Chris Marshall, the former Mr. Cooper executive who was serving as Sagent's chairman, has added the CEO title at the mortgage servicing technology company.

Geno Paluso, who had taken the CEO job after Marshall first became chairman, will become vice chairman and serve as a senior advisor during a transition period, a press release said.

Marshall's LinkedIn profile says he served as Mr. Cooper's vice chairman from January 2019 until this past December. He was president of the company until January 2024; around this time is when he became the executive chairman at Sagent. A year ago, Marshall was appointed to head Mr. Cooper's Xome business.

The ties between Mr. Cooper and Sagent

At the start of the fourth quarter, Rocket completed its purchase of Mr. Cooper.

The initial announcement set off a game of musical chairs in servicing. UWM ended its subservicing relationship with Mr. Cooper and then it announced plans to bring the function in-house using ICE Mortgage Technology's MSP. UWM subsequently entered into a deal to buy Two Harbors as part of this change.

Meanwhile, Rocket is moving its servicing onto Sagent's platform, in which Mr. Cooper held a 20% interest.

Marshall's focus as Sagent CEO

Marshall's task will be to implement Sagent's Dara servicing platform at scale, while running the day-to-day operations. Dara was displayed at the Innovation Challenge during the Digital Mortgage 2025 conference.

"As a Sagent board leader since 2022, my primary focus has been to ensure Sagent had world-class leaders like Geno Paluso, and the long-term resources needed to build the industry's top mortgage servicing technology team and platform," Marshall said in the press release.

"We've been extremely fortunate to have Geno's leadership during the build phase of Dara," Marshall added, noting that technology and innovation expertise Paluso helped cultivate at Sagent will help provide customer continuity during the implementation phase.

Among Marshall's previous roles was as chief finance officer of Capital Bank Financial, chief restructuring officer at Ally, CFO for Fifth Third, as well as executive positions at Bank of America.

In February 2024, Paluso replaced former CEO and President Dan Sogorka, who is now the general manager at Rocket Pro.

Other mortgage company leadership changes

Some other mortgage industry C-suite executive changes took place at the start of 2026.

Jenn Folk, the chief operating officer of Kind Lending, is becoming the company's president, as Yvonne Ketchum transitions into "semi-retirement" as its president emeritus/executive advisor, a company press release said.

In her new role, Ketchum will focus on growing Kind's non-qualified mortgage lending business.

"I am grateful to have been part of it from the very beginning, and I am excited to continue supporting the Non-QM business in this next chapter," Ketchum said in a press release. 

Prior to Kind Lending, Ketchum spent over 15 years working with company founder Glenn Stearns at Stearns Lending.

"Yvonne's impact on Kind is immeasurable," said Stearns, adding that the company is "grateful she will continue to share her expertise in a part-time role."

Folk was at Stearns Lending from July 2013 through November 2017, her LinkedIn profile said. She had executive roles at a number of other companies, including Planet Home Lending and Sierra Pacific Mortgage before joining Kind in April 2025.

Other recent changes at Kind include naming Brent Stubbs chief financial officer and Delfino Aguilar chief production officer.

Meanwhile, Meridianlink has hired Raj Patel as chief technology officer.

Patel served as the executive in residence for research and development for Permira, a global private and growth equity firm with more than $80 billion in assets under management.

Other past positions include working at Genesys, Symantec, Pinterest, Salesforce, Cisco/Webex and Yahoo.

"With Raj's leadership, we will accelerate innovation of Meridianlink's smarter, connected and future-ready digital lending platform," said Larry Katz, CEO and president in a press release.

Finance of America has hired Angela Tribelli as chief marketing officer.

"Her expertise in reshaping brands, architecting digital engagement, and driving growth across some of the world's most influential media and consumer companies will be invaluable," said FOA President Kristen Sieffert in a press release.

Tribelli's most recent position was as global head of consumer marketing and growth at Bloomberg Media. She also worked at AMC Networks, Food52 and HarperCollins Publishers.

The company recently received an investment from Blue Owl Capital.