Guaranteed Rate's John Palmiotto, Chief Production Officer and Head of Sales; James Elliott, President of OriginPoint, and Dr. Ramesh Sarukkai Chief Product and Technology Officer.
Guaranteed Rate Companies [1] has announced changes to its executive leadership team as John Palmiotto [2], Chief Retail Production Officer for the Midwest and Eastern Regions, will assume the newly created role of Chief Production Officer and Head of Sales. In addition, James Elliott [3], Chief Retail Production Officer for the West, has been named President of OriginPoint [4], a joint venture between Guaranteed Rate and Compass [5].
Palmiotto, who has more than 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, will focus on driving even more business and identifying new opportunities across the company's expansive geographic footprint. "I'm confident we will reach our goals for next year–to be number one in the country for recruiting, purchase and volume—and I appreciate the opportunity to help get us there," said Palmiotto.
Elliott brings more than three decades of experience in the to his new role at OriginPoint, including time spent as President and CEO of Pinnacle Bancorp.
"I am thrilled to have the opportunity of leading OriginPoint as we gear up to open our doors for business at the end of this year," said Elliott. "Working alongside the stellar leadership team at Compass, we are building OriginPoint to be a world class, industry leading force to be reckoned with."
In addition to the executive leadership changes, Guaranteed Rate has named Dr. Ramesh Sarukkai [6] as its new Chief Product and Technology Officer. A Silicon Valley veteran, Dr. Sarukkai will be responsible for expanding Guaranteed Rate's digital product portfolio into new financial services, as well as enhancing its current mortgage products and features.
"I'm thrilled to join Guaranteed Rate, which has successfully delivered modern digital solutions to reduce friction from critical financial services such as mortgage while maintaining a close connection with customers," said Dr. Sarukkai. "I look forward to helping the company leverage modern technologies, big data and machine intelligence to create a compelling experience that continues important transformations in the fintech space."
Dr. Sarukkai served as Head of Engineering and Product for Braintree/PayPal, Head of Payments at Facebook, and led the YouTube monetization teams at Google. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Rochester, is the author of the book Foundations of Web Technology, and holds more than 50 patents (issued/pending).
"Ramesh's decades of experience driving growth and innovation at some of the biggest digital powerhouses makes him the perfect choice to lead Guaranteed Rate's technology efforts," said Victor Ciardelli [7], CEO of Guaranteed Rate. "I'm totally confident that he will add incredible value to our mortgage business and help us continue to expand into the FinTech space."