Bryan Harlan: An MBA from Dallas Baptist University, Bryan is the CEO and Chairman of Benchmark Mortgage. His undergraduate degree is in Finance and Accounting from Texas Christian University. The Broker of record for Benchmark, Bryan has an extensive background in loan origination and management. He co-founded Benchmark with Stewart Hunter in August 1999. Prior to forming Benchmark, he owned and operated a Branch for The Mortgage Factory in Frisco, Texas. He managed 10 Mortgage Consultants and opened satellite branches in Baton Rouge and Shreveport, LA. In the two previous years before his ownership of this branch, he was Production Manager for 1-800 HOME LOAN where he managed 45 Loan Officers and increased average monthly revenue from $115,110 to $350,250 and average monthly units from 41 to 142. In his initial year of loan origination in the mid-90’s, Bryan originated 122 loans in 12 months at Landmark Mortgage and achieved honors as “Rookie of the Year,” made the President’s Club and earned the “#1 In Growth Award.” His skill sets and detail orientation serve all of Benchmark’s employees and valued Branch Managers well.
Stewart Hunter: Co-founder with Bryan Hunter in August 1999, Stewart is President of Benchmark. The holder of a BBA degree in Business Administration from Louisiana Tech University, Stewart is quite a visionary and has led the charge in Benchmark’s rapid expansion. He oversees Benchmark’s expanding base of 167 Branches. He works closely with Gil Holloway on new Branch Partnerships and business development. Stewart further oversees our underwriting, funding, closing and secondary market divisions as well as our new products department. He also supervises our daily branch and client support functions. For two years prior to Benchmark, Stewart was an owner/operator of a Branch for The Mortgage Factory in Frisco, Texas. He managed 10 Mortgage Consultants with Bryan Harlan and assisted in the opening of satellite branches in Baton Rouge and Shreveport, LA. In the mid-‘90’s, Stewart also worked for Landmark Mortgage where he met Bryan Harlan. Stewart was a top-producer at Landmark for two consecutive years earning awards for being #1 in the company for both units and volume. He also was inducted into the President’s Club. Stewart’s energy and enthusiasm propel everyone in the company.
Gil Holloway: Gil, an MBA from USC, is a 35-year business veteran. Gil is charged with the responsibility of Marketing and Business Development. His primary focus is to expand Benchmark’s Branch Partnerships, national brand identity and lead generation programs. Gil’s background is diverse. In the past three years while delivering marketing consulting and professional sales training seminars nationally, he served as an award-winning Mortgage Originator leading to a Branch Management position with Countywide Financial Services, Inc. in San Diego. In 2001, his first year in loan origination, Gil finished #1 in both units and dollar volume out of 38 Loan Officers at Countywide. This led to his promotion to Branch Manager at the corporate headquarters in 2002 onward. In addition to his origination, Mr. Holloway developed a complete new corporate identity program for Countywide, developed trade show exhibits and positioned the company as a corporate member of the San Diego Association of Realtors. Gil also taught at SDAR as an Instructor of both Residential Mortgage Workshops as well as Realtor Marketing classes entitled, “Realtor Marketing: Marketing YOU!” An Adjunct Professor of Marketing at five universities over the past 20 years, Gil enjoys teaching. Past assignments include the Presidency of 1st Cyber Communications Corporation developing Websites and E-Commerce platforms, the Presidency of the Basic Research Corporation, a technology company, and the distinctions of being one of the early pioneers of Nike in 1972. His company Holloway Sales, Inc., was the #1 worldwide sales agency for Nike eight consecutive years and won the sports equipment and apparel industry’s most prestigious honor, “The Spink Leadership Award.” Gil’s creativity and drive are accelerating Benchmark’s growth.
