Industry trailblazer looks back on four-decade-long career
“You’ve got to be willing to embrace the unexpected - it’s being light on your feet…quick decision making and being prepared for the unexpected.”
For Patricia Cook (pictured), Finance of America’s (FOA’s) soon-to-retire CEO, her 43-plus years in the finance industry have taught her that long-term planning is not really an option when you’re doing mortgages.
“It’s one of the most cyclical industries to manage your business in, and if you look at interest rates and their volatility, that creates a lot of change,” she said. “You’ve got to be able to embrace it and be able to manage it. It’s not a steady-as-you- go business.”
The announcement last month that Cook is to step down from her post brings to a close a prestigious career at the Texas-based lender, having joined in 2016 and led the company through important milestones, including the merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Replay Acquisition Corp. and subsequent debut on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2021, following record profits in 2020.
Read more: Finance of America CEO to retire, search for successor begins
Cook will stay at the helm until a suitable replacement is found sometime this year (“I may have one more earnings call…the end of the second quarter”) and she’ll remain on the company’s board through the date of its 2022 annual meeting of stockholders.
However, she told MPA that her decision to leave had come at the right time, despite thinking retirement would be hard.
“I knew after the last six years, taking this company from 15 to 20 acquisitions, onboarding companies, integrating, optimizing, getting them profitable and going public, was like the pinnacle,” she said. “And after doing that, I have six grandchildren. So at the end, it came easy. I didn’t think it was going to be, but at the end of the day, it was.”
Described as a visionary and a unifying force by FOA’s board chair, Brian Libman, Cook was acknowledged for having laid the groundwork for the company’s long-term strategic roadmap.
But of all her achievements, taking FOA “from a brilliant idea of our founder and making it a reality” is the one that satisfies her the most, she said.
“I’m very lucky that I still had the opportunity to use all of my experience this late in life,” she noted. “If I look back on it, my capital markets background…what I learned at Freddie Mac during the crisis, what I learned operating a small servicer with Ditech (Financial LLC), all enabled me to do this job well, and I’m grateful for it.
“So I think I was absolutely the right person, right time for Finance of America when I joined in 2016. Woman, CEO and the company goes public - even I was a little impressed!”
Read more: Finance of America Mortgage closes $1.9 billion SPAC merger
She was asked whether she considered herself a trailblazer in the industry, but she eschewed the term, revealing that she had not encountered major obstacles during her career, or felt that she had been held back by her male peers along the way.
“I didn’t think about it that way,” she said. “I was an education major undergrad. My parents were both teachers. I got out of college and decided I wanted to go back and get an MBA. And literally my dad said to me, ‘what do you know about business?’ I’m like, well, I’ll figure it out.
“So I took two classes, did well and went to school full time. What was interesting is that when I went to look at Wall Street, women MBAs were few and far between. So it was relatively easy to get hired. But it wasn’t like I was saying, ‘Oh, I’m blazing a new path’. I just considered myself lucky to have the opportunity to make that career shift at a young age and land a seat at Salomon Brothers.”
All this happened for Cook at a time when childcare and paternity benefits were conspicuous by their absence.
“When I was there, I had three children in five years,” she said. “And by the time I had that third, my boss literally said to me, ‘Patti, I think you hold the record for the woman with the most maternity leaves’. So, it was definitely a bit of an oddity, but I don’t think I’d ever felt (I was) held back. I really didn’t.”
Her down-to-earth approach and lack of emotional baggage has placed Cook in an ideal place to inspire an up-and-coming younger generation of mortgage professionals.
“What I preach when I mentor other people in the industry - and this includes women - is that excellence every day gets rewarded,” she said. “Put your head down and do a good job. Maybe sometimes you feel like you weren’t rewarded as quickly as maybe you should have been, but ultimately, excellence is identified.”
And what advice would she have given a younger Patti Cook when she started out all those years ago?
“I’d say work hard every day and love what you do,” she said. “Those two go together. I love my job, and I really feel very grateful that I felt that way for the 43 years I was working.”
