Lauren Garren is a valued leader and innovator at Freddie Mac. Under her leadership, the company’s structured transaction business increased sales by 121% in her first year alone and she produced 138% of her goal in 2018. One of the product offerings that Garren leads is Freddie Mac’s Revolving Credit Facility, a highly flexible, interest-only secured line of credit. Recently, Garren expanded this product offering to provide creative solutions for borrowers, including a unique “lease-up” solution to assist borrowers looking for short-term financing before the property is fully stabilized.
Garren has closed several transactions over the past year, including a recent transaction done in conjunction with Bridge Multifamily Fund Manager, an affiliate of Bridge Investment Group. She spearheaded a revolutionary financing vehicle designed to bring long-term, affordable rental housing to low-income and working families without relying solely on federal, state or municipal affordable housing programs. Through Garren’s program, Freddie Mac will purchase and aggregate up to $500 million in loans over a one-year period to allow Bridge to acquire, improve and preserve workforce and affordable housing stock.
Under Garren’s leadership, Freddie Mac is using its existing set of offerings, such as the Multi-Asset Commitment and the Revolving Credit Facility, in new and innovative ways to incentivize borrowers to voluntarily reduce or maintain rents at levels affordable to low- and moderate-income borrowers earning between 60% to 80% of the area median income.
Garren leads two distinct production and sales groups. First, she heads the structured transaction group, which works with Freddie Mac’s mortgage lenders and their borrowers to develop creative, innovative and unique financing structures that meet customer needs quickly and efficiently. Garren also leads production operations, where she manages areas such as internal and external performance goals and Freddie Mac’s signature Select Sponsor program. In this capacity, she is successfully leading a multi-year division-wide process improvement operation that has enhanced Freddie Mac’s customer experience.
Garren has been with Freddie Mac for 14 years and was previously handpicked to serve a term as the chief of staff to the CEO, helping to manage the strategy and direction of the company. She also held roles within the company in enterprise risk management and finance, working to support corporate objectives.
Garren is a passionate advocate for women at Freddie Mac and engages in one-on-one mentorship with junior-level women, imparting her wisdom and experience and helping them grow personally and professionally. She works to identify relevant opportunities for her team, leads team-building activities and looks for ways to expose her team to new experiences, opportunities and challenges.
