OPENING GENERAL SESSION: Washington Update

President & Chief Executive Officer, Mortgage Bankers Association

Robert (Bob) Broeksmit is President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Bob is a senior finance executive and corporate officer with a 35-year career in the mortgage sector. He has directed all aspects of lending activities, including marketing, sales, operations, secondary marketing, loan servicing, and default management. He has also served as a mortgage underwriting expert testifying on many large, high-profile cases. Prior to joining MBA in 2018, Bob served as President and Chief Operating Officer with Treliant, heading the firm’s mortgage litigation support practice and serving diverse financial services clientele including large banks, independent mortgage lenders, community banks, credit unions, and service providers to the mortgage industry. As a Washington-based financial services consultancy, Treliant’s mortgage practice included strategic advisory for executive management and corporate boards; litigation defense, including file reviews, litigation strategy, expert reports, and expert testimony; CFPB examination preparation and implementation of mortgage regulations promulgated by the CFPB and other regulators; and operational aspects of mortgage banking, ranging from origination to servicing and loss mitigation. Before Treliant, Bob held senior leadership positions in the mortgage business, including fourteen years with Chevy Chase Bank (including after its purchase by Capital One), where he was Executive Vice President and President of its B.F. Saul Mortgage Company subsidiary. Bob also was a Vice President at Prudential Home Mortgage for seven years. He has overseen annual originations of $9 billion, a balance sheet of $10 billion in residential mortgages, and a servicing portfolio of $20 billion. He also held positions at Great Western Mortgage, Krupp Residential Mortgage, and The Money Store. Bob has served as the Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Residential Board of Governors and as a member of its Board of Directors. Firms under his leadership have garnered multiple awards for servicing operations excellence, including Freddie Mac’s Tier One and Hall of Fame designations. He is a Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) and a graduate of Yale University.

Chief Executive Officer, ACES Quality Management

As CEO of ACES Quality Management, Trevor Gauthier looks to improve quality, confidence, transparency, and compliance in financial services by creating and advancing technology solutions with a customer-centric approach. With over 20 years of executive expertise in enterprise SaaS software solutions and a strong track record of driving growth and building high-performing teams both organically and through acquisitions, Gauthier has been instrumental in advancing technology organizations. He has held various key roles in leadership, global marketing and sales, including Chief Sales & Marketing Officer and President/COO. Gauthier is a recipient of HousingWire’s Vanguard Award and recognized as one of National Mortgage Professional's Industry Titans.

Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Chase

Samuel Racoosin is a Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA. He is the lead attorney for the residential Loan Servicing performing, customer assistance and default legal teams. He is principally responsible for providing legal advice to the residential mortgage loan servicing business. Before joining JP Morgan Chase, Racoosin was Associate General Counsel at Fannie Mae. In that capacity, he was responsible for providing legal advice to the US Treasury in connection with the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program. Samuel previously served as Associate General Counsel for Fannie Mae’s single family mortgage business, providing advice on new products, eMortgage initiatives, and loss mitigation. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Samuel was Associate General Counsel of North American Mortgage Company, a national mortgage banker. Racoosin has a Juris Doctorate from The George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis.

Deputy Director, Policy, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Michelle C. Corridon began serving as Deputy Director of Policy on March 13, 2023. She is responsible for all aspects of the Loan Guaranty Service, including staffing, eligibility, origination, valuation, servicing, bond sales, specially adapted housing, direct loans, oversight and monitoring, data and analysis, technology, budget, policy, and day to day operations. Ms. Corridon previously worked at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the Director of USDA Rural Housing Service’s Originations and Processing Division. In her role as Director, she led a nationwide team of high performing employees delivering the $24 billion-dollar loan guarantee program. Prior to that she served as Deputy Director of the Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) leading high impact policy and procedure implementation along with process improvement, stakeholder engagement, budgeting, and human resources. She served as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Federal Housing Finance Agency in the Office of Housing and Regulatory Policy from 2012 to 2015 where she focused on project and program management. From 2008 to 2012, she was a Rural Housing Service loan specialist concentrating on lender eligibility, compliance, and program risk management. She began her career at the Farmers Home Administration originating and servicing single family housing and farm loans.

Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Single-Family Housing, Federal Housing Administration, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Sarah Edelman was recently appointed to serve as the Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for the Office of Single Family Housing (OSFH) within the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) insurance-in-force portfolio of more than eight million loans with an unpaid principal balance of more than $1.2 trillion. Additionally, she is responsible for managing all aspects of FHA’s single family housing operations including origination and servicing policy, information technology strategy, quality control and lender enforcement, and institutional risk management. In this role, Edelman is also responsible for the management oversight of more than 700 employees. Immediately prior to assuming the role of the OSFH DAS, Edelman served as the senior director of Environmental and Social Impact and directed the Duty to Serve affordable initiatives at Fannie Mae. Prior to that, she worked in Housing Policy at the Center for American Progress for five years, served as a research fellow in the office of Senator Sherrod Brown, and was a graduate fellow at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She was also both a Peace Corps and an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer. Edelman holds a bachelor’s degree in history from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

Associate Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)

Bill Merrill manages a team responsible for the oversight of single-family mortgage credit policy at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae. The team focuses on sustainable access to mortgage credit while maintaining the soundness of the Enterprises. The team is responsible for mortgage products, underwriting, housing counseling, uniform mortgage data, collateral risk, and representation and warranties with counterparties. Before joining FHFA, Merrill served as Senior Vice President within Wells Fargo’s default servicing division managing collections and loss mitigation teams as well as relationships with loan investors. Prior work experience includes 17 years with Freddie Mac in various roles including the managing director of non-performing loans. Merrill is a certified fraud examiner (CFE), certified mortgage servicer (CMS), holds an MBA from Averett University and a BBA from James Madison University.

Executive Director, Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA Rural Development

Ingrid Ripley is the Executive Director for Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) for the USDA Rural Housing Service and directs a guaranteed portfolio of $114B. Ripley has over 38 years of experience in performance management, strategic planning, loan administration, risk management and primary/secondary financial service markets operations for both public and private sectors. She is recognized for her expertise executing multi-million-dollar multifaceted contracts delivering transformative technology lending platforms, and extensive experience leading reorganizations and initiatives for USDA. Ripley has led multiple Small Business Administration (SBA) high-risk mission-critical contract transitions of innovative loan origination platforms.

Senior Manager, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Kevin Stevens is a Senior Manager for Mortgage Markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he focuses on monitoring market activities and developments in mortgage originations. Kevin joined CFPB in October 2022. Prior to CFPB, Kevin was the Acting Director for the Office of Single Program Development for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since August 2019 where he led the development and implementation of FHA’s origination policies. Prior to serving as acting office director, Kevin was the Director of the Home Mortgage Insurance Division within the office since 2014 and the Deputy Division Director since 2011. Kevin first joined HUD in 2008 serving in the RESPA and SAFE Act offices. Prior to his government service, Kevin began his career in the mortgage industry in 1992 holding several origination positions for different regional mortgage lenders including seven years as a Regional Manager/Account Executive with American Mortgage Express. Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Roanoke College.

Vice President, Managing Regulatory Counsel, Mortgage Bankers Association

Justin Wiseman is Vice President and Managing Regulatory Counsel in the Public Policy and Industry Relations department at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Justin manages MBA’s Regulatory Policy team that covers legal issues, trends in litigation, regulatory compliance matters, and servicing as well as provides strategic direction to advance MBA member priorities on regulatory and legal matters. This team also analyzes pending rules and legislation, provides comments on behalf of MBA members on pending rules or regulations and helps develops MBA’s posture towards innovation and innovation policy. Prior to this, he staffed MBA’s Loan Administration committee, providing policy development insights and working with stakeholders to advocate on behalf of the industry.