Joy Knoch has been promoted to Chief Strategy Officer at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., the company announced.
In this newly created role, Knoch will oversee origination and processing, training, and lending tech systems.
“Our goal is to use systems to streamline our loan manufacturing process and improve the loan experience for borrowers, loan officers, and realtors,” Knoch said. “We’ll do this by gathering input from producing L.O.s, operations managers, and our corporate team to create a more efficient roadmap.”
Knoch brings nearly three decades of mortgage industry experience to the position, having worked at Fairway since 2011 where she most recently served as senior vice president of loan processing and branch support. Prior to that role, she was the company’s executive vice president of training and operational support.
Fairway’s CEO Steve Jacobson said Knoch is “uniquely qualified” to step into this new position.
“Joy understands the mortgage business as deeply as anyone in the industry and her ability to bring different departments together will create efficiencies and improve the borrowing experience,” he noted.
Her promotion comes at a time of transition for Fairway, which recently announced it is shuttering its wholesale channel to focus on retail.
Jacobson described the change as “a business shift, nothing more, nothing less, in order to focus on our core business to ensure that we continue providing the best customer experience going forward.”
It is also a target of UWM’s “All In” ultimatum, which has resulted in several lawsuits. “All In” has been controversial since it was introduced by UWM CEO Mat Ishbia in March 2021.
“If you work and send loans and send business to Fairway Independent or Rocket Mortgage … If you work with them, you can’t work with UWM anymore, effective immediately,” Ishbia said in a Facebook Live message at the time.
UWM is currently suing Atlantic Trust Mortgage Corporation for submitting loans to Rocket Mortgage and Fairway.