NewDay USA has appointed Brian D. Montgomery to serve as vice chairman of the company’s advisory board. Montgomery brings years of experience to the role, having served as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as the Federal Housing Administration commissioner under three different presidential administrations. In the new role, he will provide strategic expertise to help the national mortgage lender advance its mission of expanding homeownership access and responsible lending for veterans and service members.
Citi has appointed Dale Baker as head of U.S. mortgage and retail lending, the longtime KeyBank executive announced on LinkedIn. Stepping into the role on March 30, he will be tasked with leading the bank’s residential mortgage division and steering its overall lending operations and strategic growth.
Click n’ Close has named Rachel Fatino as director of correspondent operators. Bringing 15 years of origination experience — including her most recent role as national operations manager for correspondent lending at Mr. Cooper — Fatino will direct pipeline strategy and partner engagement to accelerate the scale of the company’s correspondent platform.
Click n’ Close has also appointed Darin Hahn as a senior wholesale account executive. In this position, Hahn — a mortgage industry veteran of more than 30 years — will apply his product expertise to support lending partners nationwide and provide guidance to drive growth and performance.
CrossCountry Mortgage has added Nicole Rueth as senior vice president in the Denver market. An industry veteran with 24 years of experience and a track record as one of Colorado’s top producers, she will focus on building high-performing teams, supporting originators and expanding the lender’s regional footprint.
Fairway Home Mortgage has promoted decades-long industry veteran Holly Mattson to the position of co-president of recruiting. In her new role, she will oversee efforts to onboard top mortgage producers, usher in the next generation of loan officers and expand the company’s market share by connecting with originators seeking technology and support to grow their businesses.
Snapdocs has appointed Jamie Mottern as vice president of lender growth. In this role, Mottern, who brings over a decade of leadership experience from senior positions at CitiMortgage and Docutech, will partner with lenders to accelerate digital adoption and modernize the closing experience.
Optimal Blue has appointed Fuad Nasir, who brings nearly two decades of leadership experience from the Mortgage Industry Advisory Corporation, as vice president of product management for hedging and trading. In this role, he will be tasked with driving innovation by strengthening risk visibility, improving model oversight and tightly integrating hedging strategies into the company’s end-to-end capital markets platform.
The American Land Title Association (ALTA) has named Alisa Mairone, who brings strategic communications experience from nearly a decade as director of public affairs at Bayada Home Health Care, as director of public affairs and media relations. In her new role, she will focus on executing proactive media strategies to support the association’s advocacy agenda and strengthen relationships with national, trade and policy media.
Meanwhile, the ALTA Good Deeds Foundation has appointed Steve Day, executive vice president at Fidelity National Title Group, as chair; Scott Chandler, vice president at Ardán, as vice chair; and Jeffrey Bates, CEO of D. Bello, to its board of directors. Bringing decades of combined title industry leadership to the organization, the trio will drive the nonprofit’s strategic direction, oversee charitable fundraising initiatives and expand its philanthropic impact across local communities.
Informative Research has appointed Mark Jones as senior vice president of partner success. Drawing on over 20 years of financial technology experience — including his most recent role as a partner account manager at ICE Mortgage Technology — he will develop strategies to expand market reach and formalize and improve onboarding standards.
