2008 OMBA Annual Convention

May 12 - 14, 2008 -- Hyatt Regency Columbus, OH

We are approaching the 200 Attendees mark and we need your help! In appreciation of the loyal registrants listed above and special incentive to those who have yet to register, OMBA is reinstating its EARLY BIRD CONVENTION PRICING through April 30th! As a goodwill gesture, we will automatically refund the difference to anyone who paid regular convention fees after April 15th. Register Today.

Rooms are still available and can be reserved directly with the Hyatt Regency. To make reservations online, click here; to make reservations by phone, call (614) 463-1234 or toll free (800) 233-1234.

Featured Speakers

Alice Alvey
President/Founder/Trainer
Mortgage U

As President of Mortgage U, Alice Alvey, Master CMB, is a much sought after educator, consultant and mortgage information resource. She brings more than 20 years of mortgage industry experience to the company, with an extensive background from origination through servicing, in both wholesale and retail markets. Her knowledge of the business and experience as an instructor provide a well-defined framework to create innovative, candid and informative education sessions.

Alice Alvey is a Master Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB), designated by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. The pinnacle achievement for real estate finance professionals, its designees have proven through written and verbal testing, their commitment to industry professionalism, high ethical standards, and industry service. Alice brings these exceptional qualities, along with over 20 years of mortgage lending experience, to all of the informational products, training workshops and consulting services offered by Mortgage U.

B. Randy Bateman, CFA
Executive Vice President
Chief Investment Officer
President of Huntington Asset Advisors, Inc.
Private Financial Group

Randy serves as an Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for Huntington National Bank. Randy is also the President of Huntington Asset Advisors, Inc. (HAA), which is the investment advisor of Huntington Funds and institutional separate accounts. The responsibility of HAA consists of investment research, portfolio management and trading. These activities are conducted by over 80 individual investment specialists entrusted with the fiduciary activities of the bank. The scope of the investment activities and clients include pension funds, endowment funds, institutional assets & corporate cash, employee benefit plans, grantor trusts, estates, escrow accounts, municipal agencies and mutual funds. Randy is also the Fund Manager of the Huntington Situs Fund.

In addition, Randy is a member of the Managed Assets Portfolios (MAP) and leads the Small Cap Composite and Open Architecture Strategy. MAP is a separately managed account which encompasses eight strategies and composites offered by Huntington National Bank and HAA. MAP offers speciality investment management capabilities that focus on small cap stocks. Huntington’s Small Cap Composite investment objective focuses on sector overweight and underweight relative to the S&P 600 Small Cap Index. The management group utilizes a combination of quantitative analysis, fundamental research, and company specific competitive advantage in determining which stocks will comprise the strategy. Typically, any small cap portfolio will comprise as much as 75 names to help diversify away some of the risks. The Small Cap Composite includes accounts with a market value $200,000 and above and all accounts are discretionary. An account is included in the composite at the beginning of the first full month that the portfolio manager deems it fully invested. Closed accounts are included through the last full month under management. No selective periods of performance have been used. The composite’s benchmark is the S&P 600 Small Cap Index.

Huntington’s Open Architecture Composite offers access to non-proprietary investment solutions. This strategy provides our clients access to a complete multi-manager investment program customized and designed to achieve superior results. The product is diversified across multiple managers, assets and styles. The open platform offers consulting for manager selection and monitoring, as well as, provides our clients access to a broad range of professional resources.

The investment team first establishes a clear understanding of the client objectives, and then designs a customized multi-manager investment program. The benchmark for this composite varies based on selection process of non-propriety investments.

The Huntington Small Cap Team and the Open Architecture Team provide comprehensive investment solutions for a broad base of clients.

James Cannon
Senior FHA Programs Specialist – Ohio

Mr. Cannon earned his BA from Ohio University and his MA from The Ohio State University.  He has worked for the Single Family Division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development since 1990, supporting three Ohio field offices - Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.  Since 1998, he has served as residential FHA’s senior liaison with its Ohio partners in the lending, real estate and appraisal industries as well as the non-profit and government sectors.  In previous assignments, he sold @1300 foreclosed properties for HUD in the Cleveland and Columbus markets and also served as a Senior Program Advisor for Single Family matters in Ohio. 

Mr. Cannon has taught numerous professional seminars on FHA programs, and frequently speaks at conferences, seminars and industry meetings.   He is an adjunct professor at Columbus State Community College where he teaches real estate finance.   He served on HUD’s National Transformation team from 1995-1997 and has graduated from HUD’s one-year Housing and Community Development Program. 

Raised in Westlake, Mr. Cannon is an unrepentant fan of the Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Indians.

Arvin Clar, Detective
Financial Crimes Unit
Cleveland Police Dept.

Arvin has been in law enforcement for 30 year. He has experience in investigating financial crimes at the street level with realities and perspectives in the real world. He is frequently requested as a speaker and a trainer throughout the financial industry on the topic of financial and mortgage fraud.

