The 2025 Most Powerful Women In Fintech Award Winners Are …
In today’s hyper-connected world, organizations must constantly evolve to offer quick, convenient, and reliable service. The financial services industry is no exception. The rise of Innovative FinTech is a perfect example of how this new reality is reshaping the way we think. And women are playing a pivotal role. These women are not just influencers, they are leading the way. As such for the 7th year, PROGRESS in Lending is honoring The Most Powerful Women in FinTech today. Here are the top women that are reshaping Financial Services FinTech today listed in alphabetical order:
Alyssa Antoci
EVP, Head of Marketing – HR – Strategy
Asset Based Lending
Alyssa’s FinTech experience is deeply embedded in her transformative leadership at ABL, where she has played a key role in integrating financial technology solutions, optimizing operations, and driving strategic growth since joining in January 2022. Her ability to diagnose inefficiencies, implement technology-driven solutions, and lead cross-functional teams has significantly enhanced ABL’s position as a leader in the industry. One of Alyssa’s most impactful FinTech initiatives was the implementation of HubSpot CRM, which unified marketing and sales automation to improve lead tracking, customer engagement, and reporting insights.
By leveraging HubSpot, she streamlined ABL’s digital infrastructure, ensuring data-driven decision-making, and enhanced efficiency across teams. Additionally, she led a website rebuild, creating a borrower-centric digital platform that improved the user experience, streamlined access to critical information, and drove business growth through better online engagement. Beyond marketing and sales technology, Alyssa has been instrumental in optimizing ABL’s operational efficiency through FinTech adoption. In August 2023, she overhauled the Processing Department, designing structured workflows, introducing feedback loops, and enhancing process automation before transitioning leadership to the new Head of Operations.
Her work in Loss Mitigation (early 2024) involved partnering with the COO and CFO to develop data-driven risk strategies, improve portfolio performance reporting, and mentor the team in proactive risk management practices. Alyssa’s expertise in integrating FinTech into ABL’s corporate strategy became even more pronounced when she was promoted to EVP, Head of Marketing, HR, and Strategy in December 2023. In this role, she has led enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives, working closely with the CEO to align technology with ABL’s long-term vision. Her strategic leadership ensured that FinTech solutions were not just implemented but actively embraced across the organization, reinforcing ABL’s culture of innovation. In June 2024, Alyssa assumed leadership of ABL’s marketing function, introducing automation, cost optimizations, and in-house efficiencies that resulted in over $725,000 in savings within six months and an anticipated $1.52 million in 2025. By restructuring operations and leveraging technology-driven insights, she ensured that marketing strategies were data-driven and aligned with the company’s broader growth objectives.
However, Alyssa’s influence extends beyond technology integration. Her ability to bridge strategy, operations, and FinTech has had a profound impact across ABL. She played a critical role in the launch of ABL’s second headquarters in Cherry Hill, NJ, overseeing site selection, build-out, hiring strategy, and cost analysis to ensure the expansion was both financially and operationally efficient. Her leadership has been instrumental in fostering a culture of cross-functional collaboration, driving innovation between sales, marketing, operations, and finance. By ensuring seamless adoption of FinTech solutions, she has positioned ABL as a forward-thinking mortgage lending leader. Her ability to integrate technology with corporate strategy, enhance operational effectiveness, and mentor high-performing teams makes her an invaluable asset in the FinTech space.
Lisa Binkley
Chief Operating Officer
National Credit-reporting System, Inc. (NCS)
A driving force in fintech innovation for more than 30 years, Lisa Binkley continues to play a pivotal role in how lenders verify income, employment, and borrower financial data. As Chief Operating Officer at NCS, she spearheaded many leading advancements in third-party verifications and risk management technology.
Over the past year, Lisa has focused on expanding automation in verification processes, improving borrower-permissioned data access, and integrating cutting-edge technology into lender workflows to create a more seamless mortgage experience. A major focus of Lisa’s work has been the advancement of verification cascades, which automate the borrower verification process by prioritizing the most accurate and cost-effective data sources. She played an integral role in the launch of NCS’ Total Income Verification Cascade, which optimizes workflows by leveraging a combination of verification of assets, consumer-permissioned data, IRS transcripts, and employment income verification. Today, a growing number of lenders are able to reduce costs while obtaining a more complete picture of borrower income, particularly for non-traditional borrowers such as self-employed individuals and gig workers.
