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1Liquidity concerns dog mortgage insurers the david J. stern faLLout

They’ve risen through the ranks to become some of the most influential leaders in mortgage finance and residential real estate.

Read their stories of success and challenge. page 44

Influential Women of the Housing Economy

special edition

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Influential Women of the Housing Economy

housingwire presents

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COPYRIGHT 2011 BY THE LTV GROUP • 2701 Dallas Pkwy, Ste 200 • Plano, TX 75093 • 469.893.1480 • www.housingwire.com • REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

overview

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mortgage servicing

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regulation

technology

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It took Deb Still 28 years to reach the corner office.Not that the chief executive of Pulte Mortgage

is complaining.“The culture that I’ve probably always worked

in is a culture that’s rewarded hard work and competency and business results,” she says. “That’s what I’ve focused on.”

Still is a good example of the progress wom-en have made in the housing finance industry: She started out doing grunt work — processing loans. She put in long hours, pitched in on extra projects, built her visibility and steadily moved up the ladder to become leader of the mortgage fi-nance arm of Pulte Group Inc., one of the nation’s largest homebuilders.

Despite her 35 years in the industry, includ-ing seven as CEO, Still says she’s encountered few barriers attributable to her gender, and she describes a career focused on adding value for her employer.

“One of the things that I did along my career is that I volunteered for a whole lot of what I might call collateral responsibility,” she says. “If saw a need, I’d raise my hand and say, I see a need and I’d like to recommend that here’s what I can do. I think what I’ve done is made sure I’ve made a contribution to my company in whatever role I’ve been in.”

Still’s experience has not been typical for other women with long careers in the housing and real estate finance industries. Although nearly every woman interviewed for this story said career op-portunities for women in the industry have vastly improved over the last four decades, it hasn’t al-ways come easy. And there’s still far to go.

“When I went to interview with the Peterson Cos., Milt Peterson looked right at me and in his wonderful, forthright way, said ‘Why should I hire a woman developer?’ recounts Lynne Han-sen, a retired multifamily housing developer who started her career at the Federal Housing Ad-ministration and went on to work for 21 years at the Peterson Cos., a Fairfax, Va.-based developer of mixed-use properties.

“Things were different then — that was 1986,” says Hansen, who adds that she wasn’t

offended by the question. “I liked that we could have an open and honest and frank conversa-tion.” She told Peterson that some of her best friends were his biggest lenders and her per-sonal networks gave her access to people he wouldn’t otherwise be able to tap. Obviously, the pitch worked, since she was hired and stuck around for two decades.

TAPPING THE NETWORKA key contributor to Hansen’s success was

a strategy pursued by many: Networking with other like-minded, goal-oriented women. She was active in two groups of women in real estate.

“We used to joke that one of the most effective things we could do for each other was give refer-ences,” she says. Plus, “whoever was out of work at the moment was authorized to become presi-dent and could put that on her résumé.”

A number of other women said being active in groups such as New England Women in Real Es-tate, or NEWIRE as it’s known, played a key role in their career advancement.

Marty Jones, CEO of MassDevelopment, the economic development agency for Massachu-setts, says NEWIRE broadened her connections and knowledge base, and positioned her to move into commercial real estate when her career be-gan to turn in that direction.

Until joining MassDevelopment this year, she served as president at commercial real estate developer Corcoran Jennison, where she spent about 30 years.

The demand for such support networks is still strong, as evidenced by a new group — infor-mally called Women in Housing and Finance — founded by Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe part-ner Leah Sanzari and JPMorgan Chase Senior Managing Director Mary Haggerty three years ago, when Bear Stearns collapsed.

“It started with five of us,” says Sanzari. “And I’m not kidding, in three days we had 125 emails.”

The women meet monthly in Alexandria, Va. Sanzari is hoping to start a speaker series soon and make the group a formal organization, along the lines of 85 Broads, a global women’s

network founded by former Goldman Sachs ex-ecutives.

That kind of networking may help, but it doesn’t necessarily get women to the top jobs.

Despite her success — she built more than 6,000 multifamily units and was responsible for $400 million in acquisitions over her career — Hansen never quite made it to the corner of-fice. And on that count, she’s much more repre-sentative of women in the industry than Still or Jones.

Women account for only about 11% of board seats at Fortune 1000 corporations, and one-quar-ter of those companies have no women directors, according to the latest research from Catalyst, a nonprofit group focused on increasing opportu-nities for women in business.

HousingWire also found the top five U.S. homebuilders and mortgage lenders didn’t fare much better, with women holding just shy of 13% of the seats on the boards of these firms.

Data from the latest study from the Financial Women’s Association of New York — looking at public companies in the New York metro area — mirrored these findings. The New York study showed the number of surveyed companies with no women on the board actually increased from nine to 11, a 22% rise.

SCARCITY IN HIGH-DOLLAR JOBSAlthough women have historically been

over-represented among residential real estate brokers — they make up 57% of licensed agents, according to the National Association of Realtors — they are much more scarce in the industry seg-ments with the highest compensation.

“The more money that’s involved, the harder it is for women to maintain equality,” says Di-ane Westerback, a managing director of global surveillance at Standard & Poor’s. She was quick to add that women have an easier time getting hired than they did two or three decades ago.

“Now the challenge is how much you can move up and how much decision-making ability and financial remuneration you net out of it. In my mind the final frontier is making the trad-

Corner offiCe envyReaching the top still a challenge for women in housing finance

BY L IZ E NOCHS

influential women of the housing economyOvERvIEW

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ing and money allocation decisions and getting a strong foothold in that end,” Westerback said.

Even men who have been in the business for decades agree that high-dollar jobs tend to be male-dominated.

“If you’re looking at hard-core investment banking, I agree that there has been somewhat of a glass ceiling there,” says Ron D’Vari, CEO of New Oak Capital Advisors, a New York-based capital markets financial advisory firm. “When it comes to finance and sales and servicing, you’ll find it’s more balanced, but if you go into trading it’s the opposite.”

Out of New Oak’s more than 40 employees, fewer than 20% are women, partly because the firm is heavy on financial professionals, says D’Vari, who posits many women have opted out from more demanding roles because of personal preferences or family obligations.

“As we build marketing, and perhaps even in the legal side and the communications side and perhaps more core foundation functions, those ratios will be changing over time,” he said. “We’re too small to try to change the universe. It’s more of making sure that our work environ-ment is conducive and proper and sensitive to in-dividual needs. That’s the best thing we can do to make sure it’s a level playing field.”

Rochdale Securities, a brokerage firm for in-stitutional investors in Stamford, Conn., has no women salespeople or traders, says senior vice president of equity research Dick Bove.

“This is a totally male-dominated firm,” he said.

The longtime securities analyst attributes some of the disparity in the financial industry to what he says is women’s tendency to be more risk-averse.

“When I’ve been a research director, I’ve al-ways liked hiring women,” he says. “The women were always extremely careful and had to know everything and didn’t like taking risks. The men always took risks and didn’t always back up what they did.”

Heidi McKibben, vice president and head of multifamily production at Fannie Mae, also

thinks women shy away from risk, but says that’s beneficial.

“I’ve found banking is a great field and finance is a great field for women,” she says. “I personally think it’s because we’re more risk averse. I think we’re good at identifying risk and looking at the business from the side of identifying opportuni-ties but also looking at the downside risk.”

At Fannie Mae, which participates in the debt markets but doesn’t make equity investments, where the potential returns are much greater, that risk assessment is crucial.

“We don’t have an equity upside,” McKibben said. “So we better get it right.”

