Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Brian Collins covers the housing and mortgage market, including the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A reporter with more than two decades of experience, Brian has covered the savings and loan crisis, subprime mortgage debacle and the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Herman Thordsen is the principal and senior attorney of the firm which has been in existence since 1972 and his practice includes defense of those accused of mortgage fraud, real estate, foreclosure issues, buy-back demands or loss reimbursements lawsuits requested by mortgage lenders, FDIC, and others.Thordsen's articles cover a range of topics involving laws, cases and regulations as interpreted by state and federal courts, as well as the California Department of Corporations, Nevada Mortgage Lending Division, other state's regulators and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development including issues on RESPA, TILA, Reg Z, and criminal indictments for mortgage loan fraud. The firm represents those charged with mortgage loan fraud in federal courts.

Stephen Faulkner brings more than 30 years of diversified senior executive experience in mortgage banking operations. His creative, results-oriented management philosophy has consistently improved the performance of mortgage banking organizations. Immediately prior to joining OpExNow, Stephen served as President and COO of Vericrest Financial, a highly rated special servicer, where he implemented several unique solutions to improve loss mitigation efforts. Stephen also led efforts to develop proactive compliance and quality control, insuring a strong control environment. The results at Vericrest led to multiple ratings increases from both Fitch and S&P. In previous positions, he developed and executed organizational restructuring, strategic outsourcing and process improvement initiatives at several mortgage servicers, resulting in annualized cost savings exceeding $100 million. Stephen directed the operational integration of two mortgage servicing platforms with over 300,000 loans and associated loan balances exceeding $38 billion, resulting in increased efficiency and effectiveness of servicing. As Senior VP of Loss Prevention for Saxon Mortgage, Stephen led the development of process design and qualification tools that allowed early implementation of HAMP program, resulting in over 33,000 trial modifications in the first 90 days. His efforts in strengthening controls and procedures in Investor Reporting and Investor Accounting departments at one firm resulted in obtaining a FNMA top tier rating and a servicer excellence award. Stephen holds a B.S. from the University of Alabama with a major in Accounting. He is a licensed CPA in the State of Texas.

Reginald Givens is the NSP Coordinator with the Arizona Department of Housing. Currently Reginald is working on the design, development and implementation of the State’s foreclosure prevention program which is a part of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund. Reginald is responsible for the oversight of the State’s YourWayHomeAZ program which is a part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Additionally, Reginald works on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program. A program designed to help homeowners facing foreclosure by providing them with much needed loss mitigation counseling.

Marcus Summerville is the Short Sale Supervisor in the Loss Mitigation Department with Central Mortgage Company. He heads a team of Professionals aimed at preventing Foreclosures by way of property liquidation when home retention is no longer an option. Marcus joined Central Mortgage Company in the 1st quarter of 2007 and has quickly promoted up through the company based on his knowledge and skill set. Marcus has implemented a team to work diligently on the new HAFA program which has included automation whenever possible. He also dedicates his time attending mediation hearings with the Foreclosure Department by offering workout options for borrowers. Marcus’ previous experience includes over (11) years of Servicing both home and auto loans. Having a background in Sub-Prime Servicing/Collections, Marcus has been able to incorporate skip tracing and research tools when suggesting reach out campaigns to distressed borrowers. He continues to work towards ways of increasing borrower knowledge, automation and overall efficiency of not only the Short Sale realm, but the Loss Mitigation process of his company’s portfolio.

