Think of big free agency moves in recent sports history: Nash to the Suns, Ramirez to the Red Sox, Shaq to the Lakers, Maddux to the Braves.
Pacific Mortgage Group Inc. (Pacific) just pulled off the equivalent in the lender industry, with surprise news that it has signed industry heavyweight Ron Swift from MCAP.
Swift, an inductee of the Canadian Mortgage Hall of Fame, is one of the industry’s most respected executives. He’s been an institution at MCAP since 1994, most recently as President of MCAP’s residential mortgage origination and servicing business.
Swift now becomes CEO of all Pacific operations including myNext Mortgage, Mortgage Architects, and MortgageBrokers.com. It’s expected he’ll start this new role as soon as next month.
In a release today, Pacific founder and former CEO Alex Haditaghi called Swift’s hiring “a great milestone” for the company and shareholders.
In a statement, Swift said: “I am pleased to take on this exciting challenge at Pacific at this point in its history. Our industry is going through another remarkable period of change, with a whole range of new opportunities presenting themselves. Pacific is the perfect platform for me to apply my company-building experience, with a real focus on expanding our market footprint and optimizing shareholder value.”
In the release, Alfred Apps, Chairman of the Board of Pacific Mortgage, praised Haditaghi for leading the Company through “the difficult transition of a merger and acquisition” and also for positioning the company for significant growth.
Haditaghi will make way for Swift by shifting to a “key support role as Executive Vice Chair.”
In a telephone interview, Apps said, “We’re fully expecting that the addition of Ron to our team will be a huge attraction to our partners across the industry.”
Apps said Swift will help myNext in a multitude of ways by:
- “Much more significantly expanding business on the lending side.”
- Being a key attraction “to [brokers] who might be looking to join us.”
- “Bringing confidence to regulators and wholesale financing parties.”
“Ron knows how the brokerage community likes to be serviced,” noted Apps. He said Swift will work with the board to achieve a “significant expansion to (myNext’s) origination channel and an improvement in sources and cost of capital.”
As reported here in March 2010, Pacific has plans to turn myNext into a bank. Apps tells us that myNext is “moving towards being able to provide a diversified source of funding for lending operations,” adding that the company’s process to get a bank licence “is now well advanced.”
Rob McLister, CMT
Last modified: April 26, 2017
Hi Folks, For full disclosure please note that some members of our staff are mortgage planners with Mortgage Architects and, in turn, shareholders of Pacific Mortgage Group and MortgageBrokers.com. This article should not be construed as a positive or negative opinion on the future prospects of these companies.
I wish Ron all the best in this role.
We are all excited to work with Ron. He will be working closely with our Board of Directors as he leads us in changing the landscape of the Canadian mortgage industry.
Ron rocks my socks!
This is great news for Pacific Mortgage Group. Our entire team is looking forward to working with Ron. Well done Alex!
Wow. Didn’t see this one coming.
What a pickup for mynext. Maybe it will be a bank sooner than we think? :)
Congratulations to everyone for all their hard work and dedication to bring us to where we are today – looking forward to continued successes!!
This is a great hire for Mynext Mortgage. Ron will make a big difference for their org. They will be a company to watch. I guess their Board and Alex did their homework! they got a great guy.
more proof that Shift Happens!
Congrats!
WOW, nice stick work Alex…..Ron must be costing the company a fortune!! …
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This has to be one of the most impressive hires in Canadian Mortgage industry for the past Several years!
I cant think of any otehr hire bigger then this! This will help Pacific Mortgage to become a dominant player in market place!