While women like McKibben say changing attitudes, increased awareness of the importance of diversity and companies’ efforts to offer em-ployees a better work-life balance have helped boost the number of women in the mortgage fi-nance industry and even in high-level positions, reaching the upper echelons is still a challenge.

A 2007 study by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association found although women in the financial industry may start out being hired at levels approaching parity, their representation declines at almost every step of the corporate ladder.

From analyst to associate, the ratio of women in the ranks drop from 45% to 39%, to manager,

senior manager, and managing director, where women make up just 14.5% of employees. Inter-estingly, women’s representation at the executive level actually rises, to 20%.

As business schools open their doors wider to women, an increase in the pipeline of fe-male MBAs could make a difference in the years ahead. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has shown what focused recruit-ment efforts can yield: Women make up almost 40% of matriculants in this fall’s class, a 12.5% increase from 2010.

Some of the most prominent women in fi-nance are looking to such efforts to help women gain the keys to the corner office. Sheila Bair, former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., suggested getting women in top-level po-sitions could contribute to a more stable finan-cial system.

“Let us celebrate those who lead their orga-nizations effectively and resolve to foster a cul-ture which rewards managers who are willing to forego short-term profits in favor of long-term stability and prosperity,” she said in a speech to a women’s group in Boston last year. “And as part of building that culture, let’s hope we see a lot more women in the upper echelons of financial institution management, including — at long last — at the very top.”

1a

The sTaTus of women1. Only 14.5% (see 1a) of managers, senior managers and managing directors of

financialcorporationsarewomen,but(see1b)57%ofrealestatebrokersarewomen.

2. Womenaccountforonlyabout11%ofboardseatsatFortune1000corporations,andaquarterofthecompaniesinthatgrouphavenowomenontheirboards.

3. Womenmakeupjustshyof13%oftheseatsontheboardsofthenation’slargesthomebuildersandmortgagelenders.

4. Businessschoolsarerecruitingwomen into theirmastersofbusinessprograms.AttheWhartonSchoolattheUniversityofPennsylvania,womenmakeup40%ofthefallclass,up12.5%from2010.

1b 2 3 4

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influential women of the housing economyinvestments

“Knowing that what we do helps people keep their homes is what drives all of us to get up in the morning,” she says with a laugh.

“It’s the challenge that keep us strong.”

Close your eyes and create a profile for the typical executive for a private mortgage insurer. someone who is dealing with the worse mar-ket conditions for mortgage insurance since, well, since private mort-gage insurers have been around.

got it? now throw it away.whatever you thought of, it’s bound to be nothing like teresa Bryce

Bazemore, president of mortgage insurer Radian guaranty.smart, affable and energetic, it’s hard to believe Bazemore is a sur-

viving street fighter.and after losing so much business in the downturn to government-

backed mortgage insurance, Radian is ready to claw back market share.the mortgage insurance companies of america — which represents

member firms genworth mortgage insurance, mgic, Pmi mortgage insurance, Radian guaranty and Republic mortgage insurance — re-leased data revealing mortgage insurers have $610.8 billion in primary mortgage insurance in force, down from $615.7 billion in april.

But don’t believe everything you read. “we are writing the best busi-ness ever,” said Bazemore. “we are managing our legacy book and helping borrowers stay in their homes.

“we invest in preserving homeownership, as our interests as the insurer are clearly aligned with those of the homeowner,” she added. “the more foreclosures we have and claims we pay, the more down-ward pressure it has on our company and on the market overall.”

and that’s Bazemore in a nutshell. she never refers to “me” but al-ways to the market as a whole.

“Knowing that what we do helps people buy their homes with low down payments and helps them keep their homes is what drives all of us to get up in the morning,” she says with a laugh. “they’re the chal-lenges that keep us strong.”

Bazemore oversees strategic planning and administrative activities designed to best position the company to achieve its long-term goals and objectives. most recently, Bazemore held the position of executive vice president, chief legal counsel and chief risk officer.

“not long after starting with Radian, the subprime mortgage crisis hit and credit issues began to surface,” she said. “ however, after more than 30 years in this business we really understand the importance of the underwriting process and that gives us confidence.”

Before joining Radian in october 2006, Bazemore served as gen-eral counsel, senior vice president and secretary for nexstar financial corp.

Prior to that, she was general counsel for Bank of america’s mort-gage operations and held other senior legal leadership roles at Pnc mortgage corp. and Prudential home mortgage co.

Bazemore has served on the board of the mortgage Bankers asso-ciation, on the consumer advisory council of the federal Reserve and on the fannie mae national advisory council.

teresa Bryce BazemoreRadian guaranty

By jacoB gaffney

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Sue Allon runS Allonhill, a tiny bespoke due diligence firm tucked away in Denver.

It’s a tiny firm, with big plans and a large reach.And they’re taking it one loan at a time. Allon is helping set the frame-

work for how due diligence is being performed on mortgage-backed securi-ties. Her contributions include initiatives such as investment firms seeing the loans before closing and staying one step ahead in case investors decide they want out of a deal.

Allonhill also will seek “expert status,” meaning the firm is liable for lawsuits should they call it wrong on the collateral.

All of these initiatives are pioneering game changers in mortgage fi-nance.

Allonhill performed due diligence on the only two private-label RMBS deals to come to the secondary market since the financial crisis, through July.

While most of her firm’s 400 people are working on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contracts, six of the top 10 banks are retaining the services of Allonhill for when they look to ink new MBS deals.

Such a reach has to do with the culture of diversity, Allon said. “I proactively say in hiring to go for some diversity. We are a culture, not

just a job. If you want people to carry the torch, creative hiring is one way you infuse that into management,” she said.

Allon said this was proven to her again only recently. While attending a party, a couple she spoke to talked about how their son raved about his new job.

“Where does he work?” Allon politely asked.“Allonhill,” they answered.Allon’s gender works both for and against her, and she accepts that.

Some may feel threatened by her warrior-like persona in boardrooms. She defends by saying she doesn’t like to give anyone the runaround. To Allon, it’s important that her persona in the workplace is different.

In this scenario she believes being a woman allows for more generous and complimentary behavior.

“It’s easier for a woman to tell her employees, ‘Hey guys, I love you,’” she said.

Sue AllonAllonhill

lAurie GoodmAn is a top residential mortgage-backed securities strat-egist for broker-dealer Amherst Securities. And if you think a particular housing policy shift happening in Washington or elsewhere is a good idea, there is a chance Goodman was the first to put it out there.

Amherst didn’t start out trying to be a huge voice in financial reforms in the secondary mortgage and servicing markets, but now that it’s there, it makes perfect sense.

Thank Goodman for that.“We didn’t set out to deliver policy messages, we have always aimed to

distinguish ourselves through investment ideas,” Goodman said.“We just found it impossible to

have a view of RMBS without an in-formed opinion on housing policy,” she said. “We aren’t compromised and don’t have conflicts.”

Talks of principal reduction? Goodman said to do that more than two years ago and she hasn’t relented.

“Principal reduction is now a part of HAMP,” she said, drop-ping the hint that she had a hand in it. “It’s only optional, though we would have preferred some-thing less voluntary.”

Goodman doesn’t give up. She is willing to continue to push until someone listens, but she sometimes wonders if she is shouting loud enough.

“Everyone would like to be heard by more ears,” she admits, “all we can control is the quality and thoughtfulness of our ideas, the rest is up to the reader.”

The wonderful part is that Goodman won’t change her message just to get more people to listen. Her research won’t change regardless of how many people read the it.

The mortgage finance industry knows this. And that is how Goodman exerts her influence, by earning the respect of movers and shakers one set of ears at a time.

laurie GoodmanAmherst Securities

“When we started out, discussion was controlled by banks. No one spoke for the benefit of investors.”