Ben Cowen
VP National Sales
LendingTree

Ben is currently the National Sales Manager at LendingTree.  Prior to LendingTree, he was with Wachovia and Bank of America for past 12 years.  During this time, he held various leadership positions including Retail Mortgage Channel leader at Wachovia, National Wholesale Sales Manager for Wachovia, Retail Strategy Executive for Bank of America, and Texas/Midwest Retail Sales Executive.  Ben started his career in secondary marketing and accounting.  He attended the University of Houston where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting.  

Amy Heinz
Senior Industry Relations Manager
Fannie Mae

Amy Heinz is Senior Industry Relations Manager in Fannie Mae’s Anti-Fraud Initiatives Department.  Amy’s role is to coordinate Fannie Mae’s anti-fraud efforts with Fannie Mae’s partners, including the lending community, industry groups and law enforcement.

Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Amy served as External Operational Risk Management Director for Freddie Mac.  In that role Amy oversaw the operational risk and control assessment of all aspects of Freddie Mac’s Seller/Servicers’ conforming conventional mortgage operations (from loan application through REO disposition).  Amy has extensive QC/fraud management experience, having served as Freddie Mac QC Director, Washington Mutual QA Manager, American Residential Mortgage QC Manager, Platte Valley Mortgage Correspondent Purchasing Manager, and as Senior Fraud Investigator for Freddie Mac. In these roles, Amy’s responsibilities spanned post-funding quality control, early payment default reviews, incoming and outgoing repurchase management, and fraud investigations.

Amy has been an active participant with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America’s National Quality Assurance Committee: as co-chair of the Quality Assurance Committee, long-time member of the Quality Assurance Executive Subcommittee, and chairperson of the Fraud and Ethics Subcommittee for 3 consecutive years.  Amy has given numerous conference presentations on Quality Control, Fraud, and Operational Risk; and was instrumental in the creation of two successful fraud detection educational games (Fraudopoly and Fraudsters Feud), as well as the publication of several white papers and one book (Combating Fraud and Unethical Practices in Real Estate Transactions, Mortgage Bankers Association, 2002) on fraud prevention, detection and resolution.

Amy holds a BS degree in Business and Management from Pepperdine University.

Kathleen Herminghaus
Freddie Mac

Kathy Herminghaus joined Freddie Mac in October, 2001 as an Account Manager, with account responsibilities in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio. Kathy has held various positions in the mortgage industry over the past 25 years, beginning her career as a Loan Officer. Kathy then became a Regional Sales Manager, managing a sales staff for both Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Prior to joining Freddie Mac she was a Branch Manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage for four years. In addition, Kathy worked as an Account Executive for PMI Mortgage Insurance Company for six years covering both Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts.

Kathy is a member of The Rhode Island and Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association. She is a past President of the Rhode Island MBA. In addition she is a member of the education and planning committee for the New England Mortgage Bankers Conference and sits on the Board of Directors as a Vice President for the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Foundation.

Mark R. Jamison
Veterans Administration

Mark Jamison is the loan Production Officer for the Cleveland VA Regional Loan Center (RLC). The Cleveland RLC has jurisdiction over six states that include Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. In calendar year 2005, the Cleveland office was responsible for over $2.2 billion in VA loan volume. Mark has been with the VA for 15 years, spending 10 of those years in Loan Administration. Prior to his experience with VA, Mr. Jamison worked in the field of foreclosure, bankruptcy, collection, and loan administration. Mark is an approved continuing education provider for mortgage brokers in the State of Ohio, and he has also had training courses approved for continuing education in the states of Indiana and Pennsylvania. He is also a 1993 graduate of Cleveland State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance.

Ed Powell
Co-Founder and VP Sales
Sparkroom Inc.

Edward is the co-founder and Vice President of Sales at Sparkroom a privately-held firm that provides reporting and account management services to lenders so they can manage, measure, and optimize their marketing dollars.  Prior to founding Sparkroom, Edward spent seven years in various management roles at LendingTree, an early pioneer in the online lead generation industry.  Most recently, Edward was Director of Marketing and Business Development at Decision One Mortgage, a subsidiary of HSBC.  Edward started his career as a mortgage loan officer at B.F. Saul Mortgage Co. a subsidiary of Chevy Chase Bank. Edward holds a degree in Political Science from Davidson College and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Randall J. Olsen
Professor of Economics
Ohio State University

Randall J. Olsen taught at Yale University before coming to Ohio State. He has written on econometric theory, labor economics, applied microeconomics, survey methodology, and economic demography. His primary fields are applied econometrics, labor, and economic demography. He has done considerable work in the areas of unemployment and fertility of young adults. He is a Principal Investigator on the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience. He also directs the Initiative in Population Research, which is funded by NICHD to advance the cause of interdisciplinary research involving students and faculty. His current interests are wage growth and its relation to job changing behavior.

