Leadership

Ronald (Ron) Leonhardt, Jr. is the CEO and founder of CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM), America’s #1 Retail Mortgage Lender. Since its founding in 2003, Ron has led CCM through steady, measurable growth while continuing to expand the company’s offering.

Ron and his leadership team oversee over 7,000 employees, driving an exceptional entrepreneurial culture grounded by passion, determination, integrity, community, and teamwork.

Ron is a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association, Washington, D.C., and Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association (Ohio MBA), Westerville, Ohio. He was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018, a Top Leader from the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2022, and made Crain’s Power 150 list in 2022.

Ron earned a Bachelor of Arts from Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, where he was a member of the football and track teams. In addition to overseeing the growth of CCM, Ron owns several iconic Northeast Ohio restaurants, brew pubs, and other establishments.

Jenn Stracensky is the Chief Operating Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage. She joined CCM in January 2012 as just the fifth member of its underwriting department. Today, she oversees a team of more than 300 production underwriters and is responsible for the company’s underwriting, processing, closing, post-closing, credit risk, corporate support, operations, training, and construction functions.

Jenn has played a pivotal role in developing administrative processes that have enabled CCM to achieve record growth by “getting it done” more efficiently and effectively for thousands of customers each month. She is also responsible for establishing the company’s industry-leading career development program, which has helped participants build successful careers in the mortgage industry.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec ac eros in ipsum malesuada auctor. Nunc nec pretium risus, a scelerisque nisl. In placerat ex sed ultrices varius. Mauris consectetur, libero et consectetur condimentum, velit nisi sollicitudin odio, et semper augue tellus vitae nulla. Nunc vel ex nunc.

Glen Lemeshev is the Chief Revenue Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage, bringing in the voice of the branches while providing exceptional services to borrowers and partners. He is responsible for financial planning, product development, and strategic partnerships. He oversees CCM’s FP&A Department (Financial Planning and Analysis), working closely with CCM’s sales leaders, operations, secondary, onboarding, and finance departments.

Glen has been in the mortgage industry since 2007. He started his career as a loan originator, quickly becoming a branch manager and eventually running his own small independent mortgage bank. His skills and experience range from being a top-producing loan officer and company owner to overseeing large multi-state organizations. He joined CCM in 2017 as a senior vice president and branch manager overseeing a team of 40. He thoroughly understands the fine balance between sales, relationship management, credit risk, operations, and finance.

As Chief Legal Counsel for CrossCountry Mortgage, Alex Ragon oversees the company’s litigation and plays important roles in acquisitions, risk management, and contract negotiations. Before joining CCM in 2014, he served as its lead outside counsel with a Northeast Ohio law firm.

Alex leads several teams within CCM, including human resources, licensing, payroll, vendor management, and the legal department.

He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ohio University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Akron School of Law.

Alex is licensed to practice law in Ohio and Florida.

Laura Soave is Chief Brand Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage and an award-winning marketing, communications, and brand executive with more than 25 years of global experience at Fortune 100 companies. She joined CCM in 2021.

Laura has extensive experience in key areas of corporate and brand strategy, multi-channel marketing, digital transformation, cultural transformation, executive advisement, communications, and investor relations. In her current role, she leads the development and implementation of brand strategy to support the next phase of the company’s ambitious national growth plan.

A native of Detroit, Laura previously worked in leadership roles for some of the nation’s largest automotive sales and manufacturing brands. She has been named to the Crain’s Detroit Business and DBusiness Magazine Women to Watch lists. She was also chosen as the Women in Auto Care Woman of the Year and received the Automotive Hall of Fame Young Leadership and Excellence Award.

Madhur Agarwal is the Chief Financial Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage. He oversees all aspects of the finance function, including business strategy, financial reporting, planning and analysis, mergers and acquisitions, treasury and cash management, and capital markets.

Before joining CCM, Madhur was an investment professional at Radcliff Management, an approximately $2 billion private equity firm in New York City, where he sourced, evaluated, and executed privately negotiated investments in operating businesses across the technology, consumer, and financial services industries.

