The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) swore in Mark Jones, president of Union Home Mortgage, as chairman during the organization’s 2023 Annual Convention & Expo in Philadelphia. Jones is an active MBA member and currently serves as Chairman of MBA’s DEI advisory committee. He previously served as co-chair of MBA’s independent mortgage bankers executive council. He currently serves as a board member and public policy committee chair at Southwest Michigan First, and as chair of Southwest Michigan First PAC. Laura Escobar, president of Lennar Mortgage, and Christine Chandler, executive vice president, chief credit officer and chief operating officer with M&T Realty Capital Corp., were also sworn in as the MBA’s chair-elect and vice chair, respectively.

First Federal Bank of Kansas City hired Schuyler Vaughan as senior vice president of mortgage banking, a position tasked with advancing the mutual bank’s mortgage lending division. Vaughan will lead its mortgage customer acquisition programs along with developing a high-performing lending team that supports First Federal Bank’s commitment to homeownership for all. Vaughan brings 27 years of mortgage lending experience to First Federal Bank. He was the national sales manager and head of mortgage banking for CIBC. He also served as branch sales manager at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Optimal Blue announced the appointment of two senior leadership positions, each of which are internal promotions. Seever Sulaiman was named chief technology officer and Jeremy Moreno was named vice president of sales. Sulaiman previously served as chief information officer and co-founder of Resitrader, a trading platform acquired by Optimal Blue in 2018. He has also served as CTO of multiple companies throughout his career, including Altisource’s Equator and the applied analytics division at Lender Processing Services, which was spun off as Black Knight and is now part of Intercontinental Exchange. Moreno, who will develop and lead the company’s customer acquisition and relationship growth strategies, has more than 20 years of experience in sales leadership. Prior to joining Optimal Blue in 2012, he served as both a regional account executive and sales manager for CT Corp., a Wolters Kluwer business.

Third Party Origination Go (TPO Go) appointed Adam Millstein as vice president and national sales manager. In this position, Millstein will oversee TPO Go sales management and production while also building out a team in the western U.S. He brings more than 30 years of experience of production management to this role, including strategic planning, budget administration, and the creation of successful production franchises for large and small companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of Arizona.