Nations Lending hired Stacey Gross, a 13-year lending industry veteran, as branch manager of its new Scottsdale, Arizona, office. Gross comes to Nations Lending after serving more than seven years as a branch manager at Caliber Home Loans. In addition to her 13 years of lending experience, she possesses 30 total years of real estate experience.
Gateway Mortgage announced the promotion of Steve Thompson to regional vice president of the South Texas Region. Thompson has been with Gateway since 2016 as an area manager in Lake Jackson, Texas. Thompson will play a key role in developing new business opportunities, growing mortgage center production throughout the Texas region and mentoring loan originators.
Greystone announced that Lance Wright joined as a managing director in Dallas. In this role, he will focus on the origination of multifamily and commercial real estate loans across the U.S. Prior to joining Greystone, Wright was a managing director at Lightstone Capital Group, where he led originations efforts across the Central and Southeast regions. Prior to Lightstone, Wright worked for Acore Capital for five years, overseeing origination and underwriting efforts for the Central region. He also worked for GE Capital Real Estate/Heller Financial for more than 18 years in multiple positions, including as regional director. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from the University of Texas.
Sales Boomerang and Mortgage Coach announced the appointment of Rich LaBarca to chief product and technology officer. LaBarca will oversee the unification and expansion of the companies’ products and technologies, including borrower intelligence alerts and total cost analysis (TCA) loan comparison scenarios. Recently, he worked at AddThis, Oracle Data Cloud and Microsoft.
Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI), a provider of data intelligence and market insight tools for the mortgage and real estate industries, announced that Heidi Iverson joined the organization as a regional director of growth. In this position, Iverson will consult and strategize with MMI’s clientele to identify growth opportunities to drive adoption and increase return on investment. Previously self-employed as the founder of mortgage recruiting agency PlacedE, she also has experience at Guild Mortgage, ClosingMark Home Loans, and Castle & Cooke Mortgage.
Proper Title announced the expansion of its title services through three new hires: Julie Cwik as senior underwriting counsel, Jan O’Hara as escrow manager in northwest Indiana and Kristi Greer as processor in northwest Indiana. Before joining Proper Title, Cwik was a partner with Morreale Brady Malone & Cwik P.C. She joined the law firm as an associate attorney in 2005 and became a partner in 2016. She earned her J.D. from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago and also holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. O’Hara joins Proper Title with more than 40 years of industry experience. As escrow manager, she will be the lead closer for Proper Title’s Valparaiso, Indiana, office and also serve as closing manager for the northwest Indiana team. Previously, she held positions as an escrow closer with Meridian Title Corp. and Fidelity National Title Insurance Co., and also was a real estate broker associate with ReMax. O’Hara attended Ball State University. Greer also is joining the northwest Indiana team, where she will support staff and clients as a processor. She has previous industry experience as a customer service coordinator/processor for Greater Indiana Title Co. and also has held administrative roles with School City of Whiting.
BlackFin Group, a management consulting firm serving the banking and mortgage industries, announced that Rick Grant will serve as chair of its innovation-focused think tank, the Innovation Leadership Cohort. Grant, a veteran journalist and communications consultant, has been writing about finance and lending since 1997.
