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The nation’s largest mortgage loan servicer, Mr. Cooper, is revamping its leadership team to get the most out of its investments in new technologies and artificial intelligence.
Sridhar Sharma, who’s credited with developing Pyro AI, Mr. Cooper’s patented AI and advanced machine learning platform, has been named chief innovation and digital officer, the company said Wednesday.
Dallas, Texas-based Mr. Cooper Group collects monthly payments on upwards of $1 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt from more than 4 million borrowers. AI and other automation tools are helping it slash labor costs and keep tabs on borrowers who would be open to refinancing.
Sridhar Sharma
As Mr. Cooper’s chief information officer since 2015, Sharma’s innovations “have driven the company’s ability to grow and achieve best-in-class customer service and recapture rates,” the company said in announcing his new role. “Sharma will continue to lead Mr. Cooper’s digital-first strategy with an even stronger focus on developing and implementing AI and machine learning solutions to give customers and team members a more seamless experience while continuing to push the mortgage industry forward.”
Jeff Carroll
Mr. Cooper is also bringing in three new tech leaders from outside the company, including Jeff Carroll, the company’s new chief technology officer. As Sabre’s senior vice president, platform and cloud engineering, Carroll managed the company’s technology infrastructure and led platform modernization efforts “resulting in cost efficiencies, enhanced security and an optimized user experience,” the company said.
Carroll will oversee Mr. Cooper’s core technology infrastructure operations “with a focus on resiliency and scale to support the company’s continued growth.”
Prerna Kandhari
Mr. Cooper recruited its incoming data engineering senior vice president, Prerna Kandhari, from Capital One, where she served nearly four years as director of software engineering. Before that, Kandhari spent nearly five years at commercial real estate services and investment firm CBRE.
David Graham
David Graham joins Mr. Cooper as senior vice president, data governance from RBC, where he spent close to 10 years as an executive in positions where he managed operational and data risk. He also spent seven years in Shanghai and Singapore as an executive with Standard Chartered Bank.
Kandhari and Graham “will collaborate to lead the company’s data strategy and governance models to fuel responsible AI and machine learning across the company,” the company said.
“With a focus on digital transformation, Mr. Cooper solidified our position as the biggest and best mortgage servicer in the country,” company President Mike Weinbach said in a statement. “We are very excited to deepen our technology leadership expertise and build on our momentum while unleashing the power of responsible AI to give our customers a better experience driven by new tools, data and products to help make homeownership more rewarding.”
Technology is helping Mr. Cooper cut costs and manage its massive loan servicing portfolio more efficiently — it spends several hundred million dollars a year on call center operations and expects at least $50 million in annual savings from its investment in a multiyear AI project.
But safeguarding the data the company has been entrusted with is a challenge of its own. Last year the company disclosed that hackers gained access to the personal information of nearly 15 million current and past customers, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth and bank account numbers.
Mr. Cooper offered to provide affected clients with two years of free credit monitoring, credit reports and credit score services from TransUnion, which sends alerts when changes occur to a consumer’s credit file.
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