Following other recent moves from the government-sponsored enterprises to the private sector, former Fannie Mae Head of Digital Products Henry Cason announced his move to FinLocker, a consumer-permissioned personal financial assistance tool.
Cason will serve as CEO and succeed the company’s cofounder and CEO Peter Esparrago, who will become FinLocker’s executive chairman and will continue to lead key strategic business relationships.
This move comes after Cason spent 27 years at Fannie Mae, where he was instrumental in the design, development and launch of a digital suite of products and services, including playing a key role in the creation of Desktop Underwriter.
So why change direction now? Cason explained in an exclusive interview with HousingWire that he is looking for his next challenge.
“The main reason why I decided to leave Fannie Mae was, a couple things: One, I’ve had a very long career there, and loved my time with Fannie Mae,” Cason said. “I’ve spent more than half my life at Fannie Mae, and it’s a great company. But for me…I need to always be consistently challenging myself and growing my skills. No matter how high up you are in the company, you always want to make yourself better and get better, and I probably felt that I was getting a little stagnant. I felt like I probably did everything I needed to do with Fannie Mae.”
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Cason explained that FinLocker will work directly with housing professionals to offer more data and consumer education tools for those who want to buy a home.
“I see FinLocker as a customer for life application, and it’s blending the power of your personal data with the power of education and putting those two together,” he said. “So when you are looking for a mortgage (and that could be today, it could be two years from now) there are tools in FinLocker that get you ready so there’s going to be a much better level of certainty when you go to get that mortgage.”
He explained that as consumers use the tool to prepare their finances to get a mortgage, loan officers will also be able to see at a glance if the consumer is ready, simplifying the mortgage application process.
This move is just the latest in a series of GSE executives taking positions in the private sector. Earlier this week, Fannie Mae’s former head of single family lending Andrew Bon Salle was named chairman of the board of Home Point Capital.
And at the end of 2020, Freddie Mac CEO David Brickman announced he would step down from his position after just over one year on the job, effective Jan. 8.
Back in 2019, Former Fannie Mae CEO Tim Mayopoulos was named president of Blend, a digital lending company.