Lisa has led efforts to enhance NCS’ Verification of Employment (VOE) Cascade platform to improve scalability and speed. The platform now seamlessly transitions from automated to manual verifications as needed and boasts a 80% success rate for verifications delivered within 24 hours. Thanks to Lisa’s contributions, NCS’ clients are able to maintain efficiency while ensuring that employment data remains accurate and up to date. Lisa also played a pivotal role in the rollout of NCS’ near-instant 8821 tax transcript solution, a major development announced at the 2024 MBA Annual Convention. The solution integrates IRS and NCS proprietary technology to provide borrowers and lenders with real-time access to tax transcript data, reducing turnaround times from days to minutes. Lisa’s leadership ensured that this process not only improved efficiency, but also upheld strict borrower-permissioned access controls and regulatory compliance standards.
Additionally, Lisa has championed initiatives that evaluate and enhance third-party data integrity, ensuring that when business-to-business delivery is not possible, alternative methods provide lenders with the most accurate and actionable financial data. She also has worked with fintech partners to improve data validation processes, reducing the risk of inaccurate or outdated borrower information affecting loan decisions. Beyond NCS, Lisa remains a key voice in shaping fintech adoption across the mortgage industry. A former chair of the MBA Quality Assurance Leadership Council and former vice chair of the MBA Fraud and Ethics working group, Lisa has participated in MISMO initiatives to help define verification standards. Over the past year, Lisa has continued to be an active speaker at mortgage and fintech industry conferences, educating lenders on the latest advancements in borrower verification and risk mitigation strategies. Lisa also continues to lead efforts to expand access to real-time verification tools beyond mortgage lending by advocating for the modernization of borrower-permissioned financial data in other multiple sectors, including auto and education lending.
Pam Forrester
SVP, Division Operations
First American Title Insurance Company
Pam Forrester’s 30-year career in mortgage FinTech includes transformative roles at First American and Docutech. She drives efficiency in operations and leads various digital transformation initiatives within First American Mortgage Solutions centered on document generation, eSign, and eVault through our Docutech ConformX and Solex technology stacks. Pam’s involvement in First American’s Digital Factory Steering Committee and MBA’s MISMO Standards and Governance Committee highlight her commitment to advancing industry standards and tech innovation.
Pam champions FinTech as it will revolutionize financial services by enabling seamless digital interactions, enhancing customer experiences, and providing innovative, automated solutions throughout the financial industry with seamless data exchange. Pam sees FinTech as a key driver in transforming traditional processes, making them more efficient, accessible, and user-friendly, reshaping the landscape of financial services.
Chris Harrington
CEO and Co-Founder
Usherpa
Chris Harrington has more than 30 years of experience in high-tech real estate and mortgage relationship management SaaS solutions and developing state-of-the-art CRM platforms combined with automated content marketing services. She is the CEO and co-founder of Usherpa – the industry’s most sophisticated SaaS, cloud-based Smart CRM FinTech company providing technology and marketing solutions for thousands of real estate and mortgage professionals. Chris holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business/Information Technology.
Chris started in the mortgage industry in 1991 and stepped into the role of Vice President of Marketing for CTX Mortgage in 2004. It quickly became apparent to her that the company’s loan officers were facing challenges in building and maintaining relationships with prospects, past customers, and business partners. At the same time, one of the company’s top loan officers, Dan Harrington, was working on a new FinTech tool that would solve all of these problems through automated marketing and building a CRM. She and Dan created the Media Center CRM that helped thousands of loan officers double their production through increased repeat and referral business. In 2008, she joined Dan in taking Media Center private, rebranding it as Usherpa. Since then, Chris has played a pivotal role in growing Usherpa into the premier Smart CRM and Relationship Engagement Platform for loan officers and real estate agents focused on referral-based selling.
