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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 46 November 2024 E X P E R T I N S I G H T S S tanley C. Middleman serves as the President and CEO of Free- dom Mortgage Corporation, one of the largest and fastest-growing independent mortgage companies in the country. He is a nationally recognized business strategist, investor, and philan- thropist with over 30 years of experience in the mortgage banking industry. Since founding Freedom Mortgage in 1990, Middleman has grown the company into one of the nation's largest non-bank mortgage lenders/servicers and a top VA and FHA (government-insured) lender. Middleman is an active member of the MBA, where he serves on the MBA Board of Directors and previously on the MBA Residential Board of Gover- nors. He has also served on numerous advisory boards in the mortgage in- dustry, including the boards of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ellie Mae. He is currently a member of the Housing Policy Executive Council. At Freedom, Middleman has priori- tized philanthropic efforts across multiple fronts. Established in 2013, Freedom Cares provides Freedom Mortgage employees, family members, friends, and customers with information on activities that benefit local communities, as well as active duty, reserve, and veterans of all branches of the military. Freedom Cares also encourages employees to take action for the better- ment of their communities. Since 2017, Freedom Mortgage has focused on four main philanthropic cam- paigns. The company runs a Holiday Toy Drive throughout the month of Novem- ber. In early December, employees will volunteer at "Angel Tree Shops" at some Salvation Army locations to help parents and caretakers shop for gifts. • 2012 - Toy Drive began • 2013 - Rucksacks to Backpacks began • 2015 - Food collection drive began • 2017 - Project Gratitude began As a top VA lender, Middleman and Freedom are focused on supporting nonprofits that benefit veterans and active-duty service members, including relationships with the USO, Salvation Army, and Home for Our Troops. The company also supports MBA's Opens Doors Foundation. Middleman and his family also established the Middleman Family Pavilion, the second hospital for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, to serve those in the suburbs. Middleman also supports Temple (his alma mater), the Kimmel Center in Philly and the Philadelphia Art Museum. Q: Tell me about how you first started in the industry and what put you on the path that has taken you along this professional road to where you are now. Well, I needed to make a living, right? So, when you need a job, you get up and you go do something. I had been selling annuities, which is an insurance invest- ment vehicle. Interest rates were high, and it was easy to sell investments when you were giving a 15% return. But as interest rates began to come back down in the early '80s, it became increasingly more difficult to sell annuities as an investment. I decided that the inverse relationship of investing was lending or borrowing. I initially got involved in mortgages as a way to fund annuities because people's values of their homes had gone way up. So, they had an opportunity to borrow money out of their homes to find money to invest, because the hard part about SEEING AROUND CORNERS WITH STANLEY C. MIDDLEMAN B y DAV I D W H A R T O N MortgagePoint speaks with Freedom Mortgage's President and CEO about his career, his new biography, and his insights into the "tidal nature of the economy."