The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), a nonprofit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association that develops standards for exchanging information and conducting business in the mortgage finance industry, named Brian Vieaux as its new president, effective Oct. 16. Vieaux, the current president and chief operating officer of FinLocker, is also an author and podcast host with more than 30 years of industry experience as a mortgage executive at several independent mortgage banks and other financial institutions.
Farmer Mac, which provides a secondary market for agricultural real estate and housing loans, announced the selection of Geraldine Hayhurst as chief legal officer and secretary. Hayhurst — who most recently served as associate general counsel of corporate and compliance with CoStar Group — started with Farmer Mac on Sept. 8. Stephen Mullery, general counsel and secretary, will retire on April 3, 2026, after 25 years of service with Farmer Mac.
Fairway Home Mortgage announced it is promoting Caleb Ondrusek to executive vice president of technology and innovation to oversee a new strategic partnership with OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT. The partnership intends to leverage natural language processing, intelligent automation and data-driven insights for the Wisconsin-based lender.
Merchants Capital announced the appointment of Naureen Dhanani to the newly established role of executive vice president of credit and operations. Dhanani, a former senior manager at Freddie Mac Multifamily, will oversee the company’s Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration credit and closing teams, including the chief appraiser.
Guaranteed Rate Affinity announced the appointment of Matthew Hibler as senior vice president of mortgage lending in Denver. Hibler co-founded and was managing director of Artisan Home Loans following nearly 12 years at Cherry Creek Mortgage, where he served as a branch manager.
RE/MAX Holdings Inc., the parent company of real estate brokerage RE/MAX and Motto Mortgage, announced the addition of Vic Lombardo as president of mortgage services. Lombardo, most recently the chief operating officer of Guaranteed Rate Affinity, will oversee growth and operations for the company’s mortgage services, including Motto Mortgage and the loan processing platform wemlo.
Private real estate lender Artes Capital has appointed Tom Noble as chief operating officer, where he will oversee business development and manage operations across the firm’s lending platform, including originations, underwriting, marketing, investor relations and asset management. Noble previously served as COO at Archway Capital.
Certainty Home Lending has named Brian Kempf as senior vice president, producing area manager. Based in the Washington, D.C.-area, Kempf will focus on the lender’s mid-Atlantic region. A former senior vice president at CMG Financial, Kempf donates a percentage of each Veterans Affairs mortgage he closes to community nonprofit ventures.
Planet Home Lending has expanded into the state of Tennessee with the addition of Corbin Leach Sr. as a mortgage loan officer. Leach, also licensed in Georgia, is based in Kennesaw, a city in the greater Atlanta area. The company noted in a press release that the Chattanooga, Tenn., and north Georgia region is seeing a surge in relocations, particularly from residents of California, New York and Florida.
Florida-headquartered Choice Mortgage Group announced several additions around the country. RJ Baxter, former broker-owner of Clear Path Home Loans, was hired to lead the company’s Denver office. Brian Mozley, former broker-owner of Financial Mortgage Solutions, has joined the Albuquerque, N.M., branch as chief growth officer. And Kirk Todd, a 20-plus-year mortgage industry veteran, has been brought on as branch manager of Choice’s newest office in Portsmouth, N.H. One of Todd’s first moves was to expand the company’s presence in Massachusetts by adding mortgage loan officer Richard Gehrlein.
Lower announced the hiring of Jason Morrison as chief revenue officer, where he will be tasked with building a team focused on pairing customer service with AI and other tech-based solutions. Morrison previously held executive positions at Guaranteed Rate, Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans.
Loan subservicer Cenlar appointed Christina Boyle as executive advisor, growth and partnerships. She most recently served as a consultant for Roostify and ServiceMac, and she previously held several leadership roles at Freddie Mac, including managing the government-sponsored enterprise’s $350 billion single-family portfolio.
Cenlar also appointed Mike Merwin as senior vice president of investment management, where he will support the company’s home equity loan purchase program, as well as its loan acquisition conduit and portfolio optimization strategies. Merwin previously held senior roles at Onity Group, Key Bank, Merrill Lynch and Fannie Mae.
Title insurance underwriter Title Resources Group has appointed Stacy Short as agency account manager for Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Short previously served as a business development manager at Stewart Title and spent four years as a mortgage loan officer earlier in her career before becoming co-owner of a title agency.
Sagent, a provider of mortgage servicing technology solutions, announced the appointments of Art Calhoun as vice president of strategic partnerships and Kim Warnica as vice president of product marketing. Calhoun previously served as executive director of vendor oversight at Wells Fargo. Warnica held senior product marketing roles at New American Funding, Homepoint and Rocket Mortgage.
Livegage, a fintech company developing artificial intelligence solutions for mortgage servicing, announced the appointment of Michael Blair as chief operating officer. Blair most recently served as COO at LoanCare and previously held executive roles at Cenlar and KeyBank.
FirstClose, a fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders, announced the following hires: Austin Wilcox (formerly with Volly and ClosingCorp) as regional vice president; Darcy Hall (formerly with Mobility Market Intelligence) as business development manager; Jon Del Pozo (formerly with ICE Mortgage Technology and Ellie Mae) as regional vice president; and Tracy Farber (formerly with Ellie Mae, SimpleNexus and nCino) as vice president, sales solution engineer. FirstClose also announced the promotion of Andria Lightfoot to vice president of client success.