Today, Usherpa stands as the largest privately held mortgage and real estate CRM in the industry. Continuing her commitment to innovation, Chris most recently spearheaded the development of Pipelines—a powerful suite of best practice sales workflows within Usherpa. Designed to enhance loan officer performance, Pipelines leverages automated triggers, call scripting, emails, and task management tools to streamline daily operations and ensure consistency across the sales process.
Kortney Lane-Schafers
VP of Growth & Client Advocacy
Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI)
Kortney Lane-Schafers has spent her career not only building strong strategic partnerships and relationships in fintech, but redefining how customer engagement, technology adoption, and growth strategies are done at scale. In short: Kortney Lane-Schafers exemplifies what it means to be a fintech trailblazer. With nearly two decades of experience at the intersection of technology, customer strategy, and financial services, she has consistently led with a unique blend of clarity, innovation, and deep customer empathy. Her ability to translate bold strategy into scalable success makes her one of the most impactful leaders in mortgage technology today.
As Vice President of Growth & Client Advocacy at Mobility Market Intelligence (MMI), Kortney plays a central role in one of the industry’s most forward-looking fintech platforms. MMI is home to some of the most essential tools in modern lending—Bonzo, MonitorBase, and its namesake data intelligence platform—and Kortney has helped unify them into a connected ecosystem that drives measurable ROI for enterprise lenders. Her leadership is critical to how clients adopt, expand, and succeed on the platform. She works across departments to ensure that customer feedback translates into feature enhancements, user experience improvements, and stronger product-market alignment. From implementation to long-term growth, Kortney is the guiding force that turns technology into transformation for MMI’s clients. Kortney’s vision for fintech is clear: platforms must be powerful, but they also must be seamless.
Her strategic efforts at MMI support the shift from siloed tools to integrated ecosystems—where data, automation, engagement, and communication operate under one intuitive user experience. In doing so, she is helping to reshape how lenders build tech stacks that actually work—where fewer platforms do more, where onboarding is frictionless, and where tools drive both user adoption and business outcomes. Before MMI, Kortney held senior leadership roles at Total Expert and Top of Mind Networks (Surefire CRM), where she built and led national teams responsible for platform adoption, customer success, and strategic growth. At both organizations, she earned a reputation for operational excellence and for building relationships that lasted well beyond the sales cycle. She launched customer engagement frameworks that became central to retention, upsell, and overall platform growth. Across the fintech landscape, Kortney is known as a leader who sees the big picture but never loses sight of the details. She speaks the language of lenders, understands the pressures they face, and builds solutions that support not just survival—but real, lasting growth.
Today, Kortney is not just guiding MMI’s growth—she’s helping shape the evolution of the fintech category itself. She brings a clear voice to industry conversations, represents MMI at conferences and on panels, and advocates for a future where technology is a strategic partner, not just another vendor. Kortney Lane-Schafers is a force in fintech—respected, trusted, and deeply impactful.
Jane Mason
CEO
Clarifire
As the founder and CEO of Clarifire, Jane Mason continues to transform the mortgage servicing industry through fintech innovation. While regulatory enforcement within mortgage servicing has eased in recent months, Jane has positioned both her company and CLARIFIRE ® , the workflow automation platform that has redefined how servicers manage complex processes, as essential tools in this changing landscape. Her deep understanding of mortgage servicing and how technology powers the ability to change has allowed her to guide client strategies that go beyond old ways of working and help servicers align with investor requirements while improving operational efficiency and borrower engagement.
Over the past year, Jane has helped shape industry conversations on automation, artificial intelligence, and servicing modernization. She has contributed thought leadership pieces, blogs and expert commentary in prominent industry publications, exploring key trends in AI, loss mitigation policy, digital borrower engagement, and how servicers can use workflow automation to remain adaptable in a rapidly changing market. Through her writing and public speaking, Jane continues to influence how the industry approaches loss mitigation, servicing workflows, and operational agility in an era of rising costs and shifting priorities. Meanwhile, CLARIFIRE’s impact remains undeniable. Over the past year, servicers using Jane’s workflow automation platform have seen average productivity gains of 25%, cycle time reductions of 50-75%, and an 80% decrease in manual tasks. In today’s volatile housing market, large servicers continue to flock to CLARIFIRE for better performance.