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influential women of the housing economyinvestments

Amy BrAndt’s impAct and influence on the housing industry is clear.Brandt, who is ceo of Vantium capital in irving, texas, shaped the automation of un-

derwriting in the mortgage arena, having led the development of one of the first auto-mated underwriting decisioning systems, wmc Direct.

automated underwriting is growing in favor. when the federal Deposit insurance corp. securitizes failed bank assets, it uses automated underwriting.

Brandt rose to become the president and ceo of wmc mortgage corp., then owned by investment firm apollo, where she grew the organization from a small regional whole-sale lender to an industry leader with monthly originations exceeding $3 billion.

eventually, ge purchased wmc from apollo in 2004 and Brandt moved in 2007 to Van-tium capital, an apollo portfolio company that provides specialty servicing, loss mitiga-tion and mortgage debt recovery, among other services. she has steadily grown the busi-ness since its inception, to nearly 200 employees.

“the strength to organize new business models to address current environmental chal-lenges is a key component in how to approach servicing mortgages in today’s world,” said Brandt. “Defaults are continuing to rise, and servicers are tasked with designing their loss mitigation efforts to meet the challenge both cost effectively and with the ability to scale.”

“we organize our teams to tailor to every client’s needs. our technology platform, Velocity, is built to execute resolution strategy for investors,” she said. “we provide our clients complete transparency to their portfolio.”

however, Vantium capital is not a loud specialty servicer. there is little need or want inside the company to grab the spotlight. Brandt takes her time in answering questions. she is in no rush and gets her answers perfect.

But that’s not to say it’s a defining trait. in the market, people who know Brandt say she is also quick to respond to questions based on her extensive knowledge and even quick to offer her opinion, even when it is not the popular view.

Brandt simply doesn’t crave the spotlight.the Vantium mission isn’t about pounding the drum the loudest, but making the

best music.

Amy Brandt Vantium capital

By jacoB gaffney

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BarBara Desoer has one of the hardest jobs in the country.As president of Bank of America Home Loans, she heads the second-

largest mortgage origination shop and largest servicer in the country with a $2 trillion portfolio representing more than 14 million homeowners.

She also is tasked with handling the bank’s 2008 acquisition of Coun-trywide Financial Corp. Integrating acquisitions is a job she’s handled with aplomb before, successfully merging Fleet, MBNA Corp. and LaSalle Bank among others into the Bank of America operations.

Desoer takes a commonsense, analytical approach to managing the huge portfolio of Countrywide mortgages, which included subprime, pay option and other loan products Bank of America discontinued immediately upon acquisition.

“It’s very important to identify a few areas of focus and always think about those things,” Desoer told HousingWire.

“First, I focus on customers. Focus on what they worry about, what they care about. No. 2 is the focus on our associates. Have a clear vision and make that vision clear so the associate will buy into that vision. And No. 3, we have to balance the needs of the shareholders, who expect a return on their investment.”

Desoer has been with Bank of America since 1977 and served as chief technology and operations officer prior to her current role.

Right out of school, Desoer was writing casualty insurance for clients and brokers but wanted a larger role in evaluating risk for the companies who ultimately bore the risk.

“I wanted direct access to the decision makers,” she said. “I didn’t want to deal with an intermediary.”

This led to a stint in commercial lending. She was a marketing executive for a time before becoming consumer products executive at BofA in 2001, overseeing the bank’s card services, deposit products, real estate and in-surance operations. She was named chief technology and operations officer in 2005 and assumed her current role in 2008.

Last fall, she made the call to voluntarily suspend foreclosure sales for thousands of Bank of America customers and launch a review of the pro-cess after questions about the validity of signatures arose amid the robo-signing scandal.

“Through this cycle, we’re here for our customers,” she said. “While the macroeconomic size has changed, we’ve stayed there with products for our customers. We stayed there for our jumbo loans clients by leveraging our balance sheet. We stayed there for our commercial customers with our warehouse lending channels. And we strive to innovate continually to serve those customers.”

While many college graduates may have soured on a career in finance, Desoer sees plenty of potential for a successful career.

“The advice I have for someone who might be unsure about (a career in banking) in such turmoil is that there are opportunities at places undergo-ing change,” she said. “We have more knowledge about customer behavior now than we’ve ever had and we need dedicated analytical people who can transfer that knowledge of consumer behavior into products.”

Her suggestions are clear and concise.“Write your values down. Make sure you know them. Then make sure you

test companies to find a match with your values,” Desoer said.Seems simple enough. It’s common sense, after all. Remaining stead-

fastly focused on a customer’s relationship with BofA, Desoer is able to adeptly handle the stress of one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

INFLueNTIAL WoMeN oF THe HouSINg eCoNoMylenDing

Barbara DesoerBank of America

“It’s very important to identify a few areas of focus and always think about those things.”

By jASoN pHILyAW

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About three yeArs Ago, Donnalee DeMaio directed MetLife Bank’s ac-quisition of the mortgage portfolio of First Horizon National and the reverse mortgage operations of the Bank of New York Mellon.

She anticipated the acquisitions would position MetLife Bank as a leader in the origination and servicing of home loans.

She was right.MetLife Bank now ranks among the top three reverse mortgage origi-

nators, top 15 mortgage originators, and top 15 mortgage servicers in the country.

The bank didn’t write any mortgages in the first half of 2008. After clos-ing the deals, the bank originated $1.26 billion in the third quarter and $4.55 billion in fourth quarter that year.

In 2009, MetLife Bank ranked as the 10th highest mortgage originator with $35.34 billion worth of home loans written. That level slid 37% last year to $22.2 billion.

DeMaio is president and chief executive of MetLife Bank and also is the chair of the board.

She joined MetLife in 2002 and began transforming the banking unit of the insurance giant into a serious player in the mortgage finance space. She assumed her current posts in July 2005 following three years as chief finan-cial officer.

After MetLife Bank purchased EverBank Financial Mortgage of Bloom-field, N.J., in late May 2008, DeMaio said the acquisition greatly expanded the bank’s trained reverse mortgage specialists.

About a week after the EverBank acquisition, MetLife Bank agreed to buy the residential mortgage origination and servicing business of First Tennes-see Bank National Association, a unit of First Horizon National Corp.

“This will significantly accelerate the growth of potential of MetLife Bank’s residential mortgage busi-ness as it allows us to ac-quire significant expertise, scale and platforms,” De-Maio said.

Now MetLife Bank is looking to expand its re-verse mortgage operations after Wells Fargo and Bank of America exited the busi-ness earlier this year.The bank is also considering the sale of its depository business.

While overseeing all areas of investment, as-set liability management, financial reporting, cash management, compliance and lending, DeMaio helped push MetLife Bank’s total deposits to more than $9.3 billion at March 31 from just $354,000 in 2002.

DeMaio joins the Resi-dential Board of Governors of the Mortgage Bankers Association in October.

over the pAst 30 yeArs, Cara Heiden played a huge role building, shap-ing and sustaining Wells Fargo’s dominance in the residential loan space, most recently as co-president of the bank’s home mortgage unit.

She’s led the nation’s top mortgage origination business and No. 2 mort-gage servicer for more than a decade.

Unlike some competitors, Wells Fargo shied away from writing riskier adjustable-rate mortgage and subprime home loans during the housing bubble. While this led to the banking giant losing some market share in the middle of last decade, it may ultimately prove to be one of the best decisions the bank ever made.

“Cara and her co-president, Mike Heid, advocated the position not to of-fer negative amortization or option-ARM loans,” said Teri Schrettenbrunner, senior vice president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage communications.

