Amid what has been a stream of just horrible industry news as of late, good news is out there — you just have to really look a bit for it. American Banker has a story from the August 13 print edition of National Mortgage News that covers the efforts of now-former senior executives from American Brokers Conduit, the wholesale channel run by now-bankrupt American Home Mortgage, to help find jobs for former employees. An excerpt from the story:
Lisa Schreiber, formerly an executive vice president of wholesale at the company, said in a call from her home in Virginia that she and others would like to see the 1,000-plus former wholesale staff find new jobs that ideally build on the team dynamic and skills they built up over the years at ABC. She said she and other ex-ABC senior managers — such as fellow wholesale executives Don Henig, Al Crisanty and Stephen Liotta — initially looked into trying to place themselves and their team as a whole but found it too difficult. So they decided to put their own job searches on hold to try and place former employees instead because “it felt like the right thing to do.” Ms. Schreiber said the group of former senior ABC staff, which also included former head recruiter Stephen Kerr and regional managers, was working hardest last week to help those who were in jobs where new positions have been most challenging to find, underwriters, closers and operations professionals. Account executives that are “well known” were finding some demand for their services last week, she said. But even for strong AEs it has been “tougher than a normal market,” Ms. Schreiber said.
The story goes on to discuss how employees have been reacting to the news, and how the company has been doing at least something to try to help its former employees (all did receive a paycheck last Tuesday despite the BK, the story says).