Name: New England Mortgage Bankers Conference — Day 1: Tech + Leadership Summit
Start: 2026-09-16T08:30:00-04:00
End: 2026-09-16T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Newport Marriott

Why This Summit

This isn't a conference where you sit in a ballroom for two days listening to panels that could have been emails. This is one day, packed with sessions from actual practitioners — people who run teams, own P&Ls, and build technology for mortgage companies. Not vendors pitching products. Not consultants recycling frameworks.

The topics cover what actually matters: recruiting loan officers when there aren't enough to go around, technology that cuts days off your cycle time, leadership that keeps your best people from leaving, culture that survives down markets, and P&L management for the world we're actually operating in — not the one we wish we were in.

Every speaker on this stage runs a team, owns a number, or builds the tools we all depend on. They were invited because they have something worth sharing, and they said yes because they want to be in the room with people like you.

I built this agenda because these are the conversations I want to be in. I think you will too.

— Michael Kelleher
Planning Committee, NEMBC
Board of Directors, MA-MBA

Agenda at a Glance

8:00 – 9:00 AM

Coffee & Registration

9:00 – 9:30 AM

Opening: The ADU Opportunity Confirmed

Kelleher

9:30 – 10:00 AM

Marketing for Market Share Confirmed

Gillett — Moderated by Glantz

10:00 – 10:25 AM

Recruiting Top Loan Officers That Don't Exist Yet Confirmed

Latour

10:25 – 10:50 AM

Creating Loan Officers for Life Confirmed

Handy

10:50 – 11:15 AM

Bank Lending in 2026

Williams, Longfellow — Moderated by Lapin

11:15 – 11:25 AM

☕ Coffee Break

11:25 – 11:50 AM

The Workflow Revolution Confirmed

Alonzo, Longfellow

11:50 – 12:50 PM

Lunch + Two Keynotes

12:00 – 12:25 PM

Klabunde Keynote Confirmed

12:25 – 12:50 PM

Eising Keynote Confirmed

1:00 – 1:25 PM

The Blueprint for Success: How Top Wholesalers Are Winning Confirmed

Arsta, Pieklo, Vinson — Moderated by Kaysen

1:25 – 1:50 PM

Better Teammates = Better Business Confirmed

Trachtenberg, Williams, Malloy

1:50 – 2:15 PM

The Pipeline Problem Confirmed

Clapp, Schilling

2:15 – 2:40 PM

The Convergence of Community, Connection, & Culture Confirmed

Davis

2:40 – 3:05 PM

Mortgage CEOs: What Keeps You Up at Night?

Canter, VanFossen, TBD

3:05 – 3:15 PM

☕ Coffee Break

3:15 – 3:40 PM

Running a Mortgage P&L in 2026 Confirmed

Weidel + TBD — Moderated by Padd

3:40 – 4:05 PM

Recruiting Top Loan Officers Confirmed

Durham, George, Roque

4:05 – 4:30 PM

Clicks to Closings: 3 CEOs on Tech Confirmed

Schwartz, Messer, Cassidy — Moderated by Kelleher

4:30 – 4:55 PM

Culture Is the Strategy Confirmed

Zotzmann Brown, Jewett, Roman

TBD

Evening Event To Be Announced

The ADU Opportunity: How I Built a Platform in Claude Code to Turn Massachusetts' New Legislation Into Purchase Business

Massachusetts just rewrote the rules on accessory dwelling units — and almost no loan officer is paying attention. Michael Kelleher opens the day with how he used Claude Code to build an ADU platform from scratch, turning a piece of legislation nobody's watching into a pipeline of purchase loans, new referral partners, and revenue most of the market will miss. A working look at what one operator can build right now, and how to put it to work in your own backyard.

Michael Kelleher

CEO, Adopt the Brand Media

9:30 AM · Main Stage

Marketing for Market Share

In lending, staying top of mind with current clients and future borrowers is how you win the business when they're finally ready to move. Drew Gillett breaks down the marketing disciplines that actually drive traction and ROI — stronger visual content, automated and personalized borrower communications, email that gets opened, and social that keeps growing — while automating the manual busywork so your team spends its time nurturing relationships and closing loans.

Moderator

Josh Glantz

CEO, Lendware

Drew Gillett

VP Marketing, Guild Mortgage

10:00 AM · Main Stage

Recruiting Top Loan Officers That Don't Exist Yet

How do you hire great loan officers when there aren't enough to go around? Dylan Latour breaks down how forward-thinking lenders are building LOs from scratch — finding raw talent outside the industry and turning them into producers. If you're still fighting over the same recycled talent pool, this session is your wake-up call.

