Flagstar Bank named Jim Linnane as president of Flagstar’s distributed retail mortgage division. In this role, he is responsible for strategy, profitability, sales, growth, recruitment and operations of Flagstar’s distributed retail mortgage business. Prior to Flagstar, Linnane served as retail president for Stearns Lending. Earlier in his career, he was director of national sales at Guaranteed Rate. He started in the business at Wells Fargo, where he spent 15 years.
Equity Prime Mortgage (EPM) announced the promotions of Eric Skates to chief people officer and Shalanda Dixon to chief of staff. Skates has been associated with EPM for more than seven years and has previously held this position; his responsibilities will place culture, people and wellness together under one department. Dixon comes into the new role with more than seven years of experience at EPM. Prior to this, she served in various production, compliance and administrative roles.
CMG Financial announced the recent hire of David Crowder as area sales manager. Crowder brings more than 18 years of experience in the mortgage industry, including nine years with BMO Harris Bank. After that, Crowder continued his mortgage career with Wells Fargo, Fifth Third Bank and TCF Home Loans before joining CMG Financial.
Academy Mortgage Corp. announced that Kristi Pickering has been appointed as president of the company. Since joining Academy Mortgage in 2019, Pickering has served as the company’s chief operations officer.
Xactus appointed Kevin Ryan as the company’s chief financial officer. In this role, Ryan will guide the firm’s efforts to streamline its finance and accounting operations. Prior to joining Xactus, Ryan served as CEO of Keane and also was the company’s CFO along with management roles in IT, human resources and two of the firm’s operating units. Ryan began his career as an auditor at Deloitte and later worked at KPMG specializing in data analysis for forensic investigations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Cabrini University and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
Ascendant National Title announced that Jeff Whetzel and Krishna Almond have joined the company as chief financial officer and senior vice president of Arizona operations, respectively. In his new role, Whetzel will be responsible for supporting the company’s continued growth and performance objectives, while Almond will lead the company’s Arizona expansion by implementing processes, developing culture and hiring the Arizona team. Whetzel joins the team from Stewart Title, where he served as senior vice president for the company’s national commercial services team. Prior to joining Stewart Title, Whetzel completed critical management consulting projects for high-profile clients in the energy, automotive and health care sectors. Almond joins Ascendant National Title from Empire Title Agency, a division of Stewart Title, where she served on the leadership team for five years. Prior to her senior management roles, Almond operated a successful escrow branch in North Scottsdale, Arizona, for many years. She also served as president of True North Title and as senior vice president of Title 365.
