Rocket Companies today named Dan Sogorka as General Manager of Rocket Pro TPO, effective September 3. In this new role, Sogorka will be responsible for establishing the end-to-end technology vision and growth of Rocket’s Third Party Origination (TPO) channel. Mike Fawaz, Rocket's Executive Vice President of TPO, will be reporting to General Manager Sogorka.
As Rocket continues to push hard for the technological advancement of the mortgage industry, Sogorka sees a ripe opportunity for advancement within the mortgage broker segment. In an exclusive interview with NMP, Sogorka said he looks forward to spending time with the mortgage broker community as he adjusts to his new role, identifying their technological needs and seeing where Rocket can leverage its AI technologies. Like Fawaz, Sogorka plans to establish an open line of communication with the mortgage broker community.
“We want to deliver for our partners, both in terms of what they need today and what they're going to need a couple years down the road,” Sogorka said. “You know, I love Fawaz. I'm here to support him and help him and use my 25 years in mortgage technology across the whole spectrum from origination through servicing, to really kind of bring what I can to that community, listen to what they want, and then deliver for them.”
Although this is the first time Sogorka will be honing in on mortgage brokers, he’s no stranger to the fintech mortgage industry. Sogorka previously served as CEO and president of Sagent, a fintech company that designs and builds digital mortgage servicing platforms. He led the company through a period of intense growth, modernizing Sagent’s technology by bringing its platforms to the cloud, and building a single data and user experience across the servicing lifecycle. Sogorka also fostered strong relationships with many large mortgage servicers that allowed him to get an in-depth view of the home loan process from origination through servicing.
“It's funny, I've really never taken any time in my career journey to sit back and say, where do I wanna be? It's kind of just been one thing to the next when you look at what I've done,” Sogorka explained. “I started discussions with some folks at Rocket… once I met [Rocket CEO] Varun Krishna and the team, I really just started to get more and more excited about the opportunity here in terms of the technology and the things we could bring to the brokers.”
Before his time at Sagent, Sogorka was CEO of Cloudvirga – a digital mortgage point-of-sale (POS) system. Cloudvirga was exclusively focused on automating manual tasks that save mortgage lenders and originators time in the early stages of the mortgage process. That company was acquired by Stewart Title in 2021.
Sogorka was also a business unit president at Black Knight for nearly 15 years. During that time, he and his team reportedly touched nearly 70% of all mortgage loans processed in the U.S. and managed global data and teams, all while delivering multiple “industry first” transaction platforms. Throughout this period, Sogorka built and maintained relationships with some of the most prominent leaders in the mortgage industry.
Sogorka shared with NMP his excitement about joining the broker segment of the industry during such a pivotal time. Market share has continuously grown the past few quarters to the point where nearly one in five home loans is being facilitated by a mortgage broker. However, Sogorka believes, brokers still need the right technology to help scale their companies and meet the growing demand.
“First, I think with the existing technology that's out there today, we can do a lot more in terms of bringing tools to brokers to help them and their consumers,” he said. “But I also think there's an opportunity to really leverage AI to kind of leapfrog everything that we're doing today. I'm really excited to rethink the whole process of all the static pieces of technology from a CRM to a POS to an LOS, all the way through a servicing platform. How do we rethink that whole process if we forget everything we knew and used new tools that were available?”
As one of the largest wholesale lenders, Sogorka looks to help Rocket empower its broker partners and their clients with leading technology, streamlined processes and competitive pricing. He plans to collaborate with Rocket’s technology and product development teams to ensure the experience mortgage brokers have in Rocket’s suite of comprehensive tools is top-notch.
“This team wants to put the broker right up there in terms of importance with all other channels in the market. And that's really what I'm excited to do,” Sogorka added.
“This is an exciting milestone for Rocket and deeply strengthens our commitment to brokers for the long term,” said Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket Companies. “After getting to know [Sogorka] and the wealth of experience he brings to Rocket, I’m confident he will accelerate our strategy and impact.”
Sogorka is also an honoree of NMP’s 2024 Industry Titans, in which individuals are hailed for their innovation and leadership abilities. Sogorka was honored for his efforts in helping financial institutions modernize the homeownership experience.