Most recently, Towne Mortgage Company, a full-service lender operating in 47 states, adopted the platform to streamline servicing workflows and enhance borrower responsiveness. As market trends point to rising mortgage defaults driven by natural disasters and other borrower hardships, Towne Mortgage Company chose the CLARIFIRE application for its capacity to automate rapid intake of forms, documents and borrower requests. Beyond operational improvements, Jane has also strengthened Clarifire’s standing as a leader in fintech security. In 2024, she led the company to achieve Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) STAR Level 1 registration, reinforcing her commitment to security and compliance in cloud-based servicing automation. This process involved adding over 100 new cloud-specific controls to CLARIFIRE’s technology over 17 months. Jane is currently spearheading Clarifire’s pursuit of STAR Level 2 Attestation in 2025, reinforcing the company’s role as a trusted and secure automation provider. Jane’s influence is also reflected in CLARIFIRE’s key industry partnerships. The platform’s integrations with Freddie Mac Resolve, Fannie Mae SMDU, and ICE MSP ensure that servicers can seamlessly align with investor guidelines while improving workflow accuracy. By driving these partnerships, Jane has made Clarifire an essential part of servicing operations, helping financial institutions work more efficiently and adapt to ongoing market changes.
Through Jane’s leadership, CLARIFIRE remains a trusted automation solution, delivering proven results for servicers facing growing complexities. Her ongoing contributions to thought leadership, security, and strategic partnerships make her a standout figure in the industry, ensuring that servicers have the technology and insights they need to succeed.
Kathy Rasmussen
Senior Vice President, Client Success
LERETA
Kathy Rasmussen has been a transformative force in the FinTech and mortgage servicing industries for more than four decades. Her journey began in 1984 as a bank teller, leading her through a career that has shaped the way financial institutions integrate technology into their operations. Kathy’s FinTech experience was solidified when she worked at Manufacturers Hanover (later acquired by Chase). She played a critical role in coordinating the merger of the servicing platforms of Chemical Residential Mortgage Corp and Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp’s servicing divisions. This experience paved the way for her transition into IT, where she helped bridge the gap between origination and servicing, ensuring quality data flowed seamlessly between the two functions.
Her expertise became widely recognized when she was recruited to help launch a revolutionary tax service company, which was later acquired by LERETA. There, she played a pivotal role in disrupting the tax service industry before the concept of disruption became widely known. By working closely with IT teams, she helped design and build a state-of-the-art tax servicing system that placed clients in control, turning tax departments from a cost center into a profit center for mortgage servicers. After the company was acquired by LERETA, Kathy transitioned to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, where she led the IT and infrastructure teams for the Mortgage Partnership Finance (MPF) program. Under her leadership, they successfully migrated the organization’s two brick-and-mortar data infrastructure to the cloud with two AWS regions, ensuring enhanced security, flawless disaster recovery, and continued scalability. Managing a $12 million budget and leading an average of 15 concurrent projects each year, she spearheaded innovations that improved community banks and credit union’s secondary market experience nationwide. Kathy was tapped by the MPF Executive to develop and lead an operational excellence effort to enhance the technology used in the support of the MPF Program.
In 2020, Kathy returned to LERETA, where she joined as a member of the Technology team. She was instrumental in the design and development of many enhancements of their core systems. She led the rollout of LERETA’s UI modernization project, making the platform more user-friendly and accessible. She continues to be very active in the design of system enhancements and functionality. Beyond her technical contributions, throughout her career Kathy has been an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in FinTech. As a certified diversity professional and former co-chair of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, she has worked tirelessly to foster inclusive workplaces and mentor the next generation of women in financial technology.
Angel Romero
HFA Relationship Manager
Down Payment Resource
When Angel Romero joined Down Payment Resource (DPR) in 2023, she brought more than two decades of experience in mortgage lending and financial technology. Prior to joining DPR, she was the assistant vice president, post-closing manager and resident housing program expert at Cherry Creek Mortgage, where for 10 years she led the implementation of DPR’s tools into the lender’s operations, allowing them to seamlessly provide down payment assistance (DPA) programs to eligible borrowers.