Dylan Latour

Founder, Inkpress Digital

10:25 AM · Main Stage

Creating Loan Officers for Life

The industry spends millions recruiting loan officers only to watch them walk out the door. Meghan Handy shares a different playbook — one focused on developing LOs who stick around, grow their production, and become part of the company's DNA. Learn what it takes to stop the revolving door.

Meghan Handy

Chief Marketing & Customer Officer

10:50 AM · Main Stage

Bank Lending in 2026

As lending strategies evolve, understanding where the nation's largest banks are placing their bets has never been more important. Eric Lapin of FICO leads a discussion between Jeremy Williams (Truist) and Nate Longfellow (TD) — an inside look at the products, technologies, and growth initiatives gaining momentum, what's being left behind, and how regional institutions and credit unions can position themselves to compete and win.

Moderator

Eric Lapin

FICO Credit Markets, Risk Analytics Executive

Jeremy Williams

Head of Real Estate Lending Fulfillment, Truist

Nate Longfellow

Head of Digital Mortgage, TD

11:25 AM · Main Stage

The Workflow Revolution: How Tech-Forward Lenders Are Cutting Days Off Their Cycle Times

David Alonzo and Nate Longfellow pull back the curtain on real workflow implementations that are shaving days — not hours — off cycle times. No theoretical frameworks. Just the tech stacks, integrations, and process changes that are actually working at scale.

David Alonzo

CTO, Union Home Mortgage

Nate Longfellow

Head of Digital Mortgage, TD

1:00 PM · Main Stage

The Blueprint for Success: How Top Wholesalers Are Winning the Market

The wholesale channel is more competitive than ever. Brett Arsta, Robert Pieklo, and Chris Vinson — three leaders who are actually winning — share what's working in their shops right now. From pricing strategy to broker relationships to tech adoption, this panel covers the moves that separate the leaders from the pack.

Moderator

Michael Kaysen

CEO, Silverwork Solutions LLC

Brett Arsta

Executive Managing Director / Co-Founder, PwrTPO

Robert Pieklo

CEO, Elend

Chris Vinson

CEO, Windsor Mortgage & CEO of Mortgage Division, Plains Commerce Bank

1:25 PM · Main Stage

Better Teammates = Better Business: How Vendor Partners Drive Mutual Growth

The best vendor relationships aren't transactional — they're strategic. Marc Trachtenberg, Jeremy Williams, and Mike Malloy have built partnerships that actually move the needle. Hear how they choose partners, structure relationships, and hold each other accountable for results.

Marc Trachtenberg

CEO, Silk Title

Jeremy Williams

Head of Real Estate Lending Fulfillment, Truist

Mike Malloy

CEO, Sage Home Loans

1:50 PM · Main Stage

The Pipeline Problem: Building a Purchase-First Origination Machine

Refi booms come and go. Jim Clapp and Mickey Schilling have built origination operations that thrive on purchase volume regardless of what rates are doing. They'll share their playbooks for generating consistent purchase pipelines without relying on rate-driven demand.

Jim Clapp

Head of Lending, Assurance Financial

Mickey Schilling

EVP, Chief Revenue Officer, MegaStar Financial Corp

2:15 PM · Main Stage

The Convergence of Community, Connection, & Culture

How Great Leaders Build Their Greatest Competitive Advantage

AI investment is soaring, but it can't replace what drives stellar performance: how connected your people feel to you, the mission, and to each other. Jeremy Ray Davis breaks down how community, connection, and culture build the kind of trust that turns teams into movements, customers into advocates, and reduces turnover while driving real growth to the bottom line.

Jeremy Ray Davis

President of Mortgage, Southern Bank Corp

2:40 PM · Main Stage

Mortgage CEOs: What Keeps You Up at Night?

A candid conversation with mortgage company CEOs about the challenges they're navigating right now. From margin compression to technology bets to talent wars, Keith Canter holds nothing back about what it really takes to run a mortgage company in 2026.

Keith Canter

CEO, First Community Mortgage

Matthew VanFossen, CMB

CEO, Absolute Home Mortgage Corp

TBD

To Be Announced

3:15 PM · Main Stage

Running a Mortgage P&L in 2026: What the Numbers Are Really Telling Us

Rich Weidel digs into the numbers that matter — and the ones that lie to you. This session breaks down how top-performing mortgage companies are reading their P&Ls differently, finding margin where others see cost, and making bets that the spreadsheet alone won't tell you to make.