In the summer of 2007, Wells Fargo shuttered its subprime wholesale lending operations entirely.

“For the foreseeable future, we believe continued turmoil in the nonprime sector will result in financial returns for our nonprime wholesale channel that are not commensurate with the risks inherent in this business,” Heiden said four years ago. “As a result, we have chosen to discontinue this chan-nel.”

“And at that certain point in the cycle, that was a very unpopular deci-sion,” Schrettenbrunner said. “There were a lot of people saying we were leaving a lot of volume and market share on the table.”

But Heiden always puts the customer first, Schrettenbrunner said, and this helped her make those difficult decisions.

And now she’s leaving. Heiden plans to retire from her post as co-presi-dent of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in the coming months.

“She has been directly responsible for leading the company’s mortgage production channels, joint ventures, marketing and cross sell areas,” the company said in a press release announcing the promotion of Mike Heid to president of the mortgage unit.

Heiden consistently worked with government officials and consumer ad-vocates on efforts to help stabilize the nation’s housing market throughout her tenure at Wells Fargo.

“Since her earliest days with the company, Cara has been a leader who has made a difference for our team members, our customers, our share-holders and the Des Moines community,” Wells Fargo Chairman and Chief Executive John Stumpf said. “We thank her for her many years of outstand-ing service, and wish her the very best.”

Cara heidenWells Fargo Home Mortgage

Donnalee DeMaioMetLife Bank

53 Sep tember 2011

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Donna Miller joineD the Chase Home Lending in May 2008 to lead the mortgage giant’s emerging markets and affordable lending group.

She is responsible for developing strategies and programs that increase homeownership among minorities and immigrants, while providing afford-able lending for consumers and first-time homebuyers.

To achieve as much, Miller has complied a highly diverse staff, with strong backgrounds and understanding of these market segments.

Andrea Lee Negroni, a lawyer at BuckleySandler in Washington, said Miller previously helped develop a bilingual mortgage service center cater-ing to Hispanics in Las Cruces, N.M., while she was a consultant to another leading, national lender.

“This service center was one of the first in the country to make all mort-gage documents and customer service communications available in Span-ish as well as English and it quickly became one of the company’s most pro-ductive loan offices,” Negroni said. “The win-win outcomes in the housing industry under Donna’s leadership — that is, more ethnically and culturally diverse home mortgage lending and employment — demonstrate Donna’s contributions to traditionally underserved communities in the housing economy.”

Negroni said Hispanic loan servicing centers soon popped up across the country, providing numerous jobs for Spanish-speaking loan officers, cus-tomer service agents, management personnel and others.

“Donna Miller is one of the leading lights in the effort to create, promote, maintain these advantages for the widest possible customer segments,” she added.

Miller said she is simply finding ways to best serve the ever-evolving customer base.

“It may sound simple, but diversity is really something any successful business needs, particularly financial services,” Miller told HousingWire. “With demographics changing and a larger percentage of our customers having Spanish be their preferred language, it just makes sense to provide them with products and services that help them understand the mortgage process.”

Chase has been one of the largest mortgage originators and home loan servicers for decades, yet only recently began a more concerted effort to reach minority homeowners.

In late 2010, Chase changed how it resells foreclosed properties in a move that may bring more business to minority-owned firms. In order to receive an assignment to resell real estate-owned homes, the broker must now be based within 5 miles of the property.

Gary Acosta, co-founder of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, said working with real estate agents from the neigh-borhood results in more owner occupants buying properties and at a faster rate.

“I think there is a real desire to list these properties with brokers who know these neighborhoods and speak the language,” Acosta told Housing-Wire. “We can sell more to owner occupants and keep more of the wealth in these communities.”

That is exactly what Miller hopes to do.Her creativity and “unshakeable commitment” to providing home fi-

nancing and employment opportunities across ethnic and cultural lines has helped thousands of families, Negroni said.

“With a very diversified staff, we’ve been able to move in line with the right level of service capacity to support these customers,” Miller said.

INfLuENTIAL WoMEN of THE HouSING ECoNoMylenDing

Donna MillerJPMorgan Chase Home Lending

“It may sound simple, but diversity is really something any successful business needs, particularly financial services.”

By JASoN PHILyAW

54 Sep tember 2011

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The new Consumer FinanCial ProTeCTion Bureau aims to shield Americans from predatory and unfair lend-ing practices. But one mortgage executive has strived to do as much for more than 30 years.

Deb Still is president and chief executive officer of Pulte Mortgage.“Our mission is to build communities,” Still said. “And communities need to thrive. So we not only want to put our

customers in homes, we want to provide products so our customers can thrive in those homes.”About five years ago, as many lenders were writing subprime mortgages for borrowers with little or no accurate

documentation, Pulte decided to educate customers about the loans they were about sign, according to Still.“We made a conscious decision to change our strategic corporate culture to one that puts an inordinate focus on

customer satisfaction. And all the executives at the Pulte Group chose to get involved in incorporating this strategy.”Still believes this has proved advantageous for Pulte, as all the new rules and consumer safeguards that’ve come

online the past few years caught some mortgage lenders off guard.“We have a customer satisfaction culture already in place,” she said. “Staying close to the customer to understand

their concerns over finances helped us understand how to provide them with appropriate home financing.”Still joined Pulte Mortgage in 1983 as branch manager for the company’s Maryland division. A decade later she

was running mortgage operations across the South and was appointed senior vice president in April 1995, tasked with implementing centralization initiatives as the company began moving more services online.

Two years later, Still was promoted to executive vice president for production and named to the Pulte Mortgage board of directors. Another two years passed and she became chief operating officer. Then in August 2004, she was named CEO of the mortgage lending arm of one of the largest homebuilders in the nation.

She’s been blazing a trail for three decades now, staying ahead of many in the industry by balancing zeal with moderation, confidence with attentiveness, and intelligence with competence.

“We need to own a compliant culture, but more importantly we need to strive for the noble purpose of putting people in homes they can afford,” Still said. “Our entire industry has been challenged with the pace of change. We need to believe the new regulations help that noble purpose, and not look at them as 100 more rules.”

Still is vice chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association and becomes chairman-elect in October. Then she becomes the second woman chair of the huge trade group next October.

“There’s been so much information batted around about our industry,” she said. “It is important for me to care about our customers … to be passionate for our customers. We need people that can help provide solutions to the problems through laws and regulations. We need people who will write rules so the issues of the past few years never happen again … rules without unintended consequences for consumers.”

Deb stillPulte Mortgage

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influential women of the housing economymortgage servicing

cynthia Fitzgeraldlender Processing services

“It is definitely challenging right now. We are in the spotlight as an industry, but with that comes a lot of opportunity.”

a 25-plus year veteran of the mortgage industry, cynthia fitzgerald, an executive at lender Processing services, has recently watched mort-gage servicing and technology tools change virtually overnight.

