People in the News Feb. 3, 2022: MBA Names Stephanie Milner AVP of Multifamily
MBA Names Stephanie Milner AVP of Multifamily
The Mortgage Bankers Association announced Stephanie Tatum Milner as Associate Vice President of Multifamily.
Milner has more than 20 years of experience focused on corporate strategy, program management and capital markets. She comes to MBA from Fannie Mae, where she served most recently as Senior Director of Strategy and Transformation. She led and managed the Fannie Mae COVID-19 Response team, a cross-functional team from Technology, Operations, Legal, Human Resources and Communications, including several C-suite members, in development and execution of the company’s strategic plans to manage and support its remote workforce during the pandemic.
Previously, Milner served Fannie Mae as Director (and earlier, Senior Transaction Manager) of Capital Markets and Structured Transactions. Before Fannie Mae, she was an Associate Attorney with Adams & Reese LLP, New Orleans; and Associate Attorney with Kutak Rock LLP, Atlanta. She has a Juris Doctor degree from the Emory University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Florida State University. HousingWire named her a “Woman of Influence” in 2019.
Tavant Names Dawn Svedberg Head of Fintech Product Sales
Tavant, Santa Clara, Calif., named Dawn Svedberg Head of Fintech Product Sales, responsible for spearheading efforts of the recently launched VΞLOX NXTTM.
Svedberg comes to Tavant from Cloudvirga, where she was most recently Senior Vice President of National Sales, and prior to that, Vice President of Customer Success. She was also Vice President and National Client Director with CoreLogic. Additionally, she held executive positions with The William Fall Group, Informative Research, Bank of America and Chicago Title.
Ascendant National Title Adds Jessica Figueroa, Zach Hines
Ascendant National Title, Denver, hired Jessica Figueroa as Senior Attorney Underwriter, responsible for evaluating risk and underwriting commercial transactions to support commercial clients’ title and commercial closing requirements.
Figueroa has more than 15 years of industry experience in all aspects of major commercial transactions. She joins the company from WFG where she served as Senior National Commercial Underwriting Counsel. She has also served in similar positions with TitleVest Agency and First American Title Insurance Company.
Ascendant also hired Zach Hines as Vice President of National Sales, responsible for seeking and supporting new clients for the company’s title and closing services.
For more than 20 years, Hines has led successful strategic industry sales efforts. He joins ANT from Amrock. During his career he also worked for Equity National Title and LandAmerica Financial Group.
Keller Augusta Names COMBOG Chair Matt Galligan as Senior Advisor
Keller Augusta, New York, announced Matt Galligan will serve as a senior advisor to the firm. He will assist in expanding the company’s debt placements, executive and board level search capabilities and advisory services
Galligan was most recently Vice Chairman of CIT’s Real Estate Finance Department and is currently Chairman of the MBA Commercial Mortgage Bankers Board of Governors.
Jayne Furlong Joins Mortgage Network’s Danvers, Mass. Office
Mortgage Network Inc. announced Jayne Furlong joined the company as a sales manager at its Danvers, Mass. office.
An industry veteran with more than 35 years of financial services experience, Furlong will help borrowers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Florida with their home financing needs, as she is licensed in all four states. Previously, she was a senior vice president of mortgage lending and a branch manager for Guaranteed Rate; president and owner of Majestic Mortgage Corp., and an operations and sales manager for Atlantic Home Loans.
Marcus & Millichap Taps Biran Patel as National Director of Hospitality Division
Marcus & Millichap, Calabasas, Calif., hired Biran Patel as senior vice president and national director of the firm’s hospitality division. He will be responsible for overseeing the firm’s hospitality division, which focuses exclusively on providing investment advisory and transaction services for hospitality, lodging, resort, marina and golf properties.
Most recently, Patel served as an officer for the Asian American Hotel Owners Association since 2017 and as chairman from 2020 through 2021.
Panorama Mortgage Group Names Sarah Gonzalez President and COO
Panorama Mortgage Group, Las Vegas, named Sarah Gonzalez as president and chief operations officer, responsible for overseeing all core functions of the business; her focus will be on leading PMG and its executive team in deepening the firm’s scalability and accelerating its growth.
Gonzalez has more than 20 years of mortgage experience. Most recently, she served as chief operating officer with FGMC and as senior vice president of strategic business operations with Stearns Lending.
