Shark Cage: Recent Episodes
BlackFin Group
Enter the BlackFin Shark Cage and be prepared to tackle a topic that will challenge you to think about innovation, strategies and the financial services business in new ways.
Keith Kemph interviews Sofia Rossato, President and GM of Floify. They discuss why engaging the consumer experience is the key to success and how technology is not a threat to mortgage professionals but is necessary for everyone in the mortgage process.
In this episode, Keith talks with BlackFin Group Partner and Director of Servicing Practice Michael Harris. Michael is a Servicing Expert with over 20 years in the industry. Along with the current state of servicing and specifically default servicing, Michael talks about the shadow inventory and the pipeline of delinquencies, foreclosures, and defaults.
Artificial Intelligence is taking the world by Storm. BlackFin Group's Keith Kemp, Andrew Weiss, and Mike McChesney sit down in the shark cage to discuss AI's future in the Mortgage Industry.
In this market, maintaining your human capital can be challenging. Scott Stucky of Global Recruiters gives insight into how to place top talent.
BlackFin Group, President & CEO, Keith Kemph, sits down with Cloudvirga's CEO, Maria Moskver to discuss how to deliver a better customer experience.
Now is the perfect time for regional, community banks, and credit unions to get into the mortgage space. Bill Corbet, Partner, Strategy for BlackFin Group explains why.
Julie Piepho is a Principal Consultant with BlackFin Group. Julie is nationally recognized and respected for her mortgage industry and advisory expertise. She has over four decades of experience in the mortgage industry including executive positions with Cornerstone Mortgage, Norwest Mortgage and Wells Fargo Mortgage, along with managing several Colorado and Wyoming community bank mortgage divisions while coaching and leading sales and operations teams. She graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and holds the prestigious Master Certified Mortgage Banker designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
She is past chairman of the Colorado Board of Mortgage Loan Originators where she was appointed by the governor for a 6-year term for the inaugural board. Julie was a member of the Board of Directors for the Mortgage Bankers of America (MBA), past chairman of the Residential Board of Governors (RESBOG), and was a committee member for MORPAC, MAA, CMB, the State and Legislative Regulatory, and Investment and Pension Committees for MBA. She was a board member of The Mortgage Collaborative. She was recently past Chairwoman of the Board of Governors of Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association and continues to be a board member. She is a board member for the Everitt Real Estate Center at Colorado State University. She also serves as a Board Member and Capital Campaign Vice-Chair for Animal Friends Alliance in Fort Collins, CO.
Piepho has been honored with many awards. She has been honored by MBA with the Andrew D. Woodside Distinguished Service Award in 2017, along with the Schumacher-Bolduc Award for service to MORPAC in 2013. In 2018 Housing Wire honored her as a Women of Influence. She was honored as a Woman of Vision by the Northern Colorado Women of Influence in 2017. Additionally, she was honored by the Northern Colorado Business Report as a Woman of Distinction and again as their Leading Lady in Business in 2021, and by the Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association for the E. Michael Rosser Lifetime Achievement Award for those that personify high principles, ethics and professional values, among other awards. In 2021 the Everitt Real Estate Center of Colorado State University honored her with the Real Estate Hall of Fame award.
She has been quoted as a subject matter expert for the mortgage industry in 3 books: History of Mortgage Banking in the West by Mike Rosser and Diane Sanders; Strategically Transforming the Mortgage Banking Industry by James M. Deitch CPA, CMB along with his second book Digitally Transforming the Mortgage Banking Industry.
She recently served on a 4 month sub-committee for the State of Colorado for Affordable Housing to determine how to distribute the $400 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 which resulted in a paper that was presented to the Governor and to the legislature in January 2022.
Approved but Inactive Fannie Mae Seller Servicers, be aware! The clock is ticking, and you’ll need to understand how this affects you.
During this segment you’ll learn from BlackFin agency specialists what changes are ahead, how this impacts your business, and the benefits of selling directly to Fannie Mae.
Technology is a vital part of the mortgage origination process. A lender cannot originate a loan without it. Few lenders are fully satisfied with their technology platform and every year, as many as 20% look to change their systems. This webinar highlights the pitfalls of selecting mortgage origination technology and how to avoid them to achieve the best fit for your organization.
If you are a mortgage banker wondering how to choose the right technology, this episode is for you. We are joined by a mortgage industry technology executive with over 35 years of industry experience, acquired across several disciplines including mortgage lending, technology development and management consulting. Please welcome Andrew Weiss, Partner at BlackFin Group to discuss how technology is paving new roads for Mortgage Banking today.
In this episode we visit with industry veteran Lu Slettedahl, Principal at BlackFin Group. Lu lays the groundwork for introducing GSEs and explains the importance of capitalizing on these unique opportunities.
One exciting recent addition to the BlackFin team was Wendy Peel. An industry expert with decades of experience, Wendy leads BlackFin's reverse mortgage consulting business as Managing Director and Partner.
As we move deeper into the purchase money market and the mortgage business gets more competitive, lenders are looking for a way to stand out from their competition. Our next guest in the Shark Cage may have found the solution. Please welcome Mike Darne, Vice-President of Marketing for CreditXpert.
BlackFin Group called together the Innovation Leadership Cohort recently to discuss two issues the industry faces today. Suha Zehl, BlackFin's Chief Innovation Officer is a member of the think tank and she joins us in The Shark Cage.
Recently, BlackFin Group CEO Keith Kemph announced that Suha Beidas Zehl has accepted the position of Chief Innovation Officer. Today, we visit with Suha to find out why she accepted this important position and what she hopes to accomplish in the role.