“it is one of the most interesting and challenging industries to be a part of,” fitzgerald said when asked about all of the changes impacting the ser-vicing side of the business. “it is definitely challenging right now. we are in the spotlight as an industry, but with that comes a lot of opportunity.”

fitzgerald ‘s motto is basic, and despite challenging times, she believes it still works: “you focus on the customer, and you can’t go wrong.”

when fitzgerald is not managing the customer support and services division of lPs, her devotion to service travels far beyond the walls of her firm, with the executive using her free time to attend “sporting events and awards ceremonies” for her children or leading activities at their schools.

fitzgerald’s service-oriented spirit led to a two-year stint as campaign chairwoman for the united way and another two years on the charity’s board. the american Red cross, where she serves on the board, also keeps her busy.

while fitzgerald’s contributions to her community are apt to fly under the radar, her career at lPs has made her a force to contend with in the industry.

as executive vice president of lPs’ customer support and services divi-sion, fitzgerald oversees a team of 300 mortgage banking and technology professionals. her colleagues credit fitzgerald’s work for helping “ser-vicers become more productive” by allowing them to better leverage tech-nology to assist borrowers.

fitzgerald is known in the servicing community as an executive who knows her stuff, especially when leveraging the power of technology. she worked alongside the mortgage Bankers association, assisting it in the devel-opment of training programs for mortgage banking professionals and was an integral part of the team that created lPs’ award-winning Powercell support network, which helped lPs improve its connections with customers.

she also was an executive sponsor on a project to convert JPmorgan chase loans to the lPs msP system, making it the company’s single largest conversion to date.

fitzgerald joined lPs in 1993 after spending eight years at a mortgage banking firm.

the industry has changed immensely since the day she started in 1985. at her first position, she remembers the company’s software being used by 200 to 300 customers to service 10 million loans. “today, we (at lPs) have 80 customers who service 30 million loans,” she said, attributing some of the changes in the industry to mass consolidation.

not only have loan volumes grown, her role at lPs also has transformed over time. colleagues say “under her leadership, the professional services organization has grown by 40% in size and revenue.”

in the fast-moving space that fitzgerald works in, her colleagues see a leader who is always ready to embrace every opportunity and challenge.

“cynthia has had tremendous success building an award-winning, high-performance client-support operation that is second to none,” said Dan scheu-ble, chief operating officer of lPs. “she has established a well-respected team of senior mortgage industry experts who deliver highly responsive service and deep industry knowledge to meet the diverse support needs of our clients.”

By keRRi Panchuk

56 Sep tember 2011

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Real estate has been in Beverly Wilbourn’s blood for quite some time. Wilbourn, who graduated from Georgetown University with a law degree, earned an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from Ohio State University.

Wilbourn’s background in architecture and law helped her blaze a career path in the housing industry where she currently works as vice president for preferred loss-mitigation strategies at Fannie Mae.

While Wilbourn’s position at Fannie is not landscape architecture per se, it’s in line with her many strengths and passions.

In her role overseeing the GSE’s strategies to save neighborhoods and homes through short sales, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and third-party sales, Wilbourn is shaping the future of local communities in her own way.

Her unique background as a licensed landscape architect and planner complements her ongoing interest in lifting neighborhoods around the na-tion’s Capitol.

Her team at Fannie dedicates a great deal of time trying to stabilize housing in urban areas, with a special focus on resolving homelessness and eliminating the root causes of social ills impacting neighborhoods.

Wilbourn’s career in community development law and finance spans more than 30 years.

Prior to her current position at Fannie, she served the GSE as associ-ate general counsel for multifamily housing before moving into the role of director of housing and community development for Fannie’s northeastern regional office.

Wilbourn also practiced commercial real estate law at Willkie Farr and Gallagher and co-founded the Curry and Wilbourn firm, where she repre-sented affordable housing developers and tenants exercising their rights to acquire properties.

When running for office in Washington, Wilbourn expressed her ongo-ing passion for community development, drawing on her experiences as the youngest of six children and as a successful businesswomen educated in public schools. When addressing voters at one point, Wilbourn said, “I was raised to value family and give back to the broader community.”

beverly WilbournFannie Mae

tRacy hagen Mooney, senior vice president of single-family servicing and real-estate owned at Freddie Mac, has the weight of many neighbor-hoods on her shoulders.

At Freddie, Mooney oversees the government-sponsored enterprise’s relationships with more than 1,400 servicers as well as its $1.8 trillion sin-gle-family portfolio. The complexities of her job today are a far cry from Mooney’s early days at the GSE.

“When I began at Freddie Mac, automated underwriting was an idea on a conference room grease board,” she said. “Today the mortgage industry is all but synonymous with information technology. I don’t think its possible to briefly describe the impact this change has had, and continues to have, on the American mortgage market.”

Mooney’s task – whether in a good or bad housing market – is to re-duce credit losses in the communities housing Freddie assets through loss mitigation, liquidation and effective REO asset management and disposition strategies.

Mooney considers today’s market a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and says she’s proud “to be part of this moment when the industry is in a state of profound transformation and to have the opportunity to make a difference, a real difference that can strengthen our industry and preserve the institution of American homeownership in the long run.”

She also wants to “help Freddie Mac fulfill its immediate mission to re-duce credit losses and stabilize communities through responsible business strategies.”

Mooney currently serves on Freddie’s management committee.A graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Mooney previ-

ously served Freddie Mac as senior vice president of single-family credit management, where she was responsible for ensuring GSE customers sold loans to Freddie that complied with all of the GSEs’ underwriting guidelines and credit standards.

She has been with the company since 1986, previously serving as vice president of sales for Freddie Mac’s Atlanta Regional office. Prior to join-ing the GSE, she held accounting, auditing and consulting positions within Arthur Andersen & Co. and the Washington Post Co.

When asked about Mooney’s many contributions to the industry, Fred-die Mac Executive Vice President of Single Family Business Anthony Renzi said, “Tracy is impressive on several fronts. She is an executive who can get things done, build and manage top performing teams, and can forge strong, trust-based business relationships with our customers.”

tracy hagen MooneyFreddie Mac

57 Sep tember 2011

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Default attorney caren Jacobs castle saw her career come full-circle when the prestigious usfn mortgage banking law group named her the organization’s first female president — a title she currently holds.

“it goes to show you all the changes that have occurred in the industry,” she said. “when i went to the forma-tion meeting of the usfn at a conference many years ago, i was the only female in the room. now there are many women lawyers in this industry.”

castle says that “very special moment” when she became the organization’s first female leader capped off a legal career that started from rather humble beginnings when she was doing foreclosure work simply to gain ex-perience in the early ’80s.

castle launched her legal career in the default-mortgage space working alongside a foreclosure attorney af-ter graduating from southwestern university school of law in california 30 years ago. the knowledge she gained eventually contributed to the growth of the castle stawiarski llc law firm that castle and her husband, larry castle, operate out of Denver.

when she’s not busy practicing law, castle is often delivering speeches to mortgage professionals across the country on issues including foreclosure, loss mitigation and the federal fair Debt collection Practices act. Pro-viding education and training to the field is one of the aspects of her job that castle enjoys the most.

“i love going out and doing training seminars with usfn,” she said. “it is more interesting to have that face-to-face contact in an industry where we are very technology based.”

a colleague who recognized castle for her leadership abilities said she “presents an ideal role model of the working woman who manages to balance the demands of a professional career and a family.”

castle has three children, including one in her third year of law school. castle is a member of who/Voa (women helping others) and works with the junior committee for wheelchair and ambulatory sports usa. she also assists the national wheelchair Basketball association by serving as the group’s legal liaison.

caren Jacobs castlecastle stawiarski llc

By kerri Panchuk

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influential women of the housing economynonprofit

Adversity At A young Age taught carmen mercado to persevere.as a 16-year-old unwed mother, mercado accelerated her high school

work to graduate early and provide for her daughter. she bounced between her native Puerto Rico and new york city after the birth, eventually return-ing to Puerto Rico where she later married and had another child. she and her family then returned to nyc where they lived with a sister before achiev-ing the dream of homeownership.

mercado said the real estate agent who helped her buy that first home made a huge impression — one that stuck with her and led to her entering the real estate trade.