Azimuth GRC Names Ned Carroll Chief Technology Officer
Azimuth GRC, Jacksonville, Fla., named Ned Carroll chief technology officer, responsible for overseeing the company’s technical strategy and innovation roadmap, along with its data, security, network and a team of engineers.
Carroll was most recently chief data officer at TIAA, an asset management and retirement services firm. Prior to his tenure at TIAA, he held several technology and operations senior leadership roles at Bank of America and started his career at Accenture.
Kukun Add Ralph McLaughlin, Dong Xiang
Kukun, Menlo Park, Calif., named Ralph McLaughlin Chief Economist and Dong Xiang Vice President of Data Science.
McLaughlin comes with a long history of leadership positions at Trulia, which was later acquired by Zillow, and also at CoreLogic and Haus. At each of these companies, he served as a public-facing economist responsible for research and thought leadership. Frequently quoted by the news media, he is a respected voice in the real estate industry with hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple social media channels. At Kukun, he is responsible for research and development of economic tools to improve the investing experience for platform users.
Xiang worked previously at Amazon, where he served as Tech Lead for Machine Learning. There, he created a personalized curriculum system for employees, using an algorithm that accounts for learning history and existing skill sets to create a personalized course of instruction. Prior to that, he was Principal Data Scientist at Zillow, where he was responsible for creating the first three generations of the Zestimates algorithm. At Kukun, he has oversight of its proprietary property data and is charged with leading data science operations to improve data quality, strategy and real estate insights to enhance the company’s deep knowledge of individual property characteristics.
Old Republic Title Tech Companies Restructures
Old Republic Title Tech Companies, Tampa, Fla., restructured its commercial software companies, including eRecording Partners Network, iMarc Inc. (dba E-Closing), Pavaso, RamQuest Software Inc. and SMKT.
Brooks Yeager, President of RamQuest and Pavaso, was promoted to President of OR Title Tech; he will provide executive oversight for all OR Title Tech software companies. He also is responsible for aligning the vision, leadership and strategies of each company, and identifying synergies and integrations that drive superior product delivery. Reporting to Brooks is the following leadership team:
Ben Cork, Senior Vice President, Technology and Product Strategy for OR Title Tech, is responsible for product ownership and management across all OR Title Tech product lines. He joined RamQuest in 2014 as Senior Systems Analyst/Solutions Engineer and has served in a variety of leadership roles in product management, technology infrastructure and operations, as well as in the position of Chief Strategy Officer for RamQuest and Pavaso.
Marc Hall, former President of E-Closing, was promoted to Senior Vice President, Sales & Account Management for all OR Title Tech products. He is responsible for developing and implementing growth opportunities within and between the software companies. He joined E-Closing in 2006 as its first salesperson and was promoted to President in 2018.
Jerry Lewallen, former President of ePN, is expanding his leadership role to become Senior Vice President, Strategy for all of OR Title Tech. He will focus on building county connections and strategic partnerships. He joined ePN in 2010 as Vice President and was named President in 2011.
Erin McAnally, Vice President, Marketing for RamQuest, is being promoted to lead marketing efforts for all of OR Title Tech. As Senior Vice President, Marketing, she will develop marketing, communication and brand strategy in coordination with executive leadership and Old Republic Title’s Corporate Marketing Department. She joined RamQuest in 2006 as Marketing Manager and was appointed Vice President in 2013.
Marc Rittenhouse, Senior Vice President, Operations for OR Title Tech, is responsible for optimizing operational efficiency and product/service delivery at each individual company and across OR Title Tech as a whole. Previously, he was Director of ORT’s Corporate Enterprise Solutions and General Manager of Old Republic Title Residential Information Services. He joined Old Republic Title 15 years ago and has more than 25 years of industry experience, primarily in the national agency and vendor management arena.
Paula Maurstad, Senior Vice President, Old Republic National Title Insurance Company and Director of Business Engagement for Information Services, is joining RamQuest and E-Closing, becoming President of both companies. She has worked closely with both RamQuest and E-Closing leadership since both companies became part of Old Republic Title. She brings more than 25 years of industry and technology leadership experience to her new role.
Laura Mowrer is becoming President of Pavaso and SMKT, a new OR Title Tech company. She has led Pavaso and RamQuest’s product teams for the last three years. She has 20 years of management experience in product development and business operations with commercial software companies.
Chris Stephan is becoming President of ePN. He brings more than 12 years of experience in managing, leading and growing document recording companies. He led operations for two divisions of ePN for the past five years.
