The 2026 Next Gen Leader Award Winners Are …

For the 6th year in a row, we at PROGRESS in Lending are honoring the next generation. Why? Because we were set up to recognize true visionaries and thought leaders. That’s who we are. Our other awards all acknowledge the good work that executives are doing now, but we think it’s critically important to expand to recognize those people that are making a difference that have been in the business fifteen years or less. We need new leaders that are not afraid to step forward and blaze a new trail. We need creativity. We need bold new ideas.

The 2026 Award Winners In Alphabetical Order Are:

Jared Crockett

Account Executive

Xactus

Jared Crockett has shaped the mortgage industry by elevating how lenders approach credit decisioning, risk management, and workflow efficiency. Rather than treating credit as a transactional requirement, Jared champions a more strategic, data-driven, and consumer-centric model, one that improves operational performance while strengthening the overall lending experience. He works alongside lenders to reposition credit from a cost center to a strategic enabler of growth. Through a consultative approach, Jared guides clients toward smarter bureau usage, optimized verification strategies, and integrated processes that reduce friction and manual effort. His impact extends beyond product selection. He ensures clients understand the reasoning behind their strategy and how to execute it effectively within their broader business ecosystem. 

Looking ahead, Jared hopes to help lead a broader transformation in how the mortgage industry thinks about credit, risk, and operational strategy. His vision is to challenge the status quo and accelerate the shift toward intelligent, integrated, and insight-driven lending practices. He aspires to further reposition credit as a strategic driver of performance, not simply a compliance checkpoint. By continuing to promote smarter data utilization, streamlined verification strategies, and scalable workflow design, Jared aims to help lenders build operations that are resilient in changing markets while remaining focused on consumer experience. Jared believes emerging leaders have a responsibility to bring clarity to complexity and to ask better questions about how processes can evolve. He intends to continue bridging the gap between strategy and execution, empowering lenders to rethink traditional approaches to bureau management, verification sequencing, and workflow architecture. 

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Jessica Curley

VP, Service Operations Manager

ServiceMac

Jessica Curley has shaped the mortgage servicing space by redefining what operational leadership looks like in high-volume, customer-facing environments. As a leader overseeing a 60-person team responsible for managing approximately 1,500 customer emails per day, she leads one of the primary intake channels for borrower communication. Every written inquiry — ranging from simple account questions to complex queries — filters through her team. Rather than focusing solely on volume and speed, Jessica has built a people-first culture that improves the experience for customers and her team members. She believes that if team members are equipped with the right tools, support and belief in their abilities, that confidence will translate into more thoughtful, compassionate customer interactions.

In an industry often dominated by pressures over metrics, she has intentionally protected and strengthened the human element of servicing. Jessica has implemented structured “coffee chats” to gather frontline feedback and identify operational improvements. From those conversations, she empowers team members to take ownership of solutions — such as rewriting procedures, improving workflows and identifying areas for efficiency. This approach not only strengthens operations but cultivates future leaders within the organization. During periods of increased volume and operational strain, Jessica’s focus on rapport and resilience has enabled her team to sustain performance while maintaining engagement. Executive leadership has recognized her team’s ability to show up consistently during challenging times. She has also embraced modern tools to improve communication and clarity. By leveraging AI to translate complex mortgage concepts, such as escrow analyses, into borrower-friendly explanations, she has elevated transparency and understanding for customers. In doing so, she has improved both efficiency and the quality of customer communication.

Jessica’s impact extends beyond operations. She actively challenges legacy thinking, asking whether long-standing industry practices still serve today’s customers and workforce. Her leadership blends operational discipline, innovation and human-centered development, positioning her as a transformative force within mortgage servicing.

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Nick Friedman

President of Homes

HomeLight

Nick Friedman has emerged as a leading voice in the mortgage industry, focusing on modernizing how lenders support move-up and repeat buyers in a challenging housing market defined by rate volatility, inventory constraints, and affordability pressures. As President of Homes at HomeLight, he has helped redefine how lenders leverage homeowners’ equity through innovative financing solutions — most notably HomeLight’s flagship product, Buy Before You Sell, which removes one of the biggest barriers in residential transactions today: the need to sell a home before buying a new one.

Under Friedman’s leadership, HomeLight has worked closely with lenders and agents to create solutions that reduce contingency risk, increase buyer competitiveness, and improve transaction certainty. By enabling homeowners to access up to 85% of their equity before listing their current property, these programs help lenders maintain momentum in purchase mortgage pipeline where traditional bridge financing structures often fall short. Friedman has grown Buy Before You Sell to partnerships with 4 of the 5 largest retail lenders and unlocked over $885 million in equity by partnering with over 22,000 loan officers and 28,000 top agents nationwide. Beyond product innovation, Friedman has contributed to shaping industry conversations around borrower psychology and evolving market dynamics. Drawing on insights from large-scale lender research and industry collaboration, he has helped educate loan officers and brokerages on how to adapt to a more complex consumer environment where financial anxiety, locked-in mortgage rates, and supply shortages require new strategies.

