Finance of America Companies (FOA), parent company to leading reverse mortgage lender Finance of America Reverse (FAR), announced on Thursday that incumbent CEO Patricia “Patti” Cook has chosen to retire from the company. She will remain in place until a successor is named, which is expected to happen at some point around the period of the company’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
Cook has served as the CEO of FOA since October 2020. She initially joined the company as senior managing director in 2016, and was promoted to president the following year. Before joining FOA, she served as managing director of Ditech Financial between 2013 and 2016.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to lead this dynamic, visionary organization. My time at Finance of America has been the crowning achievement of my career,” Cook said in the announcement of her retirement. “I am so proud to have played a role in building this purposefully different consumer lending platform with the broadest range of products and services designed to help a diverse consumer base. I want to thank our amazing team of talented and committed professionals who work tirelessly to the benefit of our customers, investors, and the industry.”
Chairman of the FOA Board of Directors Brian Libman lauded Cook’s service to the company during her tenure.
“On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Patti for her countless contributions to Finance of America over the past six years,” he said. “As President and Chief Executive Officer, she has been a visionary and unifying force across the entire enterprise playing important roles in our evolution into a public company. More recently, Patti laid the groundwork for the implementation of our long-term strategic roadmap that focuses on optimizing the business, driving growth, and increasing enterprise value to the benefit of all stakeholders. Patti’s efforts have served to strengthen our competitive position in the market and set us up to achieve enduring success.”
Cook has related enthusiasm about the business trajectory of FAR in the past, particularly as it relates to its development of private products. In an interview with RMD conducted shortly after FAR announced its hybrid forward/reverse mortgage product EquityAvail, she explained how product development acts as a key differentiating factor as a component of the broader FOA portfolio of companies.
“A critical differentiator of FOA is our ability to identify gaps in the marketplace and use our proprietary data to launch innovative new products that our customers need, and distribute those through our Portfolio Management business,” she told RMD in March, 2021. “The new product that we’re launching at FAR is just the latest example of our ability to meet our customers’ needs through constant innovation, which we believe provides us with a real competitive advantage.”
RMD reached out to representatives of FAR who were unable to be reached, or did not return a request for comment by press time. FOA is expected to release its Q4 2021 earnings information sometime next month.
