Cara Passarella has been at the forefront of innovation in HELOC lending, playing a critical part in the rapid growth of the Achieve HELOC business as Head of Mortgage Operations. Passarella has overseen several industry innovations for HELOC origination quality, yielding four successful AAA-rated’ securitizations of new HELOCs in the capital markets.
Passarella has simplified the HELOC origination process, reducing average turn time on loan files by half in the last 12 months, while overseeing continually increasing the productivity of her team and maintaining exceptional customer satisfaction scores for the business. She has helped to grow the organization and has brought over 40 years of experience in mortgage and underwriting operations to Achieve’s relatively new business line.
Passarella is a hands-on leader who has mentored several new leaders in the Achieve HELOC business, giving some their first opportunity as a manager overseeing a team. Passarella is always attentive to her team members and strikes the right balance between oversight and empowerment.
Prior to Achieve, Passarella was the head of operations and credit risk at Heartland Financial Mortgage, overseeing a team of more than 300 operational team members. She has a deep understanding of scaling operations and flex to meet the changing demands in the industry.
Name:
Cara Passarella
Title:
Director, Underwriting
Company Name:
Achieve