His leadership also extends to deeper integration of technology into the mortgage ecosystem. Friedman has advocated for embedding AI and data-driven tools into workflows in ways that enhance decision-making, streamline operations, and strengthen collaboration between agents and lenders. Rather than replacing human expertise, his approach emphasizes the use of technology to remove friction while preserving trusted advisor relationships. Through a combination of innovation, education, and ecosystem-building, Friedman has helped lenders expand their role from transactional participants to strategic partners, guiding borrowers through increasingly complex decisions.

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Ryan Kroll

Product Manager for the Mortgage Cadence Borrower Center

Mortgage Cadence

Ryan joined Mortgage Cadence in 2016 as a business analyst, contributing to loan origination technology that has since evolved into the Mortgage Cadence Platform (MCP). Over the last decade, he has helped shape how lenders engage borrowers at the most critical point of the mortgage journey: the application experience. Now a Product Manager, Ryan brings together product management experience with web development experience, an uncommon combination that has directly influenced the functional and intuitive design and success of the Borrower Center, Mortgage Cadence’s borrower-facing point-of-sale solution.

Ryan’s work is guided by a simple but powerful principle: mortgage technology should be intuitive enough for anyone to use, regardless of industry knowledge. As he puts it, “If your next-door neighbor can’t complete a loan application with minimal instruction, the system isn’t intuitive enough.” That philosophy has reshaped how borrower experiences are designed, prioritizing clarity, accessibility, and confidence over complexity. His progression from business analyst to product manager reflects more than professional growth, it demonstrates how diverse technical and design expertise can drive meaningful innovation. With hands-on experience in technical analysis, development, and user experience, Ryan understands both the complexity of mortgage systems and the human realities of borrowers navigating one of the largest financial decisions of their lives.

Under his leadership, the Borrower Center has become more than a point-of-sale tool. It is a critical bridge between sophisticated lending technology and everyday consumers, integrating seamlessly with MCP while delivering an experience that feels approachable, modern, and supportive. By balancing technical depth with a customer-first driven design, Ryan has helped lenders reduce friction, improve borrower engagement, and make the path to homeownership more accessible. His work has elevated expectations for what borrower-facing mortgage technology can and should be.

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Joshua Lovejoy

Operations Manager

First American

Over the past eight years, Josh has shaped the mortgage space for the better by consistently challenging the status quo and driving smarter, more effective operational processes within First American Mortgage Solutions. As an Operations Manager, he is not satisfied with maintaining what works; he is committed to improving it. At the core of his leadership is a disciplined focus on improving processes and strengthening the team. When he identifies a better path forward, he moves decisively to make it a reality. That mindset has become a defining element of his leadership and impact. Josh fosters an environment where employees feel comfortable bringing forward ideas and identifying inefficiencies. Known for his approachable, open-door leadership style, he creates space for constructive dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. Rather than defaulting to legacy workflows, he thoughtfully examines how adjustments will affect both immediate performance and long-term outcomes.

One example of this philosophy in action was his initiative to replace multiple desktop scanners with a centralized high-capacity production scanner. Recognizing that decentralized scanning created bottlenecks and inconsistencies, Josh implemented a more efficient solution that increased throughput, reduced manual handling and minimized document errors. This modernization streamlined document intake and strengthened reliability within a high-volume environment. He also led a strategic shift in operational focus by expanding his team’s scope beyond solely indexing documents to include trailing documents. Previously, the team’s role ended once initial indexing was complete. Josh identified that trailing documents — critical components that complete loan files — were creating downstream delays and inefficiencies when not addressed proactively. By incorporating trailing document management into the team’s workflow, he improved file completeness, reduced rework and strengthened coordination across functions. This shift not only enhanced internal efficiency but also contributed to a smoother overall mortgage lifecycle, reducing friction for partners and customers.

Josh’s influence extends beyond individual improvements. He actively seeks to understand how his team’s responsibilities fit into the broader mortgage ecosystem. By examining how upstream and downstream functions intersect with his department’s work, he ensures that enhancements support the entire process rather than optimizing in isolation. This systems-based perspective has strengthened cross-functional alignment and improved overall operational consistency. In an industry defined by precision, coordination and speed, Josh exemplifies continuous improvement in action. Through modernizing tools, expanding operational scope and fostering a culture of collaborative innovation, he has elevated both team performance and the broader mortgage experience. His commitment to refining processes in a smart way continues to strengthen the industry from the inside out.