“she told me, ‘it’s not going to be easy, but if you stick with me, i’ll find you something.’ she took us through the whole process,” mercado said.

the extra time the agent spent educating mercado and her husband about homeownership formed the basis of what mercado does today: she educates real estate agents in her coldwell Banker job and in her volunteer role as chairman of the national association of hispanic Real estate Profes-sionals.

as the education and diversity manager for coldwell Banker Residential, she manages 15 offices on long island and in Queens. there, she teaches real estate agents the latest sales techniques and provides classes on a host of other issues from fair housing laws to new technology for agents. she is the only education manager within coldwell who added a diversity piece to her role. as a diversity manager, mercado teaches agents to em-brace diversity and recognize cultural biases.

“what are the things we need to learn to adapt to other cultures?” she asks.

embracing the changing cultures on long island has helped coldwell agents grow their market share, she said.

as chairman of the national association of hispanic Real estate Profes-sionals, mercado also is following her passion for education. she assumed leadership roles within the trade group almost immediately after joining in 2004 — forming the group’s new york chapter and chairing the national con-ference in her city in 2006 before moving onto the national board.

it’s that connection to nahReP she attributes to much of her success and influence today.

“i could have continued my career locally and seen real estate as a local initiative,” she said, reciting the mantra that “all real estate is local.” But nahReP broadened her horizons and forced her to see how the economy and policymaking affects local real estate markets.

“Because of the exposure i received at nahReP national, i realized what you do is much larger than your local area,” she said. “i really do attribute much of my success to those relationships i made.”

now she’s bringing her educational focus to each chapter as she criss-crosses the country meeting with affiliates.

“i’ve been able to go out to many of our chapters and communicate to them our global mentality. this is more than just a real estate transaction.”

mercado said she wants nahReP’s 18,000 members to think big and re-alize that they have the ability to affect the decisions being made on capitol hill.

“i feel i’ve been able to deliver that message. i’m opening eyes, and they are saying i get it. i can be influential.”

During her one-year term, mercado said she’ll push the organization further down the road with the creation of a leadership academy that can identify people within its chapters who have management potential and help develop them as leaders within their communities and within the nahReP organization.

frances martinez myers, a past chairman of nahReP, said she’s known mercado for eight years and is inspired by her work.

“carmen exhibits the kind of leadership and focus that will be required to restore stability and long-term health to the real estate industry,” my-ers said. “[i] am constantly impressed with her drive for excellence and the leadership and passion she exhibits for homeownership, the real estate in-dustry and the important role that leadership will need to play to restore confidence in our industry.”

mercado admits she loves her job.“i’m passionate about what i do,” she said.

Carmen Mercadonational association of hispanic Real

estate Professionals

“I’ve been able to go out to many of our chapters and communicate to them our global mentality. This is more than just a real estate transaction.”

By keRRy cuRRy

60 Sep tember 2011

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When SuSan DeWey took over the Virginia Housing Development Au-thority 12 years ago as the first woman to hold the executive director post, a few challenges presented themselves.

“The existing leadership team was all males who were about 10 years older and they’d been there longer and had been in housing longer,” she said. “I was asked a lot, ‘What changes are you going to make?’ When you first go in, you shouldn’t make changes right away. You should take time to talk to people and see what is working and what is not.”

Dewey did just that. She spent about six months talking internally to her staff and externally to stakeholders before making any changes, a strategy that helped her win over skeptics.

She also employed advisory groups to listen to issues, get feedback and promote positive change — a dramatic shift in culture for an agency that, while successful, had focused primarily on financial strength and little on culture.

During her 12 years at the VHDA, Dewey’s star has risen not only in Vir-ginia but nationally.

From 2008 to 2010, during the height of the housing crisis, Dewey served as president of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, only the sec-ond woman to hold that office in the group’s history. There, she used her in-fluence to form a direct line of communication with Congress, the Treasury, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency on the role of state housing agencies in the national housing recovery effort.

She believes opening those lines of communication led, in part, to the Treasury’s decision last year to funnel Hardest Hit Funds through state housing finance agencies.

At the state level, Standard & Poor’s has recognized the $9.3 billion VHDA as one of the nation’s strongest housing finance agencies. Its delin-quency rate on home mortgages is just 1% compared to a statewide rate of 2% and a national rate of 4%. Last year, the agency provided 171,000 home loans, financed more than 130,000 rental units and served 120,000 Virgin-ians in homebuyer workshops.

Dewey serves on Gov. Bob McDonnell’s statewide foreclosure task force, a position she was first named to under the previous administration. The task force developed a statewide housing policy focused on creating jobs, streamlining regulations, promoting sustainable housing and increasing

access to transportation systems. It also is working on six housing bills that will be presented to the state Legislature when it reconvenes in January.

Dewey also helped found Housing Virginia, a partnership of organiza-tions dedicated to providing access to quality, affordable housing, and to educating communities about the need for affordable housing while dispel-ling the bad rap the term sometimes gets.

“You need people in the community to be police, firefighters, teachers and service workers,” she said. “How can you get people to provide these services if they have to live an hour and a half away? We are trying to show that you need communities that have a diversity of income and available housing.”

T.K. Somanath, president and CEO of nonprofit developer Better Housing Coalition, said Dewey “brought new energy and dynamism to VHDA.”

Dewey made changes that helped nonprofits access the funding from VHDA, he said. “In my opinion, (she organized) a level playing field for for-profit and nonprofit players to access financing.”

Her changes included good metrics to measure the success of for-profit and nonprofit affordable housing projects, and she led the way nationally among housing finance agencies in promoting green building techniques, Somanath said.

“I think she is really a can-do leader who has a great commitment to provide, good, beautiful, energy-efficient green buildings for low-income families to live in good neighborhoods.”

Charles C. McConnell, chairman of VHDA’s board of commissioners, said he began working with Dewey when he headed up a small rural housing finance authority. It wasn’t, he recalled, particularly comfortable working with the much larger VHDA.

His agency didn’t like the extra layer of bureaucracy and fee-splitting that came via work through VHDA. Dewey, he said, made it possible for housing authorities who wanted to work directly with HUD to transition to that model.

Dewey went out of her way to reach out to agencies like the one he once ran.“She created committees for local folks to easily give input to VHDA about

the housing needs in their particular area,” McConnell said. “She led VHDA in becoming a great partner with larger and smaller housing agencies.”

Susan DeweyVirginia Housing

Development Authority

61 Sep tember 2011

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NaNcy RichaRds was woRkiNg for a real estate company when she recognized a need in the industry: a firm that provided asset management service for single-family residential portfolios and small commercial prop-erties. She felt so strongly about it that, when her employer passed on the idea, Richards started her own business.

First Preston HT opened in Dallas in 1988 with plans to secure 700 prop-erties in its first year. By the end of the year, however, the company had blown past that goal with more than 7,000 properties in inventory. Today, it manages 35,000 assets annually with a vendor network of 7,500 appraisers, listing brokers and property management professionals.

These days, people tend to pay attention when Richards has a new busi-ness idea.

“Our industry is so fraught with problems,” she said. “But if you are a creative person, you can be very creative with problem solving, and that is very energizing.”

In the late ‘80s, as residential REO inventory began to shrink, Richards launched a home rental management business, working with Fortune 500 companies to manage and lease homes of executives who had been trans-ferred overseas.

Richards then identified a new opportunity with the federal government.Joe McCloskey was director of single-family housing for the Federal

Housing Administration for many years before retiring. He worked with Richards when First Preston was chosen as one of the companies to handle marketing and management of the FHA’s outsourced single-family proper-ties.

“Nancy looks at problems and sees opportunities,” said McCloskey, se-nior vice president of development for Dimont and Associates. “She antici-pates trends ahead of time and that’s hard to do in today’s economic envi-ronment.”