Recently, credit union executives from around the country came together at the ACUMA LiveWire25 conference. BlackFin Group CEO Keith Kemph was on hand and delivered a keynote speech at the event. Keith joins us today in the Shark Cage to discuss the event.
As the mortgage business continues to shift toward a purchase money market, margins are tightening and lenders are looking for the secret to higher profits. Last week our own Dan Green released a new report that promises to help them find it. He joins us in the Shark Cage.
Each year, Progress in Lending celebrates our industry's leaders through a number of special award programs. This year, BlackFin Director Monique Shuler was recognized by the publication as one of the most powerful women in Fintech. She's here with us in the Shark Cage.
Recently, BlackFin Group CEO Keith Kemph made the announcement that industry veteran Cecilia Janson was coming aboard as Chief Delivery Officer. Cecilia joins us today to talk about that and what she'll do next. Welcome to the Shark Cage, Cecilia.
Much of the work we do at BlackFin Group involves working with financial institution intent on capitalizing on the latest technology. On this episode, we're joined by a very forward thinking credit union lending executive. Jason Sasena is Chief Lending Officer for Westerra Credit Union.
As BlackFin Group continues to grow, we've been adding some fantastic talent from across the industry. The latest consultant to come aboard is with us today is a well known expert in the mortgage industry with experience leading both operations and marketing teams.
The global pandemic turned the world upside down. There hasn't been a single industry that wasn't affected. Our industry is no exception. Today, we've asked BlackFin Group Managing Director Bill Corbet to talk to us about how the secondary mortgage market changed after COVID.
Over the past few years, banks and mortgage lenders have seen many new technologies come to market, some more effective than others. Many have made investments and then been disappointed when implementation problems prevent them from realizing an ROI. To talk about the secret ingredient to effective implementations, we have Keith Kemph, CEO of BlackFin Group with us.
Among the many negative effects of the pandemic was some lost ground in the battle against poverty. Despite nearly $2 trillion in financial stimulus, the poverty gap persists. Here to talk with us about it is BlackFin Group senior consultant Monique Shuler.
Companies in our industry are being bought and sold at a furious pace. We seem to be in the midst of a perfect storm of M&A activity. To find out what's going on, we have BlackFin principals Pedro Fong and Scott Hannah and Chief Innovation Officer Mark Dangelo with us.
As mortgage lenders continue to work toward the goal of digital lending, many are finding older technologies falling short. At the same time, millions spent on the front end have failed to generate sufficient ROI to entice late adopters to invest. To find out more about what lenders should be investing in, we've invited BlackFin Group Chief Innovation Officer Mark Dangelo and vendor partner BeSmartee's Co-Founder and CEO Tim Nguyen to visit with us.
The banking industry has accepted the reality that Artificial Intelligence will be part of everything banks do in the future. But how exactly will they implement these new tools and what impacts will they have on their institutions? To get some answers to these questions we've invited Mark Dangelo, BlackFin Group's Chief Innovation Officer back into the Shark Cage.
It's been years since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac first announced they were working on a new mortgage loan application. After years of development and testing, the new Uniform Residential Loan Application is now available to lenders. The GSEs expect the industry to be using it next month. To talk about it, we've asked Bill Corbet, Managing Director at BlackFin Group into the Shark Cage.
Over the last decade, the banking and mortgage banking industry has spent over a trillion dollars on the purchase of new software technology. It's not slowing down, but are these investors achieving their ROI? To answer that question, we've invited Keith Kemph, CEO of BlackFin Group, into the Shark Cage.
If you are tasked with hiring technology resources for a mid-tier mortgage lender, you know it can be a tough road. Worldwide there are literally hundreds of thousands of unfilled technology positions from companies in nearly every business sector. Recently, Lloyd Booth, Chief Operating Officer for BlackFin Group spoke about this problem and offered some advice.
Not long ago, BlackFin Group Chief Innovation Consultant Mark Dangelo published a blog post that drew a clear distinction between digitalization and digital transformation. To find out more about this distinction and what it means for strategic planners, we asked Mark to join us for a discussion.
On this show we talk about how some bankers are crafting winning strategies by taking a lesson from America's largest brewers. While many will try to craft a distinctive value proposition, only those who build consistency into their processes will stand the test of time. To find out why, our guest is Noel Stack, director of Strategic Partnerships and Enterprise Sales for BlackFin Group.
Change management has been responsible for more failed company initiatives than anything else. You can get everything else right and still fail if you can't effectively manage your organization through the change. Blackfin Group CEO Keith Kemph has seen this play out many times and he's with us to talk about what it takes to actually deliver change.
As we continue to work through the COVID pandemic, it's becoming apparent to all that we're not in a sprint, but rather a marathon. Bill Corbet, Blackfin Group's Managing Director recently wrote about that on the BlackFin blog. He joins us to talk about the strategy decisions lender's are making today.
Implementing new software is no easy task. Testing is critical but many struggle with this. Today, we visit with Lloyd Booth, COO and Chief Technology Officer at BlackFin about this important issue.
Mark Dangelo, who serves as BlackFin Group Chief Innovation Consultant, and Keith Kemph, BlackFin Group CEO, hosted the industry's first Innovation Leadership Cohort meeting recently. In this episode, Mark recaps the ILC Meeting and gives insight on where he sees the cohort going in the future.
As the world continues to grapple with the realities of COVID, in-person events are on hold. But that isn't keeping the industry's thought leaders from getting together. A varierty of virtual meetings have given the industry some semblance of normalcy. We're going to talk about an event that can't be described as normal, but may have a profound impact on our industry. Our guest is Mark Dangelo, Chief Innovation Consultant at BlackFin Group. Mark.