Rachel Dollar is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts in the mortgagelending industry. An attorney, Ms. Dollar is the editor of the acclaimed public serviceindustry website Mortgage Fraud Blog (www.mortgagefraudblog.com), which iscommitted to raising awareness of the growing problems associated with mortgage fraud.A Certified Mortgage Banker, she has been repeatedly named by Inman News as one ofthe 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders. A Certified Financial Crimes Investigatorand litigator, Ms. Dollar co-wrote Protect Yourself from Real Estate and MortgageFraud, which in August 2007 became the first full-scope book on mortgage fraudreleased by a major publisher, Kaplan Publishing.Ms. Dollar is a partner in the law firm of Smith Dollar PC, where she chairs the firm’sMortgage Banking Group and leads mortgage fraud litigation for lenders and secondarymarket investors on a nationwide basis. She has supervised successful complex mortgagefraud and RICO litigation in the federal courts, and complex litigation involvingsecondary market investors, mortgage insurers, loan servicers, and other financial servicecompanies. She has been involved in the discovery, investigation, resolution andlitigation of large-scale fraud schemes nationwide.Her practice includes complex commercial litigation, RICO litigation, secured creditorrights and title insurance litigation with a focus on closing protection letter claims,identity theft and closing agent conduct. She also handles matters concerning broker andfidelity bonds, appraiser and settlement agent errors & omissions policy claims and issuesassociated with repurchase.A nationally recognized speaker, Ms Dollar frequently teaches in-house seminars onmortgage fraud issues to lending professionals, QC/QA management, federal and stateprosecutors and general counsel. She acts in a consultative role on policy and procedurefor mortgage lenders, including the creation of lending documentation and direction ofquality control practices. She frequently consults with licensing and local, state andnational criminal agencies across the country on mortgage fraud matters.Ms. Dollar has been widely quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the LosAngeles Times, and other publications. She has testified on mortgage fraud beforeCongress. She has appeared on CNN, CBS Evening News, and other radio and televisionprograms.Smith Dollar PC's in-depth industry knowledge and broad legal experience allows itsattorneys to offer legal counsel grounded in business reality. Located in California WineCountry, Smith Dollar PC is one of the only Northern California firms providinglitigation and transactional representation to the mortgage banking and financial servicesindustry.

Ty Miller is the Vice President of Servicer Relationship Management at Freddie Mac, with responsibility for the overall servicing relationship management with Citigroup, PNC Bank, Nationstar Mortgage and all of Freddie�s specialty servicing partners. �In this role, he works collaboratively with his servicing counterparts to identify innovative solutions that optimize borrower outcomes and drive value to Freddie Mac, the mortgage servicer and the American taxpayer.�Before joining Freddie Mac, Miller was the Senior Vice President and Strategic Initiatives Director for First American National Default Title Services (NDTS).�Miller joined First American in 2007 as the Chief Operating Officer of the first lien default outsourcing companies. Prior to this, he held several key executive positions during his nine-year tenure with GMAC Mortgage. Before his career at GMAC, Miller maintained senior leadership roles with Aurora Loan Services, The CIT Group and CitiMortgage.Miller holds a BS in Psychology and Management from Missouri State University. He is active in numerous charitable organizations including Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Diversity Council.

Patrice Alexander Ficklin's practice includes advising businesses, schools, non-profit organizations, individuals and policymakers on civil rights issues arising in lending, employment, diversity programs, and housing. She also conducts internal investigations and provides general business advice and services. Ms. Ficklin is an experienced mediator and arbitrator.Prior to joining Relman, Dane & Colfax, Ms. Ficklin served in a wide variety of legal and non-legal roles at Fannie Mae. During her tenure at Fannie Mae, she directed the company's employee grievance department; provided fair lending, fair housing and other consumer law advice regarding lending products, pricing and servicing; conducted internal investigations; drafted strategic alliance agreements; designed and implemented a mandatory non-binding arbitration program for employees; directed the corporate ethics program; and revamped officer and employee performance review standards. Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Ms. Ficklin specialized in complex corporate transactions, employment law, financial institutions regulation, and civil litigation during her tenure at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. In 2009, Ms. Ficklin was appointed to the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which is responsible for establishing statewide policies for Maryland public and private colleges, universities, and career schools. Ms. Ficklin is a member of the boards of directors for the following organizations: Center for Dispute Settlement; Reid Temple Federal Credit Union and Women in Housing & Finance Foundation.