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Kyle McCord

VP, Capital Markets

LoanPASS

Kyle McCord represents the next generation of capital markets leadership our industry urgently needs. In less than 15 years, Kyle has distinguished himself as a forward-leaning capital markets executive who consistently bridges the gap between strategy and execution. His combination of deep technical expertise with modern thinking, decisiveness, and the courage to challenge legacy approaches is elevating LoanPASS PPE to the mainstage. As Vice President of Capital Markets, he operates at the intersection of pricing, product, credit, and investor alignment, bringing clarity and structure to areas that are often opaque, manual, and slow to evolve. His impact is measured not only in results, but in how he elevates the teams and systems around him. Kyle’s leadership style reflects the future of our industry. He is data-driven without being rigid and decisive without losing sight of risk discipline. He embraces complexity rather than avoiding it, and he is known for turning ambiguity into actionable frameworks that scale. Whether navigating shifting market conditions, launching new products, or improving operational execution, Kyle consistently brings a long-term, systems-level mindset to capital markets decision-making.

What truly sets Kyle apart is his willingness to challenge “the way it’s always been done.” He advocates for cleaner data, tighter feedback loops, and smarter use of technology to reduce friction across underwriting, pricing, and investor delivery. He understands that capital markets are no longer just about relationships and spreadsheets, it’s about precision, transparency, and repeatability. Kyle leads with that belief, pushing the organization to operate faster, smarter, and with greater confidence. Kyle McCord embodies exactly why Next Gen Leaders deserve recognition. His vision, creativity, and execution make him a standout leader today and a defining voice for the future of capital markets.

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Tom Morelli

Chief of Staff

Wilqo

Tom Morelli began his mortgage industry career in 2021, when he joined Wilqo as Head of Data Analytics. In 2025, he assumed the role as chief of staff as the company continued to scale. Tom has spent the last nearly five years building his connections and reputation in the mortgage industry. Being new to the industry didn’t hold him back, but rather fueled his fire to learn, grow and build his network. Tom is already actively involved with associations like ACUMA and the MBA. He is scheduled to share his industry perspectives at Texas MBA’s Southern Secondary Conference and ACUMA’s Young Professionals group this year. He is involved with advocacy work, joining events like California MBA’s Legislative Day to engage legislators in-person and help shape the policy that impacts local lenders. He has also contributed to multiple industry podcasts, sharing ideas and sparking conversations about how lenders are approaching efficiency.

Prior to entering the mortgage industry, Tom built an extensive background in marketing and data analytics. His data background was a natural fit for what Wilqo was doing. The company’s platform combines an LOS, POS, AI and business intelligence into one place, helping lenders streamline their operations and scale efficiently. It has native business intelligence and predictive modeling and uses data to accurately predict process cycle times and proactively identify any issues that may keep loans from closing on time. Tom’s experience in the data world made him a perfect fit for this platform that is data-driven to its core. Tom also uses his background outside the mortgage industry to bring fresh eyes to the leadership team. Many of Wilqo’s existing leadership have been in the mortgage industry for many decades. While they bring the industry expertise, Tom represents a new perspective that challenges the status quo. With this combination of leadership, Wilqo is able to take a different approach to mortgage technology and innovation – one that has a strong foundation of institutional knowledge but is not afraid to think outside the box. This approach shines through in its platform that is built intuitively for lenders without all the pain points and bottlenecks that come with a traditional LOS or POS. With Tom’s leadership, the company has signed new lenders, sealed new industry partnerships and added features that further empower lenders to work more efficiently.

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Carley Smith

Producing Sales Manager and VP of Mortgage Lending

Certainty Home Lending

Carley has spent most of her mortgage career doing something the industry tends to undervalue: staying put and going deep. While many originators chase the next platform or the next market, she’s built her practice in San Luis Obispo and built it well. Her progression from senior loan officer to branch manager to her current role as Sales Manager and VP of Mortgage Lending at Certainty Home Lending reflects a deliberate investment in leadership. Along the way, she co-founded Women With Vision, a real estate professional group that has helped expand access and community for women navigating the industry. She also earned certification with San Luis Obispo County’s First Time Homebuyer Program demonstrating her broad commitment to serving borrowers who don’t always get a seat at the table. Her impact has been measured not in headlines, but in relationships and careers developed over time in one community.

As many in the industry already understand, while technology will grab the headlines, the next wave of mortgage growth will truly be won or lost on the strength of the people doing the work. Carley is focused on developing the next generation of loan officers using means beyond technical training. She wants to help younger producers understand that this business is built on trust, that referral relationships take years to earn and can be lost in a single transaction, and that showing up consistently for a community matters. At Certainty, she’s positioned to extend that philosophy into a scalable model where operational support and personal mentorship work together rather than in tension. Her work with Women With Vision will also contribute to a greater vision of helping reshape who gets to lead in mortgage lending while ensuring the profession reflects the borrowers it serves.