{"id":3927,"date":"2023-02-21T15:38:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T15:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frankbuysphilly.com\/push-button-get-ceo-whats-next-for-rocket\/"},"modified":"2023-02-21T15:38:41","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T15:38:41","slug":"push-button-get-ceo-whats-next-for-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frankbuysphilly.com\/push-button-get-ceo-whats-next-for-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Push button. Get CEO? What\u2019s next for Rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jay Farner<\/a> likes to tell a story about his early days at Rock Financial<\/strong>, which would become Quicken Loans<\/strong><\/a> and eventually Rocket Mortgage<\/strong>. It was 1996 and Dan Gilbert<\/a>, the founder and CEO, announced that the company\u2019s mortgage bankers weren\u2019t going to meet with applicants face to face. Instead, Farner recounted in an interview with tech outlet Protocol<\/a>, they would do mortgages by telephone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to send our clients the applications, they\u2019re going to sign it and they\u2019re going to mail it back to us. That was new back then. Dan was really focused on the marketing component. How do we get clients directly to reach out to us? One of the funny things I recall is I structured a deal to buy fax machines and we told every client that we’d send them a free fax machine to make it easier to send the information back to us. I probably bought maybe 500 or 600. That didn’t work because setting up the fax machine proved more complicated than putting the documents in the UPS envelope.<\/p>\n \u201cI share the story because that’s the culture we worked on creating, which is: Try something. Learn quickly. Adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n With the Feb. 13 announcement of his resignation<\/a>, Farner, known as the marketing whiz behind groundbreaking \u201cPush Button. Get Mortgage,\u201d campaign, has forced Rocket Companies<\/strong>, the parent of Rocket Mortgage, to show the same adaptability in finding a new leader.<\/p>\n One caveat: Farner\u2019s successor will be tasked with getting the company on the right track amid one of the most challenging mortgage markets in decades. And the new leader will have to do so as the company attempts to transition from a refi-reliant mortgage lender into a multi disciplined fintech. <\/p>\n “A change at the CEO level prior to a pending earnings announcement presents some consternation, particularly within a very challenging mortgage origination market and taking into account Mr. Farner bought 5M+ shares of stock over the past year,” analysts at Piper Sandler<\/strong> wrote in a report published last week. “That being said, we believe Rocket remains in capable hands with a deep management team.” <\/p>\n HousingWire interviewed several of the lender’s analysts to better understand the challenges and opportunities ahead for Rocket’s new CEO. A Rocket spokesperson declined to comment on the topic, as the company is in a quiet period leading to the Feb. 28 earnings call.<\/p>\n News of Farner\u2019s resignation came as a surprise to analysts and investors, and for good reason. Farner is a Rocket lifer, having spent his entire 27 year professional career at the Detroit company. Notably, the 49-year-old also relinquished his seat on the board this month, an unusual move at a company that typically keeps its senior leadership in the Rocket orbit. <\/p>\n Bill Emerson, Farner\u2019s predecessor as CEO at Rocket Companies, will be moving over from Gilbert\u2019s holding company Rock Holdings<\/strong> to again run Rocket Companies. Emerson has also taken Farner\u2019s board seat. <\/p>\n In Emerson, Rocket has a seasoned leader who knows the mortgage playbook. Rocket says it will look both internally and externally for Farner\u2019s permanent replacement. <\/p>\n Farner\u2019s resignation also follows a broader series of changes in the lender\u2019s C-Suite over the last six months. In November, CFO Julie Booth and general counsel Angelo Vitale retired<\/a> after over two decades at the company. Brian Brown and Tina John, respectively, replaced them. In January, Austin Niemiec, the head of its wholesale division Rocket TPO<\/strong>, was promoted to chief revenue officer, with Mike Fawaz tapped to lead wholesale. (Bob Walters, who was promoted to CEO of Rocket Mortgage in January 2022, remains in place.)<\/p>\nC-Suite changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n