Harold Rasmussen: Harold, a CPA with a BS in Finance from Indiana University, is our Chief Financial Officer. His 34 years of extensive financial experience, both domestic and international, ably equip him to oversee our Accounting, AR / AP, Branch Management, Payroll, Commission, and Treasury functions. Harold is experienced in taking companies public as well as founding start up operations. He is proficient in planning, organizing, management and implementation. He carries a strong sense of urgency. In his career span, Harold has been VP Finance and Treasurer of IMSA, Inc., a Director of Web Connex, Inc. securing their initial funding, Chief Financial Officer of Fidelity Funding Group, Senior Consultant with Hogan Systems on a Mexican Bank project, Vice President and Treasurer of Fidelity Trust Company, and the accounting and finance lead when Irving Trust launched their mortgage division in 1985. This division had annual originations of $500 million to $1 Billion. Early in his career, Harold served as Vice President and Controller of Retail Banking for the Bank of New York. He established a mortgage accounting system, established a foreign exchange trading department, and managed operational flows and accounting departments in subsidiaries in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Harold’s depth of experience provides a solid financial foundation for Benchmark.
Jamie Bogan: A 17 year senior Underwriting Professional, Jamie is Manager of Underwriting for Benchmark. In addition to Underwriting, she has responsibility for Operations as well. Having achieved her DE accreditation and government delegation from the Federal Housing Administration and the Veteran’s Administration, she is adept at the underwriting of governmental loans as well as conventional loans. Prior to joining Benchmark, Jamie was Senior Underwriter and Bank Officer for First Independent National Bank of Dallas, Texas. She was responsible for supervising the loan Processors as well as Originators and implemented all the quality control rules and compliance for First Independent National. She also delivered the bank training on Loan Prospector and Desktop Underwriting and prepared the Loan Officers and Processors for release on LP and DU by means of combining data integrity and underwriting guidelines with their submissions into these automated systems. Jamie’s earlier mortgage positions included an Underwriting Managership of all FHA, VA and Conventional loans for Countrywide Mortgage in Dallas in the mid-1990’s and earlier stints with Northstar Mortgage of Dallas and First Commercial Bank of Memphis. At both of these institutions she was responsible for processing loans and training other Processors as well as Loan Officers.
Steve Remington: Steve, a graduate of Texas A&M in Business Administration, is Benchmark’s new Product Development Specialist and Secondary Marketing Manager. Steve possesses tremendous experience in the following functional departments: Processing, Underwriting, Quality Control, Compliance, Secondary Marketing, Closing/Funding, Interim Servicing and Shipping. He has a depth of experience in developing and implementing a full menu of loan programs including Subprime, Alt-A, Conforming, Jumbo, FHA and Home Equity loans. For two years prior to joining Benchmark, Steve served as Director of Secondary Operations for LoanStream, Inc., a subsidiary of Beal Bank SSB. He set up a retail mortgage origination center while focusing on the secondary marketing responsibilities of Risk Management, Investor Relations, Product Development, Pipeline Management/hedging, Price Modeling and Strategy, Competitive Analysis, Loan Forecasting, Best Execution and Loan Warehousing and Treasury functions. In previous stints with RBC Mortgage / Prism Mortgage, Calumet Securities Corporation, Landmark Financial, Countrywide, and First Capital Mortgage, Steve executed similar secondary marketing and product development functions. His focus at Benchmark will be to add highly competitive new products to our portfolio and train all our internal staff members as well as our Branch Manager Partners in these loan programs.
Richard New: Richard, Benchmark’s Chief Information Officer, is completing his BS in Information Technology at the University of Phoenix’s Dallas campus in evening classes. At Benchmark since April 2003, Richard and his three staff members built and maintain our internal 100 Mbps network supporting the computers in our corporate office. He provides support and maintenance of all Benchmark’s hardware and software including the integration of Benchmark’s current network technology with the 802.11g wireless technology utilizing 128bit security. Richard also added two firewall/vpn gateways to complement our original firewall to increase security. Further, he created a subsidiary company to assist our current 167 branches with their hardware and software support needs. He also installed and maintains an Exchange mail server through which Benchmark sends its corporate communications. Amongst many other duties, Richard designs and maintains Benchmark’s Websites, our corporate Intranet, and the Loan Officer Exchange. He also does our search engine optimization placing Benchmark in the top listings on Google, Yahoo, MSN and others. Prior to joining Benchmark, Richard spent three years with DataFlow Services, Inc.. Before that he worked for Perot Systems as an Analyst. He worked in a team software development environment, writing code for a major Payroll/HR product in Visual Basic 5/6 and QBASIC supporting over 500 users. Two of his first technology positions were with EDS as a Contractor configuring network connections and Oracle supporting their CLEATS software system. Richard’s expertise has certainly elevated our technology platform at Benchmark. |
