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54 What makes you excited and drives you as a CEO? ere are a few things. When I walk into an office with hundreds of people and see Aspen on every screen, managing the operation and people just getting on with it, it is such a great feeling. To think we are making their lives easier, removing stress, and helping them help their borrowers, is fantastic. I also get a huge kick out of seeing Aspen team members progress, especially taking ownership and responsibility, driving their education and career, helping a customer solve a problem, taking on a project and getting it done. I've been lucky enough to see that pattern repeat itself in Aspen over the years, and I never fail to get an inner smile when I witness it. How do you see technology contributing to the mortgage servicing industry over the next five years? Digitization of mortgage processes and beyond for the borrower, tied to robust back- office operational systems that drive service and simplify our complex industry. Let's face it, this industry is a bit behind on that front but is starting to catch up. ere's a strong business case for retention and recapture, but there are many other reasons to do it. e American Dream of homeownership is under threat, and it is incumbent on us to develop solutions that mitigate that threat. Helping borrowers, and potential borrowers, manage their home and their finances and providing affordable housing are all areas that technology can help and enhance the opportunities for homeownership, as well as keeping people in their homes should they run into problems along the way. What is your vision for Aspen Grove moving forward? Now that we can tie front-end borrower engagement journeys to back-end processing, we want to extend our footprint in servicing. We are talking to several servicers and will extend our footprint this year. Beyond that, we have developed additional journeys for homeowners to help them manage their home and to engage with their servicers beyond the mortgage loan itself. We have a patent pending on an automated calendar for home maintenance based on multiple datasets, and we are working with vendors to sign up networks from home management. Beyond that, we have a number of other homeowner journeys ready to go. We are also focused with some partners on trying to figure out how we can help address minority homeownership and making sure that as many Americans as possible have an opportunity to own their own home. We are figuring out ways that data can be leveraged to help address this problem. Finally, we are looking deeply at servicing data models and leveraging data to provide insights on many aspects of servicing both at a macro and micro level. Surprisingly, there is still a lot of manual effort in this area, and many servicers and master services struggle to, first, access data and, second, use data to enable better outcomes and decision making. So, a lot is going on. What are the things that keep you up at night? Clearly, there are many external industry factors having major influence right now. Interest rates, supply-chain issues, war in Ukraine. ese are already impacting, and there are recessionary pressures in the market now. I'd really like to see some coming together in the industry on property maintenance/management. Allowables have not kept pace with costs, which makes it difficult for homeowners and the industry to maintain properties well. Homeownership rates are declining, and the affordability gap is an issue. Credit scores carry too much weight in decision-making and determining affordability, and I think, as an industry, we could look at more factors. ere is a lot to ponder, but I'm an optimist by nature. We will continue to drive forward with our goals and vision for helping all stakeholders in servicing. David Wharton, Editor-in- Chief at the Five Star Institute, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, where he received his B.A. in English and minored in journalism. Wharton has nearly 20 years' experience in journalism and previously worked at omson Reuters, a multinational mass media and information firm, as Associate Content Editor, focusing on producing media content related to tax and accounting principles and government rules and regulations for accounting professionals. Wharton has an extensive and diversified portfolio of freelance material, with published contributions in both online and print media publications. He can be Cover Story By: David Wharton