Proof, Not Promises
Selected chapters from three-decades of building businesses, restoring performance, driving revenue and leading companies through market, operational and organizational change.
MPGroups
Founder & President | 1999 - Present
Since 1999, MPGroups has completed more than 60 engagements across mortgage, fintech, banking, insurance, construction, development, commercial real estate and M&A.
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The work partners Mark with CEOs, founders, owners, boards, investors and leadership teams that need an operator who can connect the entire business. He doesn’t stop at creating the plan. Mark works alongside the team to make the decisions, align the organization and drive change through execution.
Work
Engagements have included growth and go-to-market strategy, DevOps, sales, operating performance, technology and AI ROI, capital strategy, organizational design, recruiting high-performance teams, turnarounds, acquisitions and exit preparation.
Results
Returned an underperforming mortgage business to profitability in nine months, then helped deliver 150% growth over three years and an exit at 3.3x EBITDA; secured funding and a new go-to-market model for a direct-to-consumer lender that subsequently grew 212%; produced 12% to 18% annual growth alongside margin improvements of 8% to 30%; and helped resolve a legal and compliance situation that supported a 2.85x EBITDA exit with no post-oversight findings.
Why It Matters
The value is not advice around the edges. It is identifying the enterprise constraint, making the necessary operating decisions and staying accountable for the result.
Franklin Loan Center
Chief Operating Officer | February 2022 - July 2023
Chief Strategy Officer | March 2023 - May 2023
I joined Franklin in a rapidly contracting mortgage market that was compressing margin across the industry. Sales, fulfillment, technology, risk, cost structure and customer experience all had to move together.
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​As COO, I was responsible for day-to-day operations and enterprise performance. I later took on the CSO role simultaneously to connect operating changes with capital strategy, technology investment and the company's next-stage positioning.
Work
We reset operating priorities, removed recurring cost, strengthened production quality and built the infrastructure for a full digital mortgage workflow. The strategy and operating agenda were managed as one system rather than as separate initiatives.
Results
Margin improved 28% while sales increased 8% in a declining market. Production defects fell 79%, and more than $1 million in recurring costs was eliminated. As CSO, I built a new strategic agenda, deployment and operational update designed to take advantage of $800 million in revenue activity.
Why It Matters
The turnaround worked because strategy, operations, capital and technology were treated as the same enterprise problem.
loanDepot & SupportLink3
loanDepot Team Lead | April 2019 - February 2022
SupportLink3 Co-Founder | October 2018 - March 2020
At loanDepot, the opportunity was to improve both production performance and the systems supporting employees and customers.
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At the same time, SupportLink3 was being built as a technology-enabled advisory platform for the mortgage-servicing industry.
Work
At loanDepot, I rebuilt operating processes, consolidated vendors, applied automation and contributed to an in-house loan-origination system designed around the people using it. At SupportLink3, we built the team, technology platform and access to capital resources needed to scale.
Results
The loanDepot team achieved top 1% national performance in profit, efficiency, zero defects and customer satisfaction. Automation and vendor consolidation improved efficiency 22%, and employee retention remained 100%. SupportLink3 scaled tenfold, sustained margins above 25% and exited through a share sale in 2020.
Why It Matters
Both businesses required the same discipline: build operating systems that allow people, technology and economics to scale together.
Integra Pacific Mortgage &
Mill Creek Development Associates
Integra Founder & President | January 1994 - June 2011
Mill Creek Owner & Founder | February 1998 - September 2010
Integra began as a new mortgage company and became a seventeen-year ownership and operating journey through multiple market cycles.
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Four years after its launch, I also founded Mill Creek Development Associates and operated both businesses concurrently for more than a decade.
Work
Integra became profitable within 75 days and expanded into securities and insurance as complementary revenue channels. I acquired a distressed insurance business, installed operating leadership and grew it toward a successful sale. Mill Creek added direct experience in land use, construction, renovation, conversion and project disposition.
Results
The insurance business grew revenue 300% in three years and exited successfully. In 2011, I positioned and sold Integra Pacific after building, diversifying and operating it across strategy, P&L, growth, capital, compliance, technology and talent.
Why It Matters
Owning and operating two companies through changing markets created the P&L discipline and enterprise perspective that have informed every role since.
Additional Operating Chapters
From 2011 to 2019, I held mortgage production leadership roles that added two important dimensions to my experience. At Seattle Bank, I served on the leadership team addressing two consecutive regulatory cease-and-desist orders.
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Production increased from zero to $5 million monthly in four months, new branches helped lift production to $15 million per month within eleven months, and the team grew from zero to 37 in one year while maintaining production and profit through heavy compliance oversight.
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The bank returned to full regulatory compliance in April 2013. I later built a production practice that moved intact across three sponsor platforms and generated six-figure annual production from a proprietary 22,000-contact database.