Recognizing the critical gap in access to DPA programs, She worked closely with internal teams to develop and refine processes that streamlined the integration of DPA programs into the lender’s loan origination system (LOS). This initiative reduced inefficiencies, improved program accessibility for loan officers, and ultimately enabled more borrowers to leverage financial assistance in their homebuying journey. Beyond technology adoption, Angel also played a strategic role in educating Cherry Creek’s loan officers and operational teams on how to navigate the complexities of DPA programs within the system. By enhancing internal training and automating processes, she significantly reduced the friction in identifying and utilizing DPA opportunities, leading to increased borrower engagement and an increase in successful loan closings. Her DPA expertise with DPR’s robust DPA Directory and hard work played a significant role in Cherry Creek’s expansion into new markets.
Prior to Cherry Creek, Angel worked at Aurora Loan Services as an FHLMC Underwriter to review and verify a borrower’s financial information to determine if they can repay a mortgage and be approved for a loan. Since joining DPR, Angel has continued to champion fintech solutions that bridge the affordability gap in homeownership. Her role involves collaborating with housing finance agencies (HFAs), lenders, and DPR’s industry partners to ensure that DPA programs remain accessible and integrated into mortgage workflows. She actively assesses compliance, enhances program visibility, and leverages technology to improve the borrower experience. This includes evaluating DPA programs within DPR’s database of 2,400+ programs, working closely with DPR’s internal team to expand and refine program information, and collaborating with partners to streamline processes and increase efficiency. Through these efforts, Angel has witnessed firsthand how fintech is revolutionizing access to homeownership by providing clarity, automation, and efficiency. Her experiences – at Cherry Creek Mortgage, Aurora Loan Services and DPR – have reinforced her commitment to leveraging technology to drive meaningful change in the housing industry.
Sofia Rossato
President and General Manager
Floify
Sofia Rossato has over 25 years’ experience growing companies in start-up and large corporate environments in PropTech, FinTech, and Messaging. Prior to Floify, she was CEO of SnapEngage, a leading B2B Messaging and Live Chat solution. Sofia managed SnapEngage’s operations across sales, marketing, product, engineering, client success, support, finance and talent and implemented a new operating framework, incentive plan and investment strategy. She rebuilt the leadership team across all functions and established and grew long-lasting strategic partnerships with key channel partners and clients.
When SnapEngage was acquired by TeamSupport (Level Equity), she led the transition while also taking roles in Strategic Partnerships and as Chief Product Officer at TeamSupport. Prior to SnapEngage, Sofia was Founder and CEO of Well Wallet, an automated financial assistant and Personal Financial Management (PFM) app, and COO of a $17B FinTech, IHS Markit, where she led cross-functional growth, cost, innovation, and expansion initiatives, including pricing strategy, cross/up selling, client retention, hiring strategy, reorganizations, and operations automation. Sofia took the reins at Floify in 2022, just as market headwinds began challenging mortgage lenders. Sofia’s unique background and serious FinTech business cred inform her leadership philosophy and have enabled her to uplift Floify.
She has proven her mettle as a leader, strengthening Floify’s market footprint with customer empathy and business acumen, championing features that improve homeownership accessibility. Sofia frequently interacts with customers, cultivating ideas for new features and product directions based on their input. For example, Floify was the first POS to offer language translations on loan applications, provide ADA-compliant borrower interfaces, and support a GSE initiative to consider on-time rent payments as valid AUS inputs. Most recently, Floify freed lenders from using one-size-fits-all loan applications by introducing its no-code feature, Dynamic Apps. Dynamic Apps personalizes the configuration of questions to ask, require, or disable based entirely on what the borrower selects upfront as their loan purpose. This enables borrowers to complete applications faster while improving application completion rates and helping lenders remain in compliance with industry regulations, such as those that prohibit asking applicants to provide demographic information for certain loan types. This type of innovation is only possible when a leader with a sophisticated technology background is out in the field, listening to customers and suggesting eloquent solutions to her product development team. Customers are loving it: Under Sofia’s leadership, Floify received an exceedingly high customer satisfaction rating of 98.2% for 2024.
