Profile
“As I advanced in my career, I created a game plan of what I wanted to accomplish both personally and professionally as well as where I wanted to expand my skill set.”
Cristy Ward,
Mortgage Connect
Cristy Ward is the Chief Strategy Officer for Mortgage Connect. She did not initially plan on getting into the mortgage industry, but she did manage to lay a strong foundation.
“I took the first five years of my mortgage banking career and really learned the industry inside and out. I learned production, processing, underwriting and post-closing,” says Ward. “This allowed me to be very knowledgeable and effective as I navigated my career. As I advanced in my career, I created a game plan of what I wanted to accomplish both personally and professionally as well as where I wanted to expand my skill set.”
Her game plan set her up well to tackle industry challenges, such as navigating today’s mortgage landscape. With mortgage forecasts being wildly off over the past five years, Ward has had to comprehend the space on many different levels, such as origination, default and capital markets, and adapt strategy, products and technology accordingly. Regardless, she says the challenges make every day exciting.
600 Clubhouse Drive, Moon Twp, PA 15108
(423) 956 1898
cward@mortgageconnectlp.com
linkedin.com/in/cristy-ward-632a3a9
mortgageconnectlp.com
Cristy Ward
Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer
Mortgage Connect
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Bio
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Bio
Milestones
“I work hard because I have always believed success is not a destination but a journey and one you have to earn every day in all you do.”
Cristy Ward,
Mortgage Connect
2000–2004
2004–2011
2020–2022
Present
2022
Vice President of National Accounts at Stewart Title
2000–
2004
Executive Vice President of Sales at National Real Estate Information Services
2004–
2011
2020–2021: HousingWire Women of Influence
2021–2022: #NEXT Powerhouse Partner
2022: Most Powerful Women in Mortgage Banking
2020–
2022
Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Mortgage Connect since 2012
President and Founder of the Women Empowering Women Council since 2019
Present
Elected as Board Director of Insurtech Australia
2022
Assistant Vice President and Senior Broker at MJ Hall & Company since 2018
Present
Milestones
Aug 2022
Milestones
Sept 2021
Feb 2022
Apr 2022
Jul 2022
Aug
2022
Suncorp Bank introduces Solar Home Bonus offer for customers who are choosing renewable energy for their homes
Sept 2021
Month-on-month market share growth commences
Feb 2022
Suncorp Bank wins the Canstar award for most outstanding value in investment loans
Apr 2022
Suncorp Bank wins Money Magazine’s Bank of the Year and Business Bank of the Year awards for the fifth year in a row
Jul 2022
Suncorp Bank’s turnaround times are the lowest they have ever been. The lender becomes Australia’s first certified carbon neutral bank for both its operation and transaction services
Aug 2022
Milestones
In addition, Ward has distinguished herself by forming the non-profit Women Empowering Women in Financial Services (WEWFS).
“It was clear to me that female executives and leaders in the mortgage industry had an appetite for more peer-to-peer collaboration,” she says. “I founded WEWFS and was able to bring these executive females together. What we have accomplished as a group has been tremendous and the impact the organization has made is humbling. Our mission is to support one another through peer-to-peer collaboration and help women succeed both internally and externally at their organizations. Our goal is to expand the boardroom to have more females at the table, create an atmosphere of diversity and inclusion, and establish the building blocks for future generations of women to be empowered in the workplace – and together we have been able to accomplish these goals.”
Ward says her strongest professional quality is that customers trust her and look to her as a thought leader. She takes this responsibility seriously and sets out each day to do what she says she will do. For her, trust is an integral part of success. Client trust helps remove hurdles, employee trust facilitates customer service, and team trust enables better execution.
“I am thankful – very thankful – to be part of an industry that is always evolving, thankful to be part of an amazing company at Mortgage Connect, and thankful that I can give back to others in the work I do in our industry,” she says. “I work hard because I have always believed success is not a destination but a journey and one you have to earn every day in all you do. You will experience failures and that is to be expected. Your most successful people can speak to failure; it’s unrealistic for anyone to have a 100% success rate. In the end, it’s about how you recover and learn from those failures, and most importantly, the attitude you do it with. That can make you better every single day.”