Guaranteed Rate announced organizational changes to its executive leadership team, with John Palmiotto named chief production officer and James Elliott named president of OriginPoint, a recently formed joint venture with Compass. In his newly created position, Palmiotto, who has more than 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, will focus on driving more business and identifying new opportunities across the company’s geographic footprint. Elliott, meanwhile, brings more than three decades of experience in the mortgage industry to his new role at the helm of OriginPoint.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced that Bruce Oliver was promoted to vice president of commercial and multifamily policy. In this role, Oliver will lead advocacy efforts on policy issues that impact MBA’s commercial real estate finance members. He holds a doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Carroll College. The MBA also promoted Laura Hopkins to vice president of member relations. In this role, Hopkins will lead all residential member recruitment and member relations efforts, as well as manage strategic partnerships with other organizations that bring additional value to MBA members. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Florida State University.
BlackFin Group hired Wendy Peel to serve as managing director and partner of its reverse mortgage practice. In this role, Peel will engage senior leadership to analyze and realize the strategic and financial value of reverse mortgages. She comes to BlackFin from ReverseVision, where she served as vice president of sales and marketing. Prior to that, she was vice president of sales and marketing for CommercePromote; vice president of business development and marketing for iCoStore; and sales and marketing director for Take Notice.
Merchants Capital announced that Barbara Girard has joined the firm as executive vice president of asset management and servicing, based in Dallas. Girard’s primary charge at Merchants Capital will be to enhance loan surveillance and asset management systems and teams. A graduate of Babson College, Girard has more than 20 years of commercial real estate asset management experience. Most recently, she served as managing director of asset management at NewPoint Real Estate Capital. Prior to that, Girard was an asset manager at Prudential Financial.
Securent promoted Justin Vedder to president. Vedder, who has been in the mortgage industry for more than two decades, was previously with SitusAMC from April to November of this year. Prior to that, he was a senior vice president of enterprise sales at Altisource, where he worked for six years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business and American studies from the University of California at Berkeley.
WFG National Title Insurance Co. announced the addition of Debbie Youens as south Texas regional escrow manager and Gregg Harris as south Texas regional sales manager. In her newly created role, Youens will manage escrow teams in Houston, San Antonio and Austin, while Harris will oversee WFG’s sales efforts in the same cities. Youens, a licensed Realtor since 1989, most recently worked as a sales manager for Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty and John Daugherty Realtors. Prior to that, she was vice president of sales at Heritage Texas Properties. Harris began his career 20 years ago as a district manager and sales trainer for ADP, followed by sales leadership and management roles at two national title insurance companies in Houston.
