The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Board of Directors welcomed six new members and recognized member companies for their leadership in diversity and inclusion during its annual convention in Boston.
Joining MBA’s board of 26 elected members and one ex-officio member are Mark B. Fisher, CMB, StanCorp Mortgage Investors, LLC; Mark A. Jones, AmeriFirst Financial Corp.; James S. MacLeod, CoastalStates Bank; Michael C. May, Berkeley Point Capital LLC; Jeffrey C. Taylor, Digital Risk, LLC; and David Zitting, CMB, Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc.
MBA President and CEO David H. Stevens, together with the MBA directors, represent its commercial/multifamily, residential and associate membership. The board is responsible for the strategic direction for MBA and oversees management of the association’s affairs.
The awards MBA passed out at the convention were divided into two categories: organizational diversity and inclusion and market outreach strategies.
“These awards recognize the importance of embracing a diverse and inclusive real estate finance industry,” MBA Chairman Rodrigo Lopez said in a press release. “MBA received an overwhelming amount of submissions to our inaugural awards, and faced a difficult challenge in selecting from a strong pool of applicants.” Lopez is also executive chairman of NorthMarq Capital and the previous chairman of MBA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Two groups of judges, consisting of members of MBA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and MBA staff, scored company initiatives based on: submission quality, identification of a target audience and annual goals, demonstration of a tangible benefit to participants and the overall enterprise, the ability to replicate initiative programming, innovative program approaches and success in broadening the organization’s culture through the values of diversity and inclusion.
Ballard Spahr and SunTrust Mortgage won awards for Organizational Diversity and Inclusion and The PrivateBank and Trust Company won for Market Outreach Strategies.
Ballard Spahr, a national law firm with 14 offices, in its award campaign stressed that it has: championed the advancement of diversity and inclusion for more than a decade; demonstrated strong commitment to improving employee recruitment and retention among diverse populations; focused on inclusiveness by integrating, developing and engaging all lawyers to create strategies intended to enhance the firm’s culture of collaboration and support networking and business development among employees; and partnered with affinity-based law student organizations across the country to support law students entering the legal profession. Chairman Mark Stewart received the 2016 Associated Black Charities’ Change Agents Award, which recognizes leaders who make an effort to bring greater diversity to the legal profession.
SunTrust Mortgage highlighted the fact that it made “inclusion” a top business priority and core value in 2014 and since has launched new recruitment programs for recent college graduates and others wanting to build a successful career in mortgage banking. The company promoted its creation of professional development opportunities for diverse teammates with a long-term goal to expand diversity in management and business leadership positions while also leveraging employee-outreach in an effort to build bridges among diverse communities and potential homebuyers in those communities. As a result of its efforts, SunTrust increased its recruitment of diverse candidates, which make up 68 percent of its most recent incoming class. The company used “Teammate Networks” to increase engagement of diverse teammates to facilitate mentorship and professional development. The company reportedly increased diverse community outreach by 11 percent in 2016.
The PrivateBank and Trust Company earned the Market Outreach Strategies award with initiatives developed specifically to increase and improve outreach, marketing and products in order to attract customers from the fastest growing market segments in the industry. In its award campaign, the company stressed that, since beginning with a small branch network in 2013, none of which was in a low income tract, it has: developed a company-wide initiative to further support and exceed peer-established goals within the communities served; had team collaboration to design new products, competitive programs, effective strategies and robust marketing and outreach efforts to help reach their goals; dedicated resources toward developing safe, affordable portfolio loan products tailored to low-to-moderate income customers, engaging with a new minority-owned vendor to sustain outreach and awareness in minority areas, creating a closing cost assistance program that provides up to $2,500 to all low-to-moderate income borrowers and/or low-to-moderate census tracts and increasing the ethnic minority composition of its sales force to 30 percent. As a result, the company: equaled or surpassed peer performance in all markets and categories in 2014 and 2015; widely exceeded its annual lending goals in four major markets; committed $10 million to the Chicago Affordable Housing Program over five years with nearly $1 million invested already in needy communities; and provided $1.1 million in closing cost assistance in 2015.
MBA also recognized seven companies as honorable mentions, three in the organization diversity category and four in the market outreach category. Colorado Housing Finance Authority, Envoy Mortgage and Pulte, LLC were honorable mentions for organization diversity while Mountain West Financial, Inc., New American Funding, PrimeLending and Radian Guaranty, Inc. were honorable mentions for market outreach.
Employees of Pulte Mortgage received the MBA Opens Doors Foundation Community Champion Award, intended to recognize “those who have dedicated significant time and effort to advance the foundation’s mission to enable families with a critically ill or injured child to keep their home, even in the face of significant medical bills.”
Pulte employees have staged more than a dozen events supporting the Opens Doors Foundation in the past year alone, including a farmers’ market, a 5K fun run/walk, office games and charity concerts. The company also donates to the foundation monthly for every loan closed and made a multi-year donation commitment that earned the company recognition as an Opens Doors Foundation Guardian. Members of the Pulte Mortgage Senior Leadership Team accepted the award on behalf of the employees. Opens Doors is able to pass on 100 percent of donations received to families in need of assistance. Potential recipients are identified through the Foundation's ongoing relationship with children's hospitals in Washington D.C., Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Houston and now Northern and Southern California.
MBA also handed out some individual honors during the convention.
Union Home Mortgage President and CEO Bill Cosgrove received the Andrew D. Woodward Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his “dedication and prominent service to MBA and the mortgage lending industry in a variety of capacities involving both legislative and regulatory activities,” according to a press release. “The award was recently renamed to honor the former MBA Chairman, the late Andy Woodward. Andy set an extraordinary example through his leadership, especially with his involvement in the Council to Shape Change Report. The Distinguished Service Award is the highest honor an individual can receive from his or her fellow MBA members. Nominees for the annual award must meet the following criteria: Be associated with an MBA member firm; Compile a record of long, sustained and extraordinary service to MBA and the mortgage industry; Have a strong reputation for ethical and professional conduct.”
During his 28 years in the industry, Cosgrove has served as president of the Ohio MBA, on the MBA Residential Board of Governors, as a member of MBA’s Board of Directors since 2007, as chairman of MBA’s GSE Repurchase Request Task Force and as co-chairman of the Loan Originator Qualification Task Force. He raised more than $1.1 million as chairman of the MBA Political Action Committee (MORPAC) and has previously received the Burton C. Wood National Legislative Service Award as well as MBA’s Certified Mortgage Banker designation.
Teraverde Financial CEO James Deitch received the 2016 Schumacher-Bolduc Award in recognition of his work on behalf of MBA’s political advocacy programs and the mortgage lending industry.
“Jim’s dedication to advancing the real estate finance industry has been demonstrated by his ongoing commitment to MORPAC, MBA, and MBA’s Opens Doors Foundation,” MORPAC Chairman Jamie Korus said in a press release. “He has worked for years to make sure his company and colleagues are at the forefront of industry advocacy and has been incredibly effective in helping to increase participation in both MORPAC and MAA. Additionally, he has been among the most willing to support individual pro-real estate finance industry candidates.”
The award is named in honor of Ernest P. Schumacher, founder and first chairman of MORPAC, and Mark P. Bolduc, who served as director of MORPAC, helping it become what it is today.
“Mr. Deitch has been a MORPAC advocate and personal contributor for almost a decade,” the press release states. “He is a critical member of the MORPAC committee, and has run an exceptional advocacy campaign at Teraverde Financial each of the last three years. Mr. Deitch has also been deeply involved with MBA, including being a former RESBOG member, active with the Mortgage Action Alliance, and dedicated to Opens Doors.”