Moderator

Amanda Padd

CRO, Secure Insight

Rich Weidel

+ 2 panelists TBD

3:40 PM · Main Stage

Recruiting Top Loan Officers: Strategies That Actually Work

Brandon Durham, Roy George, and Dr. Rick Roque have each cracked the code on recruiting loan officers in different ways. This panel gets into the specifics — what channels work, what comp structures attract the right people, and how to build a recruiting engine that doesn't depend on poaching from competitors.

Brandon Durham

Director of Training and Business Technology

Roy George

President, MOR Lending

Dr. Rick Roque, CMB

SVP, Retail Growth & M&A, NFM Lending

4:05 PM · Main Stage

Clicks to Closings: 3 CEOs on the Tech That's Actually Moving the Needle

Three CEOs. Three different companies. One question: what technology is actually making a difference in your business right now? Greg Schwartz, Justin Messer, and Brock Cassidy cut through the noise and talk about the tech bets they've made — what's paid off, what hasn't, and what they're investing in next.

Greg Schwartz

CEO & Co-Founder, Tomo

Justin Messer

CEO, Prosperity Home Mortgage

Brock Cassidy

CRO, Newzip

Moderated by Michael Kelleher, Host of The MikedUp Show Podcast

4:30 PM · Main Stage

Culture Is the Strategy: Building Teams That Outlast Market Cycles

When the market gets tough, culture is what keeps your best people from leaving. Chrissy Zotzmann Brown, Rob Jewett, and Eric Roman have each built cultures that attract talent and survive downturns. They'll share what they've learned about values, accountability, and building teams that actually want to come to work.

Chrissy Zotzmann Brown

Chief Operations Officer, Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group

Rob Jewett

COO, NewFed Mortgage

Eric Roman

Chief Operating Officer & EVP, Nations Lending

Watch · NEMBC 2025 Day 1 Sessions

What Day 1 actually sounds like.

The full 2025 Day 1 program on tape. Ten sessions — tech stacks, growth, customer satisfaction, brand, personal branding, and servicing. Watch what you missed, or forward to whoever needs to be in the room this year.

Panel · Tech

The Super App Revolution

Brad Blumberg, Dale Syta, Maryruth Ryan, Kate Gallo Megraw — on where the loan officer's mobile stack is headed.

Panel · Servicing

Servicing in 2025

Ralph Armeta moderating Kimberly Browne, Rob Jewett, Mickey Schilling, Sarah Valentini, and Toby Wells.

Fireside · Customer

Customer Satisfaction & NPS

Justin Messer and Bruce Gehrke on the metrics that actually predict referrals and repeat business.

Keynote · Community

Barbershops, Pulpits, Corner Stores

Jeremy Ray Davis on the ground-level community channels that move homeownership forward.

Panel · Strategy

Positioning for 2030

Kevin Foley, Rich Weidel, Shane Stanton, Zac Basile — on where they're placing their bets for the next five years.

Fireside · Growth

Growth Conversation

Erin Dee and Jon Prussel talk growth levers that don't depend on rates.

Panel · Relationships

Trusted Advisor Panel

Matt Patterson, Michael Kelleher, Eric Prue, Andrew Panagos — what it means to be the person your clients call first.

Fireside · Brand

Brand Positioning

Christina Mallard and John Haring on building a brand that outlasts any single market.

Panel · Tech

Tech Stacks 2030

Meghan Handy, Amanda Padd, Roy George, Monroe Thrower — the tech decisions that will define the next five years.

Keynote · Brand

Personal Branding

Sarah Gonzalez on building your personal brand in an industry that's changing faster than ever.

Session · 2025

Additional 2025 Session

Another session from the 2025 conference Day 1 lineup.

2025 Speaker Lineup

Brad Blumberg

Dale Syta

Maryruth Ryan

Kate Gallo Megraw

Ralph Armeta

Kimberly Browne

Rob Jewett

Mickey Schilling

Sarah Valentini

Toby Wells

Justin Messer

Bruce Gehrke

Jeremy Ray Davis

Kevin Foley

Rich Weidel

Shane Stanton

Zac Basile

Erin Dee

Jon Prussel

Matt Patterson