NexBank announced that Brian Ralston was promoted to executive vice president and chief mortgage banking officer. Ralston previously served as the company’s senior vice president of mortgage banking since 2013. In his new role, Ralston will lead the strategic direction of NexBank’s mortgage banking division while continuing to be responsible for all origination and servicing operations of the wholesale, nondelegated and delegated correspondent channels, and warehouse lending. Ralston also is the president of NexBank Title Inc.
UMortgage added Todd Bitter as chief sales officer. Bitter, a long-time veteran of the mortgage industry, has been recognized by United Wholesale Mortgage as a top 10 broker nationally from 2015 to 2021.
Union Home Mortgage (UHM) announced the hiring of Erin Stark as its new regional manager for the state of Texas. With more than 30 years of mortgage banking experience, she will help increase UHM’s branch network throughout Texas while simultaneously growing and supporting existing UHM branches in the state. Prior to joining UHM, she served as an area manager for San Antonio and the surrounding region at Gateway Mortgage. Beyond her work with UHM, Stark is passionate about giving back to the community through her work supporting the San Antonio Food Bank and the Universal City Animal Shelter.
Supreme Lending announced the appointment of Baiju Thakkar as chief information officer. Thakkar brings nearly 25 years of IT leadership, knowledge and experience to the role, in which he will be oversee developing and engineering while implementing technology initiatives to support the company’s growth. He earned a bachelor’s degree from City University of New York and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI) named Seth Appleton as its new president. Currently, Appleton currently serves as president of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO); he will take the USMI post in January 2023. He also serves as co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Council and previously held the title of assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
MISMO announced that Jan Davis will serve as acting president following Appleton’s departure. Davis has served as MISMO’s vice president of operations for more than 10 years. Prior to that, she spent two decades at Fannie Mae, where she served as a director in single-family loans operations and enterprise system operations.
The National Housing Conference (NHC) appointed Pam Patenaude to its board of governors. Patenaude previously served as the deputy secretary of HUD, is a director on several boards and is the principal of Granite Housing Strategies LLC, serving as a strategic advisor for clients engaged in real estate development, affordable housing and disaster recovery management.
