GENERAL SESSION: An Update from Ginnie Mae

2024 MBA Chairman; President, Union Home Mortgage

Mark Jones is the 2024 MBA Chairman and President of Union Home Mortgage. Mark co-founded Amerifirst Home Mortgage in 1983, a company he grew from an individual location in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to over 80 full-service locations and 900 personnel nationwide. In January 2023, Amerifirst merged with Union Home Mortgage to form a top 40 national mortgage lender, where Mark now serves as President. Prior to the merger, Amerifirst was the No. 1 USDA lender and the No. 3 FHA lender in Michigan, and the No. 13 FHA lender in Florida. Amerifirst was also a Ginnie Mae issuer and serviced in-house a $6 billion loan portfolio. Amerifirst ranked as a Best and Brightest Company to Work for in the Nation for five consecutive years (2016-2020) and was named one of the top 50 Best Mortgage Companies to Work For in 2021. In 2016 Mark received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Michigan and Northwest Ohio. In addition to his service as MBA’s Chairman-Elect, Mark currently serves as Chairman of MBA’s DEI Advisory Committee. He previously served as co-chair of MBA’s Independent Mortgage Bankers Executive Council. Mark also serves as board member and Public Policy Committee Chair at Southwest Michigan First and serves as Chair of Southwest Michigan First PAC.

Acting President, Ginnie Mae

Sam I. Valverde was named Acting President of Ginnie Mae in May 2024, after previously serving as the organization’s Principal Executive Vice President since January 2023. He began his tenure at Ginnie Mae in March 2022 to serve as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. As Acting President, Mr. Valverde leads Ginnie Mae’s mission to link the United States housing market to the global capital markets, thus providing low-cost financing for federal housing programs and making affordable housing a reality for millions of Americans. He brings more than 15 years of housing finance, policy, and legal experience to Ginnie Mae. Across his career in public service, he has worked to develop market-based solutions to improve economic outcomes for all Americans. Prior to joining Ginnie Mae, Mr. Valverde was most recently Supervisory Attorney Advisor at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in the Division of Conservatorship Oversight and Readiness. In that role, he led agency-wide projects intended to support greater access to mortgage credit and affordable rental opportunities for working families. In addition, Mr. Valverde led successful efforts to transition the government-sponsored enterprises (the Enterprises) away from utilizing LIBOR for a range of variable rate product offerings. He also coordinated efforts to develop a post-conservatorship regulatory framework for the Enterprises and provided technical assistance on a variety of housing finance legislation. Prior to his service at FHFA, Mr. Valverde served as a Counselor for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, focusing on housing and consumer finance issues. While at Treasury, Mr. Valverde worked extensively on issues related to the ongoing conservatorships of the Enterprises and implementation of the housing programs under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. He also led development of the Department’s first retirement savings product and efforts on multiemployer pension reform. While at Treasury, Mr. Valverde was instrumental to the creation of its Puerto Rico Task Force, charged with developing policy solutions to the Commonwealth’s fiscal crisis.Prior to joining public service, Mr. Valverde began his career as a securities lawyer at Davis Polk and Wardell LLP. Mr. Valverde received his J.D. from Yale Law School and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.