Service Provider
Sagent
King of Prussia, Pa.
Daniel Sogorka, President & CEO
sagent.com
Company Mission Statement
Sagent powers banks and lenders to make loans and homeownership simpler and safer for millions of consumers. We bring the modern experience customers now expect from loan originations to loan servicing, where lifetime customer relationships are managed and grown. Sagent platforms let consumers manage their home-owning lives from anywhere while giving servicers lower costs, scale compliance, and higher servicing values through full market cycles.
What makes your company a Top Employer for Women?
Sagent champions its female employees, promotes an inclusive culture, and empowers employees with a flexible working environment. With an approach rooted in respect and inclusivity, Sagent gives women the support needed to thrive at all organizational levels and at every stage of their careers and lives: from mentorship opportunities to awards to resource groups to family planning benefits. Sagent recognizes that over 75% of caregivers in the U.S. are women, and its remote workforce has the flexibility to make their own schedules (carpooling, volunteering, sick kids, elder care, pet care, and more).
How does your company support women in the workplace?
Sagent supports women in the workforce with a number of different benefits. Employees receive between 12 and 14 weeks fully paid maternity leave for maternal and infant health and bonding. Sagent also hosts Our Women’s Network (OWN), an employee resource group focused on fostering the strong community of women at the company. Through OWN, women have access to a regular speaker series, mentorship opportunities, and ongoing support for their career goals. Sagent also partners with Carrot to deliver fertility support and $10k reimbursement for family planning, with services available for all age groups and all types of families, including LGBTQ+.
What contributions does this company make to women in the mortgage industry?
One way Sagent supports women in mortgage is through partnership with NEXT, an organization designed to build a community of women executives in the mortgage industry. Further, women at Sagent win prominent industry awards including MWM’s Rising Star, Housing Wire’s Women of Influence, and NEXT Powerhouse Partner (this year alone). Beyond that, Sagent provides opportunities for its women employees to travel, attend, participate, and present at leading mortgage conferences (including “The Future of Housing & The Women Building It” at this year’s Digital Mortgage conference).
What programs, strategies or formal mentoring/sponsorship programs does this company have specifically aimed at developing women leaders?
Sagent provides mentors to all new hires and delivers mentorship opportunities through OWN, its Employee Resource Group for Women. Further, Sagent sponsors organizations, events, and sessions that highlight women in mortgage leadership, including: NEXT, National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA), the Women of ALICE, and the Executive Women’s Summit.
Benefits available to women within your company:
- Paid Time Off
- Flexible Schedule
- Work From Home Opportunities
- Maternity Leave
- Conference
- Academic/ Degree/ Certificate programs
- Continuing Education
- Personal/professional Networking
- Mentors and/or coaches
- Association Memberships
Professional Workshops & Seminars
Mortgage Lenders: Regional (25-500 MLOs)
Pennymac
Westlake Village, Calif.
David Spector, Chairman and CEO
pennymac.com
Company Mission Statement
Building the foundation of homeownership by enabling Americans to achieve and sustain their aspirations of home.
What makes your company a Top Employer for Women?
Pennymac creates a diverse and inclusive environment and supports and empowers women to maximize their potential and remain intentional about their career goals. We increase gender diversity within our workplace and leadership teams. Through company programs and initiatives, we honor the unique perspectives, talents, and contributions that women bring. We implemented a leadership key performance indicator (KPI) to increase the representation of women and underrepresented minorities (URM) in management positions. With success, women or URM comprise 75% of the workforce company-wide, with 32% holding positions at the senior-most executive level as of December 2022.
How does your company support women in the workplace?
The Women Empowering Mentorships, Relationships, and Growth (wEMRG) program supports professional and leadership development. The program held workshops to help members verbalize their goals and develop personal branding and leadership styles. wEMRG hosted a panel discussion where women at Pennymac shared their backgrounds and insights around successfully managing their careers. wEMRG also hosted a two-part spotlight on “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories,” where women across Pennymac shared their unique experiences navigating the mortgage industry. We host a runPennymac: Women’s 5K Challenge, where employees across the company came together to raise funds for Girl Scouts and Women Who Code.
What contributions does this company make to women in the mortgage industry?
We are committed to closing the gender gap in industries where women are underrepresented. Pennymac is a Diamond Plus sponsor of the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA). We partner with NAMMBA in its effort to empower women and minorities to broaden their leadership skills and create an impact in their communities. Our goal is to drive positive and systemic change by diversifying the next generation of minority mortgage and real estate finance professionals and giving them the tools they need to promote equitable and sustainable homeownership.
Does your company offer accommodations for nursing mothers? (Ex. lactation rooms, break time & space to express milk, access to baby at work, etc)
In a number of Pennymac office sites, we offer wellness rooms that provide employees the opportunity to recharge and maintain well-being through a number of self-care activities. These private rooms are available to support a variety of physical health, mental health and personal needs, including lactation, meditation and reflection/prayer.
Benefits that are available to women within your company:
- Paid Time Off
- Flexible Schedule
- Paid Leadership Development
- Work From Home Opportunities
- Maternity Leave
- Equal Pay
- Conference
- Academic/ Degree/ Certificate programs
- Continuing Education
- Personal/professional Networking
- Corporate Sponsored leadership training programs
- Mentors and/or coaches
- Association Memberships
- Professional Workshops & Seminars
Mortgage Lenders: Regional (More than 500 MLOs)
CMG Financial
San Ramon, Calif.