Sasha Stair
Chief Marketing Officer
Xactus
Sasha Stair is the CMO at Xactus and a powerhouse in fintech. She is a dedicated advisor, coach, and speaker, with a passion for helping companies and leaders evolve and thrive in today’s dynamic landscape. As Xactus’ CMO, the forward-thinking leader is responsible for shaping the company’s marketing strategy to drive long-term success in alignment with key business objectives. Sasha’s focus includes increasing brand awareness, building thought leadership, driving strategic business development initiatives and fostering a culture of innovation and growth.
As the head of marketing, she leads the fintech company’s internal and external communications, bringing the brand’s vision to life and deepening its connection with clients and partners, while supporting its overall mission of advancing the modern mortgage. With leadership experience in business, technology, and operations, Sasha most recently served as a fractional CMO and fintech consultant. She also held executive roles at leading mortgage industry firms including Snapdocs, Common Securitizations, Black Knight and RealEC technologies. A recognized expert in mortgage technology, her strategic mindset bridges the gap between lenders and technology, enabling organizations to grow revenue, solve complex challenges, and scale in volatile markets.
Recently Sasha obtained her Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association, a prestigious achievement that sets her apart as a leader in the mortgage and fintech industries. This designation demonstrates her deep expertise in mortgage banking, regulatory compliance, and financial risk management — critical areas for driving innovation in fintech. With a mastery of mortgage lending complexities, Sasha is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between traditional financial services and cutting-edge technology, ensuring fintech solutions align with real-life lender needs. Her CMB credential also enhances her credibility among industry peers, investors, and clients, reinforcing her ability to develop and advance solutions that modernize lending processes. As fintech continues to reshape mortgage banking, Sasha’s expertise enables her to lead with confidence, influence strategic decisions, and create transformative marketing strategies.
Christine Wang
COO
LendingPad
Christine Wang, as COO of LendingPad, has played a pivotal role in scaling operations, optimizing technology-driven processes, and enhancing platform efficiencies within the mortgage industry. With a strong background in financial technology and operational strategy, she has been instrumental in streamlining LendingPad’s LOS (Loan Origination System) platform, ensuring seamless integrations with industry partners and improving overall user experience and compliance capabilities. Prior to her leadership at LendingPad, Christine held key operational and strategic roles that contributed to the evolution of digital lending solutions, helping lenders leverage automation, data analytics, and cloud-based mortgage technology to drive efficiency and scalability.
Christine believes that FinTech is revolutionizing financial services by breaking down traditional barriers, enhancing accessibility, and driving efficiency through automation and AI. In the mortgage space, she sees cloud-based platforms, real-time data analytics, and AI-driven decision-making as key drivers of transformation, allowing lenders to streamline loan processing, improve borrower experiences, and ensure regulatory compliance with greater precision. She is a strong advocate for open APIs and seamless integrations, recognizing that a connected FinTech ecosystem is the future of financial services. By reducing friction, enhancing transparency, and making financial services more inclusive, Christine sees FinTech as a catalyst for innovation that empowers both businesses and consumers.
Heather Zeller
VP of Marketing
Veros Real Estate Solutions
Heather Zeller stands as a formidable force in marketing with over 25 years of experience transforming the fintech and real estate financing landscape through innovation, strategic vision, and a commitment to excellence. As Vice President of Marketing for Veros Real Estate Solutions (Veros) and Valligent, she drives data-informed, revenue-generating strategies while mentoring teams and fostering cross-departmental unity. Her passion for elevating others and exploring emerging technologies like AI makes her a vital strategist and benchmark for high performance in the industry.