Previously, Madhur worked as an investment professional at Crescent Capital Group, an approximately $40 billion global investment firm, where he focused on private equity investments across various industries.

He began his career in investment banking at Citigroup. Madhur holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rob Sampson is the Executive Vice President of CrossCountry Mortgage. He joined the company in 2018 after launching bemortgage, a bank-owned retail mortgage provider that was acquired by CCM.

Rob’s responsibilities include strategic oversight of retail sales, recruiting, secondary marketing, investor relations, and IT. He began his mortgage career as a loan originator with Guaranteed Rate. Over the next 12 years, his responsibilities were expanded to include that company’s customer call center, secondary marketing operations, post-closing, warehouse lines, closing, underwriting, and IT. Under his direction as chief operating officer, Guaranteed Rate developed the industry’s first digital mortgage application, enabling consumers to manage the mortgage process entirely online. He was later integral to the development and launch of CCM’s digital mortgage portal.

Rebecca Blabolil is the Chief Compliance Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage. She has over 12 years of consumer financial regulatory experience and previously served as Chief Compliance Officer at a top 10 retail mortgage company for over a decade.

As an experienced leader known for delivering results, Rebecca helps CCM’s executive leadership drive strategy and continue to grow the business in an ever-evolving regulatory environment. She’s responsible for managing the overall direction of the compliance and quality control functions, finding ways to grow the department’s expertise while partnering with the business to identify practical solutions to compliance requirements.

Rebecca partners closely with Barb Voytek, CCM’s Chief Audit Officer, to align compliance controls with regulator expectations.

Joseph Platek III is Chief Strategy Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage, a position he has held since 2018. He joined the company in 2015 as director of business intelligence and project management and was appointed executive vice president, strategic initiatives in 2016.

Joe oversees the execution of a variety of high-level strategic projects and portions of the technology, decision sciences, and support organizations. He is deeply involved in mergers and acquisitions, large capital projects, recruiting of top-performing loan officers, and collection, analysis, and dissemination of business, and industry intelligence.

Prior to joining CCM, Joe was vice president, business process improvement for the operations and technology unit of FirstMerit Bank. Other past roles include vice president and portfolio manager, PNC Bank, and senior systems engineer, business intelligence, Progressive Corporation.

Brett Schiffer is the Chief Credit Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage, responsible for structuring the company’s interest rates, developing new products, and pricing and overseeing capital market strategies and risk assessment. He joined CCM as a loan originator and sales leader in 2005, was appointed senior vice president, capital markets in 2011, and became chief credit officer in 2015.

As part of his role, Brett oversees a team of more than 120, including CCM’s collateral, review and loan delivery, the lock desk, the product development team, and capital markets departments. He also works closely with CCM’s post-closing and loss mitigation teams.

Since 2011, Brett has helped increase CCM’s annual lending volume from approximately $400 million to more than $53 billion in 2021.

Brett started his lending career as a loan originator for UC Lending. After this role, he served as a wholesale account executive at Accredited Home Lenders, including working as the company representative for CCM.

Dean Thevaos is the Chief Technology Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage. He is responsible for setting CCM’s technology vision and strategy and leading the organization in the execution of that strategy. This includes next-generation solutions designed to help customers better understand their loan options, provide easy access to credit and mortgage information and create a more efficient lending process.

Dean and his team are also charged with developing best-in-class software for CCM loan officers and support staff to bring speed, efficiency, and transparency to the lending process.

Throughout his career, Dean has been motivated to help consumers achieve their financial goals through leading-edge technology, whether in purchasing their dream home, better understanding their credit status or finding options to address their immediate financial needs. His success in this mission has led to recognition as a Person to Watch in the Greater Charlotte area by Ballantyne Magazine.

Barbara Voytek is the Chief Compliance and Audit Officer of CrossCountry Mortgage, with responsibility for the compliance management team, fair and responsible lending, policies and procedures, all agency approvals, federal and state examinations, branch compliance, internal audit and quality control. She has been with CCM since 2009.

Barb brings more than 35 years of experience in the mortgage sector. She began her career in 1980, working in a leadership capacity with a focus on operations, secondary marketing, and compliance.