Chris George, President & CEO
cmgfi.com
Company Mission Statement
Delivering the right loans for the right reasons in a way that exceeds all expectations. That’s our business.
What makes your company a Top Employer for Women?
Women are leading the charge at CMG. The critical hire of Courtney Thompson, executive vice president, head of servicing, allowed us to pivot into the total mortgage space earlier this year. The massive efforts and negotiations from General Counsel Shannon Leight, were key to our successful Homebridge retail acquisition. Kim Callas, our executive vice president, chief operating officer, was recently honored as one of the Powerful Women of Mortgage Banking. CMG attracts top-talent women in the industry because they know they’ll succeed here, grow their careers, and play a crucial role in big-time company moves.
How does your company support women in the workplace?
It starts from the top, from CEO Chris George. There’s no one more supportive of women leading the charge at CMG than Mr. George. He has established a culture that lets them thrive and grow their careers all the way to executive positions. In Kim Callas’ own words, “Chris and I strive to ensure that our company — especially our leadership — has diverse perspectives and we keep gender inequality in mind when making decisions.” They make sure women are paid equally, getting to maximize work work-life balance, and are given all the tools and opportunities they need to excel.
What contributions does this company make to women in the mortgage industry?
We give them a place to make their name known, we push them to the top, we make sure they’re well-represented in every room. Kim thinks one of the biggest problems for women in the industry is the lack of representation. “There is a severe lack of women’s perspectives missing industry-wide,” she said in her Powerful Women of Mortgage Banking profile. That’s why we’ve made it a point to keep our company over 60% women. And within executive leadership, we promoted two more women to the team this past year, bringing the balance to nearly 50%.
What programs, strategies or formal mentoring/sponsorship programs does this company have specifically aimed at developing women leaders?
Our unique program, CMGAdvance, helps employees get the training and mentorship they need to reach the next level through training, live instruction, mentorship, on-the-job learning, and certification in their desired role. Mentorship between women is huge. Additionally, we often have departmental summits where people fly to corporate HQ to meet, and we had an offsite senior female leadership retreat in the spring of 2021.
Does your company offer accommodations for nursing mothers? (Ex. lactation rooms, break time & space to express milk, access to baby at work, etc)
We don’t offer lactation/break rooms at every single CMG office country-wide, but we do offer flexible remote work capability.
Benefits available to women within your company:
- Paid Time Off
- Flexible Schedule
- Work From Home Opportunities
- Maternity Leave
- Equal Pay
- Conference
- Personal/professional Networking
- Corporate Sponsored leadership training programs
- Mentors and/or coaches
- Association Memberships
- Professional Workshops & Seminars
Mortgage Lenders: Regional (More than 500 MLOs)
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation
Madison, Wis.
Steve Jacobson, Founder and CEO
fairway.com
Company Mission Statement
Fairway’s objective is to provide an atmosphere in which all employees can make the “Fairway experience” be exactly what they want it to be for themselves and their families. Fairway provides the systems and the culture that enable each of its employees, its branches, and the corporate structure to grow in the residential mortgage finance industry.
What makes your company a Top Employer for Women?
We were humbled to be recognized as a Mortgage Women Magazine Top Employer for Women Award 2022. In 2022 and 2023, we had women leaders receive the MWM Mortgage Star Award and MPA Elite Women Award, and in 2022 our president of products was recognized as a Women of Influence by Housing Wire.
We offer several ERGs that provide support and networking opportunities for employees from underrepresented groups, including women. Our Women’s Empowerment Group is our largest group with 680+ members, which doubled a year ago (18% of women employees).
We have organized three successful women’s summits at various locations across the country.
How does your company support women in the workplace?
We have Progyny Fertility Benefits helping make the dream of parenthood come true. Progyny’s Smart Cycle benefit includes bundled fertility treatment coverage for every unique path to parenthood. Employees receive access to a national network of fertility experts and guidance from a dedicated patient care advocate throughout their family building journey.
Fairway has LifeMatters to help employees learn to balance work and family. Our EAP offers a variety of resources to guide women and families, from postpartum resources to caregiver advice. We also have a parenting ERG, short term disability, hospital indemnity, income replacement benefits, and a healthy pregnancy program.
What contributions does this company make to women in the mortgage industry?
Fairway offers Ignite Coaching which provides resources and tools for success.
Our ERGs have been a great for mothers returning to work along with our women’s empowerment group.
Our Women’s Empowerment Group has swag on our company store that supports women-owned vendors. We also feature a non-profit of the month focusing on women-related causes and have contributed over $4,000 in the last year.
At Fairway, 48% of our managers are women and within the last two years, we promoted 10 women into executive positions.
What programs, strategies or formal mentoring/sponsorship programs does this company have specifically aimed at developing women leaders?
We continue to offer learning opportunities for all employees at different levels. One platform we have is Fairway Ignite, which is a coaching platform for sales and operations. We encourage all employees to join as members and attend our weekly connect calls to learn how to succeed.
Does your company offer accommodations for nursing mothers? (Ex. lactation rooms, break time & space to express milk, access to baby at work, etc)
Yes. We have private lactation rooms at our corporate locations and some employees are remote/hybrid which allows more work life balance as parents.
Benefits available to women within your company:
- Paid Time Off
- Flexible Schedule
- Work From Home Opportunities
- Maternity Leave
- Conference
- Personal/professional Networking
- Corporate Sponsored leadership training programs
- Mentors and/or coaches
- Professional Workshops & Seminars
