Industry stalwart joins woman-dominant finance agency ranks
Alicia Wood has been through the hills and valleys of the mortgage industry in her 25-plus years of experience. That breadth of knowledge helps inform her role in the newly created position of director of servicing and asset management at CBC Mortgage Agency, which specializes in providing 100% financing for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Woods took time out to chat with Mortgage Professional America to describe the scope of her work with CBC Mortgage – from her beginnings in the industry to her new role that she began in February.
As a leader in a male-dominated field, she expressed palpable pride in being part of a majority-woman senior leadership team at CBC Mortgage Agency, where she administers all of the finance agency’s loan servicing operation while tasked with servicing oversight and loss mitigation activity on all first and second mortgages, as well as agency and investor reporting.
The work isn’t new, but has renewed focus
“I don’t know that the work I do is new, but they are definitely consolidating those efforts into one position rather than being shared with multiple positions in the company,” Wood told MPA. “The company has been reorganizing the management structure and the day-to-day [management], and I think that went along with some management changes made at the top which has been going on in the last couple of years.”
Her new role was a result of that heightened management focus, she suggested: “Part of that was realizing what type of management structure was needed, what type of subject matter expertise was needed, where it was needed and then finding those individuals to fill those roles.”
Indeed, Wood’s ascension comes at a time when the Cedar City, Utah-based finance agency is in the throes of a rebranding for the correspondent investor and its Chenoa Fund program (logo, pictured), which has extended down payment assistance to more than 42,000 families. The Native American wholly owned and federally chartered housing finance agency is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the company announced on May 15.
The company’s Chenoa Fund program was launched in May 2013 to help families achieve homeownership, operating today in 49 states and territories. Roughly three-quarters of the homebuyers who receive DPA from CBC Mortgage Agency are first-time homebuyers, while around half are minorities, according to company literature.
Twenty-five years of experience
Wood brings more than 25 years of mortgage industry experience and has held executive roles at several servicing originations. “I was told the other day anything over 20 years warranted the 20-year mark,” she joked in speaking of her longevity. “There’s no reason to elaborate after that.”
Most recently, Wood served as vice president of servicing at non-QM lender Angel Oak. She also spent more than five years overseeing foreclosed and bankrupt accounts at a non-agency lender that was acquired by Morgan Stanley and is now part of PHH Mortgage. She began her career at a mobile home lender, where she rose to become collection and credit manager.
CBC Mortgage Agency’s president, Miki Adams, extolled the breadth of Wood’s experience: “Alicia has deep roots in non-agency and government mortgage servicing and the timing couldn’t be more perfect to bring her on as we enter into an exciting time of growth for our company,” Adams said in a prepared statement. “Alicia is a talented and accomplished professional whom we are fortunate to be able to add to our new leadership team.”
Adams pointed to several other significant hires and promotions, noting that women now account for 70% of the management team. Other recent executive additions include: Pam Cooper, chief financial officer; Cari Zwick, promoted to national program director; Kira Gissell, promoted to communications and public relations director; Diana Hart, director of investor relations and fulfillment; and Latrese Flowers, program management and compliance officer.
Promoting women in a male-dominated field
The female-dominant management ranks are not lost on Wood, who has served on the board of Women in Legal Leadership, part of the American Legal and Financial Network (ALFN) – a national body of legal and residential mortgage banking professionals which leads the industry as provider of strategic and timely education.
“It’s been great,” she said of her new environs where women are given such prominent roles. “I love working with the group that we have. Anything [CBC Mortgage Agency’s president] Miki [Adams] and the rest of us can do to foster that type of camaraderie and that type of focus on mentoring and coaching women up through management channels is a wonderful thing. It’s very much a subject I feel strongly about, and anything I can participate in to lift my peers up in that manner, I definitely love to take advantage of.”
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