loanDepot promotes Viviana Abarca to lead mortgage lending operations

loanDepot has promoted Viviana Abarca, who has worked for the mortgage lender for the past 11 years, to managing director of mortgage lending operations. Abarca will report directly to president and CEO Frank Martell, the company announced on Monday.

Abarca will lead loanDepot’s loan processing, underwriting and closing operations, which in the first quarter of 2024 were responsible for closing $4.6 billion in mortgages, down from $5.3 billion in the previous quarter. Based in the Phoenix-area operations hub, Abarca will join the company’s executive committee. 

Abarca joined loanDepot as an underwriter in 2013 and became vice president of lending operations in 2021. Before joining the company, she worked for Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Compass Bank. 

Martell said that Abarca’s promotion is a step toward fulfilling the lender’s Vision 2025 strategic plan, which includes bringing the company’s “operational capabilities to the next level in the coming years to support accelerated growth and durable stakeholder value creation.”

“Under Viviana’s leadership in lending operations, we will continue to invest in automation to drive operating leverage, develop new customer-facing tools and functionality, and implement operational and structural changes to optimize and streamline our operations and position loanDepot for long-term success,” Martell said in a statement. 

Recently, loanDepot added to its sales leadership team by hiring Justin Andrews as area sales manager in the Seattle region. Andrews has 25 years of mortgage industry experience, including a recent stint as national director of branch partnerships at Movement Mortgage.

Jeff Wilkish also joined loanDepot from Movement Mortgage to serve as the company’s regional vice president for New England. He will oversee sales activity in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

loanDepot recorded a non-GAAP adjusted net loss of $38 million in first-quarter 2024 and is expected to soon close an extension of its debt that is currently due at the end of 2025.