Bill Rice
Kaleidico

Bill Rice is the Founder and CEO of Kaleidico. Kaleidico is a privately held software firm focused on making Internet sales and lead management simpler and more productive. Our products include: icoSales, a sales management solution; icoMatch, a lead distribution platform; and coming soon a creative application for personal contact and/or sales management.
Prior to founding Kaleidico, Bill has been a serial entrepreneur as an executive at Quicken Loans leading national home equity, helped start-up and ultimately sell (private equity firm LightYear Capital) DeepGreen Bank, a part of the Motorola spin-out Iridium, as well as several other early leadership positions with TASC (federal/government consulting firm) and in the US Air Force.
Bill earned his MBA at the University of Phoenix and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the United States Air Force Academy.

Phil Rizzuto

Over the last 10 years Phil Rizzuto has been a national sales manager for a nationwide home equity lending business.  He began his career at Bank One moving next to the former Provident Bank and finally in 2005 with Charter One a division of RBS Citizens.  Prior to that Phil spent time as a Loan Officer working internet leads at the infancy of the lead generation industry.

In his most recent engagement as Senior Vice President and National Sales Director at Charter One, Phil has built an award winning internet sales team focusing on lending to customers obtained via internet leads.  Most recently Phil has taken on responsibility for all inbound and outbound inside sales for all residential lending at RBS Citizens.

Robert E. Story Jr., CMB
Vice Chairman
Mortgage Bankers Association

Robert E. Story, Jr. is President of Seattle Financial Group in Seattle, Washington and Vice Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

A Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB), Story is a seasoned business leader with more than 20 years of experience in real estate financing. At Seattle Financial Group, Story oversees all aspects of the organization, including strategic management of business operations. He also is President of Seattle Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of Seattle Financial Group.

Story began his career in 1980 as a construction manager, coordinating construction and lending activities among builders, real estate brokers and investors. He has served in all functions of residential production and is now responsible for the strategic alignment of operations among Seattle Financial Group business units.

An active member of MBA for more than two decades, Story is a member of the MBA Board of Directors and its Residential Board of Governors (RESBOG), which is responsible for identifying legislative and regulatory policies and positions on single-family residential lending. In addition, he has served on several committees including MORPAC, the Mortgage Bankers Association Political Action Committee, and as president of the Washington Mortgage Lenders Association.

Story received a bachelor's degree in business administration and a management program certificate from the University of Washington in Seattle. He also earned MBA's CMB designation and is a graduate of MBA's Future Leaders Program.

Richard (Rick) J. Walker
Fannie Mae

Richard (Rick) J. Walker has worked in Fannie Mae’s National Underwriting Center for the past 11 years as a review appraiser and appraisal review manager.  He has 24 years of residential and commercial appraisal and appraisal review experience, and has worked for several financial institutions in their REO and loan origination departments. Rick majored in real estate and the University of North Texas, formerly held the SRA designation with the Appraisal Institute, is a Texas Certified General Appraiser, and holds a Texas Real Estate Broker License. 

Kimberly A. Zurz
Director, Ohio Department of Commerce

Governor Ted Strickland appointed Kimberly A. Zurz as Director of the Ohio Department of Commerce on January 23, 2007.

Zurz is a veteran businesswoman who was a State Senator representing citizens in northeast Ohio at the time of her appointment to the Strickland Cabinet. She is committed to providing strong leadership to carry out the Department’s mission of consumer protection and fair, efficient regulation of business to fulfill the Strickland Administration’s Turnaround Ohio plan.

As the President of her family’s 78-year-old business, The Eckard-Baldwin Funeral Home, in Akron, Zurz has an informed perspective about the needs and concerns of small businesses and the importance of excellent customer service. She knows first hand that protecting the public and regulating business capably and objectively can work together to strengthen the state’s economy.

The Director of Commerce oversees one of the state’s chief regulatory agencies, which has nine Divisions, more than 900 employees and an annual budget of $669 million. Among the wide range of regulations enforced by the Department are those that apply to state-chartered financial institutions, mortgage brokers and loan officers, securities, real estate brokers and appraisers, the state fire code, liquor control, construction compliance, minimum and prevailing wages, unclaimed funds, check-cashing services, underground storage tanks, elevators and video-service providers.

In March 2007, Governor Strickland appointed Director Zurz to serve as Chair of the Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, which he established to provide a unified response to foreclosure issues in the state. The Task Force issued its report and recommendations in September 2007, and the Director is actively working with state, local and federal officials to help implement the recommendations.

While serving in the Ohio Senate, Zurz earned a reputation as a staunch advocate for education and job creation. She represented Ohio’s 28th District, which includes Portage County and a portion of Summit County. One of only a handful of women in the Ohio Senate from 2003 to 2007, Zurz served as the state Senate’s Assistant Minority Leader. Before her appointment to the Ohio Senate in 2003 and election in 2004, she served more than 11 years on the Summit County Council, including three terms as President.

The Director has served on numerous boards and commissions during her public-service career and received many honors and awards, including the 2006 Omeris Senator of the Year Award and 2006 Greater Akron Chamber Economic Development and Community Improvement Award.

Zurz is married to Richard Zurz, Jr. and has three children. She and her family reside in Green in Summit County. Zurz graduated from Firestone High School in Akron and attended the University of Akron.

© 2008 Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association