. What’s on your mind? How are your kids? How do you feel? What would you enjoy? … I can remember whiteboarding out solutions together, Patrick drawing on a whiteboard, scribbling diagrams and math and items and plotting a course all back and forth. … Maybe more importantly, I can remember talking with Patrick about personal challenges, personal stuff, inflection points in my life. … That’s what I’d say is Patrick’s lifetime achievement. He cares, he asks, he thinks about what you’d like. Patrick’s version of success is seeing his friends succeed, and he’s had a lot of friends succeed. If he’s helped them get there, he’s done it just by caring. That’s what makes him tick.”
Weathering Change
Few industries have faced as much turbulence in the past two decades as mortgage servicing. Coon has seen it all, from the financial crisis to regulatory shifts, and most recently, the pandemic. When asked about the most transformative change, his answer is simple: technology that connects us.
Coon shares that, to him, “the overwhelming, biggest change to our industry” and “the toughest thing we’ve ever faced” was the COVID-19 pandemic. He points to how technologies like Teams and Zoom proved to be game-changers in allowing the industry to pivot, adapt, and keep up while facing unprecedented challenges. “We stood up immediately, every company, [and] developed those technologies and took phone calls and everything else, that would’ve been impossible.”
Facing Setbacks
A career spanning decades is bound to have its share of difficult moments. For Coon, one of the hardest came in his mid-50s, when he lost a job for the first time. “I was bitterly disappointed. … I had to get over the negativity. … My wife reminded me that this was just a job, and that [I still had] value. I refocused my priorities. I got energized, elevated my faith, and ultimately, it was a great thing, because it put me right back in this business.”
Even amid setbacks such as the job loss, Coon leaned on the lessons he had carried with him since his youth. “I remember my dad saying, ‘Patrick, it’s not how many times they kick you. It’s your hang time.’”
Advice for the Next Generation
When asked what guidance he would give to those just starting in the mortgage industry, Coon emphasizes openness, humility, and connection. “Welcome change, knowing that it’s not necessarily in your control. … Just be confident. … But the balance of that (and you got to make sure it’s almost like a jeweler’s scale), is [to] be humble.”
He also stresses the importance of valuing relationships. “Each of us has a story. … If you’re gonna grow in this career, listen to the stories. Empathize [with] what’s going on. Connect with as many people as you can.”
Coon demonstrated that casual sense of care and character even in the aftermath of the interview, when he insisted on helping the interviewer carry a box of effects out to his car—a box the reporter could have carried easily. For Coon, that wasn’t the point. He offered to help because that’s just how he’s wired.
“I’m not special,” says Coon with a smile. “But I am especially blessed. And if people remember me, I would hope that they would remember me as part of being a team that made a difference.”
The post A Life in Mortgage: Patrick Coon’s Legacy of Caring in the Mortgage Industry first appeared on The MortgagePoint.
