BREAKOUT SESSION: Making the Most out of Refi Opportunities

Senior Partner, STRATMOR Group

At STRATMOR, Graham manages the company’s mergers and acquisitions activities, providing strategies for some of the largest Independent and Bank-owned mortgage lenders. He also leads the marketing strategy and execution practice, which focuses on lead generation and lead management methods and practices primarily for the consumer direct and retail mortgage origination channels. Garth has more than 30 years of experience in mortgage banking, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to successful startups, including management of two of the most successful e-commerce platforms. As an executive with ABN-AMRO, Garth was part of the executive group and author of the five-year strategic plan that led to the successful $9 billion sale of the mortgage company to Citigroup in March of 2007 which closed before the market downturn. At ABN, Garth managed the mortgage.com retail mortgage and Interfirst wholesale channel ecommerce platforms. Administering an over $5 million annual marketing budget, he was responsible for retention and cross sell activities for more than 2 million customers. He launched marketing campaigns in support of mortgage.com consumer portal, generating over 650,000 web site visitors per month, resulting in $22B in originations and $280 million in operating profit over a four-year period. He successfully delivered direct response rates of more than four percent, with a 250 percent return on marketing investment. Garth was a founder and key member of the executive management team at mortgage.com and led the company through its dramatic expansion in the late 90s and successful IPO in 2000, before its ultimate sale to ABN AMRO. Mortgage.com originated the first mortgage through the Internet in 1997 and was the original platform for the Quicken and Microsoft mortgage initiatives.