Richards, as CEO of First Preston, organized hundreds of small, diverse businesses across the U.S. to win large privatization contracts for federal portfolios. Her team became one of the biggest privatization contractors for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, managing and selling as many as 40,000 properties annually.

Richards saw the need for a better way to manage large portfolio vol-umes and for an electronic marketplace with management functionality, so she started a real estate technology company, HomeTelos.

“We would have purchased the software we needed, but it didn’t exist,” she said.

As the housing industry fights its way through the current economic woes, Richards said one big obstacle to improvement is fragmented agen-das.

“The government, financial institutions and private industry can have different agendas which make solving complex problems difficult without collaboration,” Richards said.

“Teaming and collaborating with parties at all levels is extremely im-portant before any program or change is implemented. Secondly, working to preserve the dignity of the process and the dignity of all of the people in-volved with the process is critical. Finally, Washington must take steps to continue to foster entrepreneurship. Historically, entrepreneurship has al-ways been the key to reducing unemployment.”

Richards believes entrepreneurs are the key to strengthening the econ-omy, and she puts her efforts and money into supporting entrepreneurship. One example is the Values and Ventures Program at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University.

“Nancy was the impetus for the program and she supports it,” said Brad Hancock, director of the Neeley Entrepreneurship Center.

The program includes an invitation-only business plan competition — with a twist — for students from top business schools.

“You can’t come to this competition with just your standard old business plan,” Hancock said. “You have to demonstrate how your business will serve the community. Nancy also wants people who might be interested in invest-ing in the businesses to be there too.”

Richards said she tries to give meaningful advice to anyone wanting to pursue a real estate career.

“When anyone asks me for advice about going into this business, I tell them that it’s very important to surround yourself with bright, creative peo-ple who want to succeed. Partnership is critical, because, otherwise, you will not have the synergy to maintain a superior level of performance.”

“Nancy Richards … makes strategic and personally significant invest-ments to benefit women and girls,” said Roslyn Dawson Thompson, presi-dent and CEO of the Dallas Women’s Foundation. “Her example has inspired other women leaders, not only within our foundation and community but across the country.”

INFlUENTIAl WOMEN OF THE HOUSINg ECONOMYReal estate

BY glENDA VOSBURgH

Nancy t. RichardsFirst Preston HT

“Women in this industry are in the same boat as any other group. We face the same challenges, and we all want a voice.”

62 Sep tember 2011

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Cheryl lang has a suggestion for members of Congress and other housing industry decision makers in Washington — get out of town.

“They need to get out of D.C. and talk with people in the communities dealing with the housing crisis and the companies on the frontlines and get their input about what needs to be done to improve the housing economy,” she said.

Washington’s efforts to solve the crisis so far have amounted to “chasing our tails and ending up where we started,” she said.

“We’re no better off than we were two years ago,” according to Lang, owner and president/CEO of Integrated Mortgage Solutions in Houston.

She visited the Capitol Hill earlier this year, meeting with key members of Congress and the Obama administration to discuss the impact and future of federal programs such as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the FHA Refinance Program and the Emergency Homeowner Relief Fund.

She also encouraged decision-makers to actively seek participation and recommendations for those programs from companies like IMS.

“The biggest challenge in our industry right now is how to provide quality customer service in this environment,” she said.

Her company’s services include property inspections and preservation, pre-foreclosure notifications, occupancy checks, evictions, REO manage-ment and other services. Business is brisk.

Lang also serves victims of the foreclosure crisis who are often over-looked — abandoned pets. She was instrumental in creating No Paws Left Behind Inc., a nonprofit that rescues pets abandoned by owners who lose their homes to foreclosure. Across the nation, No Paws Left Behind has lo-cated homes, shelters or other help for 1,000 abandoned animals.

“We saw the way the industry was going in 2007,” she said, “And this started in 2008. I can’t help borrowers, but I can certainly help the pets.”

Caroline reaves believes one of the biggest challenges for women in her industry is being able to balance a busy career with family and personal life. It’s something she finally mastered, but it wasn’t always that way.

“I used to try to do everything, but I found that I could either do work or I could do home,” she said. “My balance is much better now.”

Reaves is CEO for Mortgage Contracting Services LLC, a national pro-vider of property preservation, inspections and REO property maintenance to the financial services industry. Her responsibilities include planning and execution of the Plano, Texas-based firm’s strategic initiatives and overall direction.

She serves on a number of national industry-related committees, in-cluding the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Loan Administration Commit-tee, Vacant Property Committee, Claims Committee and Fannie Mae Com-mittee. For the past 10 years she also has served as chairwoman of the MBA Property and Preservation Work Group, which assists the Department of Housing and Urban Development on mortgage servicing and loss-mitiga-tion issues.

Repercussions from the housing meltdown have added to the workload of everyone in the industry, Reaves said. Keeping up with all of the new regu-lations can be a full-time job.

“We used to have months to implement a change, now it has to be done immediately, and there are lots of changes,” she said. “We’ve added people in tech and compliance who do nothing but deal with changes.”

Even though it’s a challenging time in the industry, she believes some best practices will come out of it.

Reaves is a wife and mother of five who finds time to volunteer in her church and with charitable organizations. One that is especially close to her heart is the Military Warriors Support Foundation, which provides mort-gage-free homes to soldiers who have been wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reaves grew up in a military family and her son, brother and nephew serve in the military.

“I love that our industry is making a real difference with this program,” she said.

Caroline reavesMortgage Contracting Services LLC

Cheryl langIntegrated Mortgage Solutions

63 Sep tember 2011

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influential women of the housing economyreal estate

thanks to technology, people shopping for homes today can do much more themselves before they ever contact an agent — something that pres-ents challenges for real estate brokers and agents.

as a result, it’s more important than ever for an agent to add value to their service, according to sherry chris, president and ceo of Better homes and gardens Real estate llc.

that can be done by providing additional services, deeper market knowl-edge or more sophisticated marketing strategies.

“there is an opportunity for real estate agents to get out in front of the demographic shift going on in the population by putting strategies in place to connect with the next generation of buyers and sellers through social media and other new media,” said chris, a fan of social media be-fore it was cool.

she views technology not as the enemy, but as an opportunity to trans-form business and bring innovation into the real estate industry.

“i had a keen interest in technology right from the launch of the first

website i was involved in during the 1990s, and i have worked throughout my career to create technology to make the business experience easier and more efficient for brokers and agents,” she said.

chris became president and ceo of Better homes and gardens Real es-tate in october 2007, following Realogy’s announcement that it had entered into a 50-year agreement with meredith corp. to license the Better homes and gardens name to launch a new global residential real estate brand.

she first joined Realogy in 2006 as coo for coldwell Banker Real estate.chris serves on Zillow’s broker advisory board and has served on a num-

ber of industry and technology-related advisory boards, including trulia and google Real estate.

women, she said, are key players in the housing economy.“i tend to look at the changing demographics of the real estate industry

as a real opportunity for women. Real estate is becoming more of a female-dominated industry,” according to chris. “that said, currently there are very few women ceos in the real estate industry.”

sherry chrisBetter homes and gardens Real estate llc

By glenda VosBuRgh

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MACKIE WOLF ZIENTZ & MANN, P.C.

As the first womAn to head the flood division for CoreLogic, Vicki Chenault has worked to make the nationally mandated flood determination process faster and more accurate.

The flood determination process required for all federally backed mortgages can slow down a mort-gage closing. It also can cause big problems for the buyer if the flood zone determination isn’t accurate.

Chenault, who leads CoreLogic’s flood, property tax, and spatial solutions divisions as senior vice pres-ident of escrow services, believes her two biggest contributions to the industry have been the creation of a compliance product and working to convince Congress to fund redrawing of Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency flood zone maps.