Zeller has demonstrably driven transformative growth for Veros and Valligent over the past year, reinforcing their positions as industry leaders. Her core strength lies in her cultivation of a dynamic, collaborative, and adaptable marketing team, a critical asset enabling agility in response to evolving market dynamics and internal requirements. Zeller spearheaded a strategic initiative encompassing CRM enhancement and industry data acquisition, a key driver in supercharging sales and marketing outreach. This project yielded noteworthy results, including a 499% YoY increase in entities to prospects and a 455% YoY increase in viable paid and organic leads. Complementing this, her data-centric approach to the companies’ online presence orchestrated substantial gains in website engagement.
Veros experienced a 328% YoY increase in returning users with a 43.8% average engagement rate, while Valligent’s newly launched website saw a 592% YoY increase in organic traffic with a 44.9% average engagement rate. Zeller also led the successful go-to-market execution for innovative revenue-generating products such as Virtual 1004D, iVALUATION, ValuSTREAM AVM cascade, and on-demand inspections, alongside the introduction of eight key product/service enhancements and a strategic partnership with Snowflake. Notably, iVALUATION experienced a 200% surge in usage, evaluating over 5,000 properties and becoming the solution powering all Veterans Affairs ROVs. Zeller was instrumental in supporting Valligent’s acquisition of the largest number of new customers in a decade, bolstering the sales pipeline with qualified prospects through comprehensive account-based marketing campaigns that enhanced brand awareness and engagement across all channels.
She also contributed significantly through the ghostwriting of numerous thought leadership articles, blogs, and guides. Furthermore, she implemented and refined performance reporting mechanisms, providing data-driven insights and transparency across the customer journey. Her strategic vision and leadership were contributing factors to both Veros and Valligent achieving HousingWire Tech 100 and MortgagePoint Tech Excellence Awards in early 2025. Zeller’s strategic acumen, leadership capabilities, and consistent drive have demonstrably elevated the performance of Veros and Valligent, positioning her as an invaluable asset and a critical component of their continued success.
Kelly Zitlow
Senior Mortgage Advisor, EVP, Sales & Marketing
Cornerstone Capital Bank
Few mortgage leaders have made a greater impact in FinTech than Kelly Zitlow. As Senior Mortgage Advisor and Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Cornerstone Capital Bank, Kelly has revolutionized digital marketing strategies, integrated advanced AI-driven client engagement tools, and reshaped how mortgage professionals connect with borrowers. Kelly was an early adopter of video-based content as a key marketing tool. In 2014, she launched her first YouTube channel, KellyOnYouTube.com, to provide market insights, tips, and advice to real estate professionals. The platform’s success was immediate, resulting in a 35% increase in business within the first year. By combining industry expertise with a relatable, informative style, Kelly established herself as a trusted advisor within the mortgage space.
Building on this success, Kelly expanded her digital footprint in 2022 with the launch of MortgageHowDoI.com, a second YouTube channel focused on educating homebuyers about the lending process. Kelly’s new channel allowed her to directly engage with consumers, simplify complex mortgage concepts, and empower her audience to make informed decisions when buying a home. Today, Kelly’s content-driven strategy has become a core element of Cornerstone Capital Bank’s broader customer acquisition and retention efforts. She now plays a key role in integrating video-based marketing technology into Cornerstone’s traditional sales processes. By combining automated outreach, personalized video updates, and AI-driven client communications, Kelly created a hybrid digital marketing approach that enhances both customer service and operational efficiency. Her ability to seamlessly merge digital and traditional methods has also helped Cornerstone differentiate itself in a competitive market.
In addition to her digital marketing achievements, Kelly implemented a comprehensive CRM system to track and manage client relationships. This system has improved Cornerstone’s lead tracking, customer engagement, and follow-up, resulting in increased client retention and satisfaction. Her data-driven approach also allowed Cornerstone to refine its sales strategies based on customer behavior and market trends. Kelly’s impact extends beyond her internal leadership role. Her success with digital content and industry expertise has earned her numerous accolades, including recognition among the top 1% of loan officers nationally by Scotsman Guide, National Mortgage News Magazine, and Mortgage Executives Magazine. She has also made multiple television appearances, including on Lifetime TV’s Designing Spaces and as the host of The American Dream on CBS in the Phoenix/Scottsdale market from 2017 to 2021.
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