He’s been CEO of Canada’s largest mortgage association for eight years, and at the end of this month he’ll be leaving.
Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP‘s) Jim Murphy is departing on July 31 to head up the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario.
“On behalf of the CAAMP Board of Directors and our membership I’d like to thank Jim for his 10 years of service and sincerely wish him all the best in his future endeavours,” said Dan Putnam, CAAMP Chair, one of eight Murphy worked under during his tenure.
The vacancy leaves CAAMP with some big shoes to fill. Murphy was respected by regulators, policy-makers and the media, all key groups who are in repeated contact with the organization. In situations like this it can take up to a few months to place a new top executive. On an interim basis, CAAMP CFO Samir Asusa will head operations, and CAAMP’s membership, education, events and communications teams will continue their work unabated.
“Over the next 30 days the CAAMP Board of Directors will be reviewing the position vacancy with the leadership team at CAAMP,” adds Putnam, “We will then work with an executive search firm to help us identify qualified candidates and the selection process will commence. Until then, our members should rest assured it’s business as usual at CAAMP.”
This news will not derail CAAMP’s mission, of course, but surely the transition to new leadership will take some time. The association has several major projects underway, including expanding consumer awareness of brokers with new marketing campaigns, developing new tools and technology for members, and strengthening regional representation. But those initiatives are all managed by very capable teams within CAAMP.
So while the Murphy era is ending, a new era with fresh perspectives begins. The mortgage industry has been undergoing a degree of change that we’ve arguably never seen before. We’ll eagerly wait to see who the board chooses to help guide CAAMP’s 12,500 members through it.
MR. MURPHY, thanks very much for the many of years of service.Undoubtedly, you have left our Industry much better off then when you first stepped in.You are a man of honour and although i didn’t always agree with every decision, i respected your insight, your opinion and your commitment. Thank you for all you have done! The new association is getting a wonderful advocate and leader. Congrats and happy trails.
Now that he has built his personal reputation using our industry & our money, he walks away from an executive position with three weeks notice! Class move, Murph.
A series of CAAMP Boards have erroneously allowed Murphy to become the face & name
of the Association & now he leaves. If the current & passed Boards, & Murphy had
performed their duties properly, their would have been a well prepared second in command, already in the employ of the Association, ready to step into Murphy’s role.
Instead it’s time to pay an executive search team.
That is a very snide remark. Jim did exactly what he was hired to do, which includes being the spokesperson for CAAMP. Obviously people will associate him with the organization because he is who the media turned to. You can’t blame him for that.
Pretty rude comment…it is actually common for a CEO to be a public face of an association or publicly traded firm. It is also quite common for these types of personalities to seek new challenges, sometimes in other organizations that may be similar and/or dissimilar. Your comments may sadly speak to your possible lack of formal education in the area of organizational behaviour which is a required course in most, if not all, undergraduate university business degrees in Canada. As such, I sincerely hope that you will consider not further maligning a professional organization which aims to assist mortgage brokers in their business and educational endeavours and educate the public, with your commentary.
Dear Old Tymer
I don’t see the rudeness in my comments anymore than I see intelligent arguments in your comments.
You aren’t even dealing with the correct subject matter.
This has nothing to do with OB or OT, or Underwater Basketweaving101.
This is a matter of marketing and branding CAAMP & the dangers & costs of having one individual be the poster person for the organization.
You appear to be old enough to remember when Dave Nichol brought out PC products for Loblaws & was subsequently sacked…Tim Horton, Dave?? Founder of Wendy’s, Col Saunders of KFC all die…. I am not suggesting for a second that Murphy was in this league. What I am trying to get through to members & this and subsequent Boards, is by allowing one person to be the face of an organization, the brand is the person not the organization.When that person leaves,you are back to redefining the brand(time, money & lost opportunity). If that person falls prey to human weaknesses/vices which become public, the organization looses much more.
The brand is the organization. Market it that way.
Thank you for all the hard work Jim
Good Luck to Jim the new position, although people can disagree about the policy results (which Jim often had no control over) no one can deny that CAAMP was stable, organised and financially successful during his term. To that extent he did his job so well that a larger and richer Association asked him to join them and that speaks for itself. All that I can hope for in the future leadership of the Association is a greater emphasis on the main reason that CAAMP exists in the first place the improvement of our industry for the every day mortgage agent and broker.
Following up on Ron’s point, hopefully the organization can turn now to being less motivated with making profits and picking turf wars with the provincial organizations and more motivated to serve its members. Many of the existing programs (for example, the AMP) are money grabbing ventures without any real merit. The change might be good for Jim but it is an excellent chance for CAAMP to reevaluate its reason for existing programs and scrapping those which do not properly serve its members. It is also a chance for CAAMP to assess and come to the conclusion that it does not exist to help mortgage brokers but only a small portion of lenders, often at the expense of brokers. This is fair for its real members (the select lenders) and those it only pretends to serve (the brokers).
Jim Murphy’s departure from CAAMP is no doubt the end of an era for an organization that has struggled to find its way since its inception, long before Jim took hold of the reigns 10 years ago.
Between the politics amongst the lenders over the years, and the self interest groups from network brokers jockeying for position who have always dominated the boards past and present, the task of introducing and executing progressive change for the mortgage broker industry as a whole, was next to impossible for anyone at the helm to achieve with these challenges, let alone Jim.
The loud cries of discontent from its membership for the lack of strong representation for the mortgage broker, fell on deaf ears year after year by CAAMP, which ultimately led to the creation of stronger regional associations, and the formation of the new national Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association (CMBA) with the introduction of a true Mortgage Broker designation (MB), by those who were tired of the consistent shenanigans that one man could never have been solely responsible for.
Whether Jim Murphy was liked or not, is no longer of any significance to our industry. The reality is that come July 31st, CAAMP will be without a leader as Jim will be a thing of the past – and frankly speaking, who could blame him for finally deciding to move on with the firestorm of politics he walked into from the very outset, with mandates to promote doomed to failure initiatives like the AMP.
I would personally like to sincerely wish Jim Murphy the very best as he moves on, and hope that this latest development in the history of our industry finally makes a substantive difference, so that we can all move on to bigger and better things, mortgage brokers and lenders alike..
“MB” is a true Mortgage Broker designation??
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the MBABC basically just hand out its MBI certification to ANY licensed broker who pays their dues, agrees to abide by some unenforced code of ethics and passes an easy continuing education course that is required by FICOM anyway?
I’m sorry but the MBI designation is a complete farce. It has to be the easiest designation to get in the financial services industry. It is nothing more than empty marketing. Not only does it seriously detract from CMBA’s credibility but it shows that CMBA/MBABC needs new management as much as anyone.