Former Rocket CTO Woodring Lands At Newrez

Newrez LLC announced it has brought on Brian Woodring as its chief information officer. Woodring spent more than six years as chief technology officer at Rocket Companies, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders and servicers. 

Of that prior experience, which ended in April 2024, Woodring writes on LinkedIn: “I joined Quicken Loans in November 2017 as Chief Technology Officer to lead the Product Engineering team, building technology products including Rocket Mortgage.” 

He notes that the company went public as Rocket Companies in 2020, and “as CTO, I was responsible for leading Rocket Technology, with a mission to transform the future of homeownership.” 

When Woodring left Rocket in April 2024, a spokesperson from the company told National Mortgage Professional he’d chosen to pursue other opportunities. Woodring “has been an integral part of the senior leadership team, contributing to our technology, innovation, and the growth of our AI systems," the spokesperson said then via email. 

Woodring now brings that experience to Newrez, a national mortgage lender and servicer that offers a variety of loan types including conventional, Non-QM, FHA, VA, fixed-rate, adjustable-rate, and others.

“I am so proud and excited to join the Newrez leadership team! There are already so many amazing people here, and I look forward to empowering the team to build the best technology in the mortgage industry,” ” Woodring wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

According to Newrez, he will lead its technology strategy across digital products, applications, IT infrastructure, information security, data, and AI. “His vision for AI, seamless homeowner experiences, and building world-class teams will further elevate the Newrez technology platform to continue to deliver exceptional value to employees, clients, and consumers,” Newrez stated.

The company noted in a release that in the past five years, its platform “has roughly quadrupled both its originations market share and the size of its portfolio” and that it is now serving more than 3.7 million homeowners. 

In addition, Newrez also promoted Felicia Grumet to chief financial officer. Since joining the company last year, Grumet has held “various leadership roles,” the most recent being chief information officer. 

Newrez stated in its release that Grumet “led technological initiatives that enhanced the digital experience for customers and employees while supporting Newrez’s cost leadership.” 

Prior to joining the company, Grumet spent over a dozen years as a managing director at Bank of America, where she managed several business areas. Her responsibilities spanned business strategy and development, revenue growth, capital and liquidity management, new products and platform development and operating efficiency, according to Newrez. 

Before that, Grumet spent 15 years at Bear Stearns in mortgage and structured credit derivatives, focusing on a variety of mortgage, asset-backed, and other securitized products.

“Our technology and human capital investments power our business and its future,” stated Baron Silverstein, president of Newrez. He added that Woodring’s and Grumet’s combined expertise “will be instrumental in driving the next stage” of the Newrez platform’s growth.