After Zillow Group’s recent proclamation that its well-publicized expansion to mortgage lending is taking “longer than expected” to get up and running, the real estate giant is turning to a roster of mortgage industry veterans to lead its big move into lending.
Zillow announced Monday that it is naming Rian Furey president of Zillow Home Loans.
Prior to his appointment at Zillow Group, Furey served as the chief operating officer of Impac Mortgage, chief administrative officer of loanDepot, and chief operating officer of LendingTree Loans.
Furey joined Impac in December 2017, brought over from loanDepot to serve as the company’s president of direct lending, which is conducted via CashCall Mortgage.
Now, more than 18 months later, Furey is heading to Zillow.
In addition to spending time at Impac, loanDepot, and LendingTree, Furey was also vice president of capital markets of Discover Home Loans and chief operating officer of Greenlight Loans. He has also worked as a financial analyst and at GE Commercial Finance.
As president of Zillow Home Loans, Furey will lead the company’s mortgage lending operation. In addition, Furey will also oversee Zillow Group's mortgage portfolio, which includes Marketplace and Mortech.
The company also named several other new leaders in its lending operation.
According to Zillow, Zillow Home Loans also hired Libby Cooper as vice president of strategy and operations. Cooper was most recently served as senior vice president of strategy for Impac and held senior operations and strategy roles at Clara Lending, Discover Financial Services, and LendingTree Loans.
Additionally, Zillow Home Loans hired Darren Apfel as senior director of product development. Apfel brings more than 20 years of product leadership experience from Microsoft.
Jeff Kibbey was also brought on as vice president of compliance. Kibbey most recently served as chief compliance officer and general counsel of Sierra Pacific Mortgage.
Zillow Home Loans also added Paul Thomas as vice president of finance. Thomas formerly served as executive vice president of capital markets at SunTrust Mortgage and chief operating officer at Pingora Asset Management.
“We’re delighted to welcome Rian and his extensive operational experience to Zillow Group,” said Greg Schwartz, president, media and marketplaces of Zillow Group. “As we expand our business to facilitate seamless transaction experiences for our customers, the deep operating and industry experience Rian, Libby and their team of experienced operators will help us accelerate our work to build a truly seamless, integrated mortgage lending process for our customers.”
