To make an impact more widely, Brown serves on the board of the FinServ Foundation, a nonprofit that offers mentorship programs, educational resources and community initiatives tailored for future financial advisers. “Students may know they want a career in this industry, but I believe that FinServ provides the guidance and tools needed to be successful,” she says. Brown cites a study by mentoring technology company MentorCliQ showing that more than 84 percent of Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. use mentoring programs, and mentorship programs are available at 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies with female CEOs. “I cite this report often because it shows how top companies can unleash the untapped value in mentorship,” she says. Overcoming Hesitation McDougall has benefited from formal and informal mentors during her career in the mortgage business. Now, as CEO of reverse mortgage subservicing provider Celink, McDougall prefers an informal approach. “I definitely am a big believer in figuring out what works best for people,” she says. She also is working to figure out what works best in a post-pandemic environment where more people than ever are working remotely. Celink’s workforce is 99 percent remote, a situation she acknowledges has benefited women in leadership roles if they have families. Rising to the Top continued on page 22 Melinda Hipp, CRMP Area Sales Manager, Mutual of Omaha Reverse Mortgage Melinda Hipp Melinda Hipp, CRMP, was born in Texas and has lived in San Antonio since 1992. “I studied music in college, then went onto earn a master’s degree in arts administration and an MBA,” Hipp says. “My whole plan growing up was to have a career in the music performance industry.” She worked for several nonprofits in San Antonio, where she had moved for her husband’s music career before meeting someone in the forward mortgage world. “I felt it was a job I could do well and one where I could use my MBA,” she says. Reverse mortgages in Texas were not available until the late 1990s or early 2000s. “My mortgage coach at the time was encouraging me to have a niche. His niche was subprime. I did not have an interest in that. But I liked working with older people, and that led me to reverse mortgages,” Hipp adds. “It was a need. It was something people wanted, and there weren’t many other people doing it.” In fact, she says there was really no one in Texas to learn from. “So, I went on my own to a NRMLA conference in Denver and really enjoyed the people I met there,” Hipp recalls. “I went back to my mortgage company and told them this is what I would really like to do.” They thought it would be a good idea, but she would be the only one doing reverse loans. The mortgage company was eventually sold to a bank that ended the reverse business. “I wanted to keep doing them, so I went to another company and opened a branch that did both forward and reverse mortgages,” she says. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she made the jump to Mutual of Omaha. “They wanted somebody to grow their reverse business in Texas,” Hipp adds. “We now have a team of 19 covering Texas and Oklahoma.” REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY–AUGUST 2023 21
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ1MzY1