Natalie Verrette

Increasing equity, increasing opportunity. Natalie Verrette is President and Chief Operating Officer of mission-focused Champions Funding. The industry veteran is at the helm of the wholesale Non-QM lender, which also has the distinction of being a Community Development Financial Institution. Backed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, CDFIs like Champions Funding are poised to increase equity in homeownership for traditionally underserved communities while providing access for mortgage brokers to the $1 trillion fund. From a childhood marked by homelessness to a leader of some of the nation’s most compelling mortgage companies, Natalie Verrette embodies her company’s mission. From product development, capital markets, sales, operations, loan servicing and everything in between, Natalie has made her mark in the industry as a proven leader for bottom line growth. No one makes it look easier to balance the directives to serve the underserved while maintaining fruitful partnerships with mortgage brokers while continuously mitigating credit risk through all mortgage cycles. Supported by a leadership team primarily made up of minority women, Verrette’s staff of diverse, passionate professionals yielded 67% of originations granted to CDFI-eligible borrowers within their first year of operations. Seeing sparse financing options for non-traditional and credit-worthy borrowers led Verrette to create a full suite of loan products, including those directed at investors and small business owners, that are accessed through common sense applications. Verrette has navigated the waves of the mortgage industry for over 25 years in leadership roles in numerous divisions, a ride that has yielded the ability to identify company challenges and morph them through policies & procedures that reduce risk and still get borrowers “the yes” they deserve through responsible lending. The cyclical nature of the industry has shown that lenders that remain nimble, adjusting with the market, will come out ahead of the pack.