Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a diversified mortgage services company, named Arleen Scavone as chief operations officer. In this newly created position, Scavone will be responsible for the large client operations of the fast-growing company based in the Dallas area.
She is an expert in operational management, technology and business development for large organizations. Prior to joining Wingspan, she was founder and remains president of OpExNow, a process improvement and management consultancy serving major lenders and servicers in the mortgage industry. Her clients include Bank of America, Morgan Stanley/Saxon Mortgage, Wells Fargo Mortgage, Redwood Trust, Stonegate Mortgage, LPS and Wingspan Portfolio Advisors.
Before founding OpExNow in 2009, she worked in senior management positions for several institutions, including 10 years at Washington Mutual, where she served as senior vice president and national operations manager and later senior vice president and national sales manager for the retail bank channel. Scavone started in the business as a loan processor with the Weyerhaeuser Mortgage unit of building giant Pardee Homes in 1979, where she spent 11 years, rising to vice president and regional sales manager. She has performed virtually every job in mortgage lending during her distinguished career, including leading national sales teams and managing operations staffs numbering over 4,200 employees in 39 locations.
“At about 2,000 team members, Wingspan is a midsize organization by Arleen’s experience, but we are growing very rapidly,” said Steven Horne, chief executive officer and president of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. Wingspan acquired two operations from JPMorgan Chase in 2013, adding over 800 employees to its ranks in Melbourne, Florida and Monroe, Louisiana. “Arleen will be a great addition as we continue to diversify and expand, both geographically and with new business lines. She brings tremendous experience and a great track record of achieving high performance with large institutions and national operations. An executive of her stature is tailor made for Wingspan at this stage of our growth.”
“I was very familiar with Wingspan Portfolio Advisors since they were a client of mine, and have watched them grow for years to become an innovative leader in multiple sectors of the mortgage business,” said Scavone. “Steve Horne and his team have built a remarkable company that has truly become ‘the industry’s wingman’ in virtually every aspect of the business. Though a lifelong Californian, I look forward to working in Dallas to help the company with its exciting plans for the future.”
This is the second high profile hiring in recent months for Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. In November, the company brought in another Californian, industry veteran Susan Pettem as executive vice president for business development, also a newly created position.
“Wingspan is grateful to the Golden State for sending us these gifted executives,” said Horne. “California’s loss is a great gain for Texas and Wingspan.”