My Vision for Cenlar — And How We’ll Get There Together
My Vision for Cenlar — And How We’ll Get There Together
By David Schneider, President and CEO
I appreciate the opportunity to spend some time sharing a bit about what I hope to achieve at Cenlar in partnership with you, our clients. I started as CEO in May, so I expect this piece may serve as a sort of introduction. But as we go forward, I am looking to get out and meet with you all face-to-face, so I can learn more about your business and how we might be able to partner more closely.
I’d like to discuss two things here. First, I’ll share what I see as our mission at Cenlar and my vision for achieving that. Then, I’ll shift into talking about priorities, what we have been working on this year — and what we will be working on going into the start of 2025 — to make that happen.
Our Mission at Cenlar
I’ll start with our mission and vision. Our mission is simple: to serve homeowners in their journey of homeownership. We all know how difficult the homeownership process is. We all know how confusing mortgages can be for consumers, especially when they face difficult times. We prioritize serving homeowners because we know how important that is, both for the sake of the homeowners and for our clients.
Our vision is to remain the preeminent subservicer in the industry. To stay at the top doesn’t mean standing still. It requires constant evolution and innovation. Importantly, we want to look at how we continue to enhance what we offer to our clients, including additional products and services. It’s critical we aren’t just a subservicer for you and that we continue to look at ways to help you grow your business.
The great thing about Cenlar is we are filled with mortgage bankers, which means we understand mortgage banking. And we have a pretty good sense of what matters to our clients, and we are eager to help you grow your business and do what we can to succeed together.
How do we achieve that? Our 2024 priorities give a clue.
Our Priorities for 2024 and 2025
Bolstering Our Bench Strength
As we all know, in any business, you are only as good as your team. And at Cenlar, we have continued to grow our team over the last year or so, with internal promotions and 30+ new hires in areas all across the organization. They include folks like Leslie Peeler, COO; John Mezzasalma, CFO; Tom Donatacci, SVP, Client Management and Investor Relations Officer; Lynn Tarantino, Chief Growth Officer; and Catherine French, SVP, Strategic Initiatives.
They are people who know the business, are deeply committed to client service, want to do the right thing and want to understand how best to support our clients.
I think you’ll see that if you ever get the chance to speak with any of our leaders. We are excited to have you meet more of our leaders face-to-face, and we look forward to finding opportunities to come together.
It’s a great team.
Compliance
Our Cenlar team has done incredible work enhancing our internal control environment. It has been an effort from everyone in the organization, from risk to technology to HR. Everybody.
The good news is that work is right on track with where we want it to be. We feel really good about the progress we’ve made in 2024.
We want all our clients to know that you can trust our process and trust our control environment. And if we happen to not get something right, we’re going to fix it — and fast.
Capital
We continue to bolster our capital. We raised $30 million in capital this year, and that’s important because not only do our clients have a stronger partner, but also it means that someone believed in Cenlar enough to invest a substantial amount of their own money into this organization. They looked closely at the company, our business plan and our management team, and then said, “Yes, that’s an investment I want to make.”
We feel really good about the capital position we are in at this time. We are far beyond regulatory requirements. The capital will allow us to continue to grow and to invest in technology and in new initiatives that allow us to better serve you.
Delivering Excellent Client Service
Last, but certainly the most important, is the service we deliver to our clients.
Elsewhere in this publication, Matt Detwiler wrote about his 2024 Listening Tour initiative, which is a fantastic cause. He’s getting out and visiting clients in-person to get a first-hand perspective on their business needs, challenges and goals. He’s been to Alaska and Virginia and Florida — and everywhere in-between.
I’m starting to get out there and meet with clients and look forward to meeting with all of you over the next year.
I want it to be obvious that our focus on our clients is our No. 1 objective and we’ll be concentrating heavily on that for the rest of this year and into 2025 and beyond.
I’m excited to be at Cenlar. I encourage our clients to reach out to me if you’re making a visit to our offices. I’d love to meet you personally.
I am dedicated to serving you and supporting you and your growth. I look forward to growing together over the next several years.
Thank you for your time.
Best,
David Schneider
President and CEO