Optimal Blue announced two key executive promotions the company believes will position it to deliver innovation faster across the company’s entire capital markets platform, and to further expand the company’s network of partners. Erin Wester has been promoted to chief product officer and Mike Vough has been tapped to head up its corporate strategy.
“At Optimal Blue, we are very fortunate to not only have the latest and most accurate technology in the industry, but we also have proven industry experts that bring incredible experience in all aspects of secondary marketing,” Optimal Blue CEO Joe Tyrrell said in the release. “By aligning all product strategy under a mortgage technology expert like Erin, we will accelerate the delivery of value and innovation to our clients. We’re not just building new client value; we are also actively acquiring and partnering. As the leading secondary marketing platform in the industry, it is important that we are complementing our own innovation with both acquired solutions and strategic partnerships to do more for our clients. Mike’s background in all aspects of capital markets, business enablement and growth strategy will enable us to move quicker here as well.”
Wester, whose work previously focused on the company’s product and pricing solutions, will transition to overseeing product strategy for the entire Optimal Blue capital markets platform, which includes product and pricing, broker pricing solutions, hedging and trading platforms, investor services solutions, Comergence compliance solutions, user experience and design departments, and the integrations department. She will also lead Optimal Blue’s initiative to deliver more value to clients without incremental costs to ultimately improve their return on investment (ROI).
“I have never been more excited about our future at Optimal Blue,” Wester said. “We have a new UI, a full GenAI suite with our new AI assistants, we have prioritized originators in our automation roadmap. We are completely opening up our configuration capabilities to our clients, and also engaging in custom solutions. But what is most exciting is that everything we are doing is being driven by our mission to improve our clients’ profitability on every loan, which means a lot of what we are delivering will be at no incremental cost to our clients.”
Vough, who was previously leading the strategy for Optimal Blue’s hedging and trading solutions, will now focus on corporate strategy, which includes business development to support the company’s integration partner network, as well as corporate development to drive its acquisition strategy. Vough will also drive the continued growth of Optimal Blue’s data business, including the company’s data reseller partners.
“While other companies are losing executives and struggling to support customers, we are growing and expanding,” Vough said. “As Erin and our amazing product teams are quickly driving innovation, we will complement their efforts by providing our partners with incredible support and tools to enable them to deliver more value faster to our clients, while also evaluating potential acquisitions that can assist us in expanding our offerings to help our lenders and investors capitalize on more opportunities.”
Optimal Blue clients are invited to attend the inaugural Optimal Blue Summit Feb. 3-5, 2025, at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina.