Company founder Alex Haditaghi personally identified Ron Swift as the man to lead Pacific Mortgage Group to the “next level” as far back as eight months ago, he told MortgageBrokerNews.ca, with his decision to step down from the CEO post, in fact, ending a year-long search.
Company founder Alex Haditaghi personally identified Ron Swift as the man to lead Pacific Mortgage Group to the “next level” as far back as eight months ago, he told MortgageBrokerNews.ca, with his decision to step down from the CEO post, in fact, ending a year-long search.
“I am still the company’s single largest shareholder, but it was always my thinking that (company) founders sometimes stay too long,” he said, “but it was always my intention to identify and transfer CEO responsibilities to the right individual and that search began 12 months ago. It was more than eight months ago that I identified Ron as that right individual. As a broker, a visionary and a broker-focused leader, he knows what it takes to win and to take Pacific to the next level.”
On Monday, the same message reverberated across all three of the group’s core businesses – Mortgage Architects, MortgageBrokers.com and lender myNext – following the announcement Swift would leave his position as president of MCAP Service Corporation.
As early as the end of September, he will assume the CEO position Haditaghi is now handing over, as his predecessor moves to a key supporting role as executive vice chair.
“Our brokers are ecstatic about the news – Ron has been an icon in the industry,” Alice Chan, acting CEO for Mortgage Architects told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “His record speaks for itself. It is a great addition to Mortgage Architects.”
As a hall of famer, Swift has held a variety of leadership roles. In the last 10 years, he has served as MCAP President, overseeing broker channel sales and mortgage originations and servicing and sub-servicing. He comes to Pacific just behind key changes made this year and meant to attract new brokers to the MA family and expand lending horizons for myNext.
Both moves have yielded early successes, with Chan pointing to growing interest from independent brokers in new franchise opportunities with Mortgage Architects, following the addition, earlier this spring, of the network’s first brokerage under that model.
myNext has more than tripled mortgage applications since opening its lending facility to brokers outside the MortgageBrokers.com and MA networks this summer, Haditaghi told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.
“We have seen just tremendous interest from brokers in the last 60 days, since we expanded lending,” he said in June. “Application numbers have grown 230 per cent, which has led to a significant funding increase, and we now have agreements with 40 new brokers.”
There are still challenges facing Swift, with MortgageBrokers.com suffering an 8 per cent gross revenue slip in the second quarter of this year, compared to the year-ago period, as the real estate market slowed.
The company's latest financials, released in August, also highlight a net loss of $310,136 from operations for the first half of 2011, even as it experienced a net increase of $1,190,135 in cash from operating, investing and financing activities during the same period.