“FEMA tried for years to get funding to update the maps, but couldn’t,” she said. “We lobbied for that. Having updated flood risk maps is very important for development and property owners.”

CoreLogic uses the compliance product, Life of Loan flood determination, to constantly monitor a loan/property for changes in FEMA flood status and alert the borrower and servicer to any change.

Chenault led the charge for adoption of geospatial technology in the industry and led the effort to map a majority of the nation’s parcels of land. To date, 127 million parcels have been mapped out of the 145 mil-lion nationwide, according to CoreLogic.

She was an early proponent of an association to provide industry-led oversight to the flood determina-tion business. Chenault served as president of the group, now known as the National Flood Determination Association, in 2001 and 2002 and has served on its board for the past four years.

“There are many rewarding things about working in this industry,” Chenault said. “It gives you insights into how financial markets work, but the most rewarding thing is the interactions with customers and see-ing that they are happy.”’

Chenault also notes that the current regulatory environment for CoreLogic’s customers is overwhelming.“We’ve gone too far with regulations. We need some, but we shouldn’t overload our banks,” she said.

Vicki ChenaultCoreLogic

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More than influential, Elizabeth Warren, Mary Schapiro and Janet Yellen have been instrumental in shaping the regulatory landscape for the mortgage and greater financial industry.

elizabeth Warren has been called a lot of things. “Lightning rod” seems to be thrown around more than the others, but for certain she is influential.

All it took was designing from scratch the mortgage industry’s most far-reaching and am-bitious agency: The Consumer Financial Protec-tion Bureau.

Forceful but never shrill, Warren stared down industry players, their trade groups and political opponents bent on defanging the bureau.

Congressional hearings with Warren testify-ing presented entertaining, often circular sparks. None were more wayward than her back-and-forth with Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) when the two scuffled over a scheduling conflict.

Ultimately, Warren was passed up for the CFPB director role because, as some commenta-tors suggested, she was just too divisive and could never muster the votes for a Senate approval.

Not that former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray will fare any better until Democrats yield to Republican demands for more oversight power of the bureau and a commission to which Cordray would answer.

Regardless of opinion, influence can also be coupled with passion when discussing Warren.

President Obama said the CFPB was her brain-child and the result of her hard and dedicated work in attempting to provide more American consum-ers with clearer information before committing to a financial deal.

Later that day, while being interviewed by CNN, the steely stare from Warren finally welled up.

“Setting up this bureau has taken up 14 hours of my day for a long time,” she told CNN. “And now is the time I step away.”

Mary Schapiro became the first female chair-man of the Securities and Exchange Commis-sion when President Obama appointed her in January 2009.

However, she is no stranger to the agency. She began her career at the SEC in 1988 when then President Reagan appointed her a commissioner. She was reappointed by President Bush in 1989, and President Clinton named Schapiro acting chairman in 1993.

Inhabiting the top SEC job after the largest fi-nancial market meltdown since the Great Depres-sion, Schapiro faced reams of new rulemakings, including none more striking than the new whis-tle-blower protections and rewards. The program passed the SEC on yet another 3-2 vote in May with Schapiro backing the reform found under the Dodd-Frank Act.

“While the SEC has a history of receiving a high volume of tips and complaints, the quality of the tips we have received has been better since Dodd-Frank became law,” she said.

President Obama nominated Janet yellen as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in October, and she began her 14-year term on Feb. 1, replacing Mark Olson, who re-signed. Yellen, who has served as the president of the San Francisco Fed since 2004, previously served as a member of the Fed Board from 1994 to 1997.

Yellen is also professor emeritus at the Uni-versity of California at Berkeley. While writing on a wide range of broader issues, Yellen specializes in the causes and implications of unemployment.

Last year, the Fed announced Yellen would chair a subcommittee to clarify a rule governing how officials would communicate during policy meetings. The Fed came under fire during the fi-nancial crisis for providing lucrative opinions to former board members. A report Yellen and the panel put out in July placed a clear ban on board members from giving opinions about individual companies.

Her reach could even be growing. The New York Times named her as a possible predeces-sor to Treasury Department Secretary Timothy Geithner in a report that the secretary would leave before serving his entire term. Geithner has since said he would serve out his full term.

INFLUENTIAL WOMEN OF THE HOUSING ECONOMYregulation

BY JON PRIOR

Schapiro

yellen

the regulatorsElizabeth Warren, Mary Schapiro, Janet Yellen

folloW the lateSt regSFollow regulatory news related to the Dodd-Frank Act at CFBP.gov; SEC.gov and FederalReserve.gov websites.

Warren

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influential women of the housing economytechnology

the life of constance Wilson revolves around what she loves to do, and that’s to prevent individuals from committing fraud.

with more than 24 years in mortgage banking, wilson is widely recog-nized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on mortgage fraud technol-ogy. as executive vice president of comprehensive risk-mitigation solutions at interthinx, her skill in the field has advanced the face of fraud manage-ment technology.

wilson, who once was oblivious to the mortgage industry, is now respon-sible for creating products such as Dissco, an automated fraud detection scoring data system. Dissco uses an automated desktop appraisal review program to analyze and validate information and mortgage loan types for underwriters. what used to take weeks now only takes approximately 20 seconds for available data.

wilson got into fraud detection via her mortgage lending experience.

at a time when female mortgage executives were rare, wilson started work-ing for first national Bank in norman, okla. the chance to take over the home lending department was offered, and she ac-cepted. her most difficult task came about when she received what she believed was a fraudulent document from a customer. wilson was shocked and unpre-pared.

“i felt insulted, as if someone broke into my home,” wilson said. “how could i have not understood what depths people will go to falsify documents?”

soon after, wilson focused her training in dealing with fraud to help federal and state law agents understand the perpetrators. her experience early on contributed to her desire to train others today.

she teaches courses in mortgage fraud and offers legal testimonies for mortgage fraud cases. But one of her most enjoyable experiences is to help manage her team. those who work with wilson say she’s an amazing per-son and helps them develop their fullest potential.

“somebody asked me when i’m going to retire,” wilson said. “i’m too ad-dicted in the industry to retire. we provide an avenue for people to own their homes and to me and that’s a huge statement right there.”

constance Wilsoninterthinx

creating a business technology in hopes of reaching national at-tention is no easy task. someone like emason chief executive Jane mason knows what it means to reach for the top despite being a female.

“i’ve always approached business as a human being first not as a gender. i’ve just been fearless and believed in what i’m doing,” mason said.

mason is in charge of what is considered the second fastest-growing company in the tampa Bay, fla., area according to the tampa Bay Business Journal.

her company’s innovative technology, clarifire, is a business process automation service to store, view and follow all required items needed to run businesses. the application is a centralized system on the web for all data, contacts and images, giving a company the ability to expand into global markets while increasing both revenue and productivity.

“clarifire will become the facebook of business because it’s a secure website platform that’s audible,” mason said. its customers include big banks like Bank of america.

comparing clarifire to a billion-dollar company like facebook is cer-tainly bold, but mason settles for nothing less.

“i have a passion for what technology can do,” mason explains. “i think clarifire will be part of the future and get the attention of the government and that they would adopt and mitigate it.”

that passion also means contributing time in charitable and community events around the tampa Bay area. mason is a frequent speaker for national industry panels discussing technology issues tied to the mortgage banking industry.

her achievements include 2011 gulf coast Business Review entrepre-neur of the year.

“i’ve always delivered, and have worked a little harder because i am a female,” says mason. “i believe i’ve gained the respect of the industry be-cause of the quality.”

Jane Masonemason

“We provide an avenue for people to own their homes and to me that’s a huge statement.”

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