Benjamin Rempe
Dayton
Summary
Dynamic C-Suite Executive with a demonstrated ability to drive substantial revenue growth through strategic leadership. Proven success in building and managing high-performing teams, raising millions in equity, and securing hundreds of millions in debt financing. Specializes in designing scalable business models that attract strategic investors, leveraging an extensive network to create new opportunities.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Founder and CEO
Rebel Structured Finance
09.2021 - Current
- Company Overview: Rebel is a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) created to provide credit unions with the opportunity to monetize their real estate assets, invest in above market rate fixed income investments and create pipelines of investment grade commercial loans
- Founded coming out of LenderClose with the intention of reinvesting proceeds from the sale of the company back into the credit union movement
- Conceptualized this business plan with the idea that a credit union sells a branch at the end of its useful life and thus gets the bottom dollar for the value of the building
- By utilizing a sale-leaseback transaction, a credit union can sell the building at its highest value – the beginning of a lease-term – exit when it desires without having to worry about selling the building
- The building will be more valuable in the hands of a real estate group who will be able to either lease it to another financial institution, rehab the building, release it, then either hold the new lease or sell
- If the credit union desired, they would have the ability to 'buy-back' into the building as a minority stakeholder or make the commercial loan on the building
- Rebel is a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) created to provide credit unions with the opportunity to monetize their real estate assets, invest in above market rate fixed income investments and create pipelines of investment grade commercial loans
- Founded coming out of LenderClose with the intention of reinvesting proceeds from the sale of the company back into the credit union movement
President
myCUmortgage
05.2024 - 09.2024
- Company Overview: Mortgage originator empowering credit unions to excel in mortgage lending and offer comprehensive solutions, including loan originations, processing, underwriting, loan servicing, and access to secondary markets
- Hired to bring company reliant on economic conditions into a position where they could control their own destiny
- Uncovered data and metrics which identified the transformation would require a reallocation of assets from operating units and major investments in technology, marketing and sales business units
- Urgency of now mindset and asked for a culture of controlling what you can control
- A lack of mutual purpose and clearly defined expectations with the board cut this engagement short despite great progress
- Developed impact metric dashboard which pointed to massive opportunity gaps myCUmortgage could immediately address
- Launched exploratory Loan Origination System conversion project which included borrower, loan officer and employee journey mapping
- The impact of this project would have resulted in borrowers completing applications 90% faster and underwriter productivity increasing 5-10x
- Designated and entrusted the marketing team to begin a Marketing RFP to scale myCUmortgage’s first B2C marketing campaigns
- By directly taking control of marketing directly to consumers, myCUmortgage will be able to directly impact the number of applications coming into the front-end of the sales funnel which will result in more closed loans and increased revenue
- Reimagined CUSelect product offering by developing a business plan which would have increased loan production by 40% simply by more closely partnering with smaller credit unions, providing them resources and focusing them on the benefits of mortgage lending
- Expanded personal relationships with Partner Credit Unions and Vendors by visiting with them in their buildings, having dinners, phone conversation and strategic email conversations
- This effort resulted in deeper conversations, new partnership opportunities and had laid the foundation for the major initiatives listed above to pull-through
- Mortgage originator empowering credit unions to excel in mortgage lending and offer comprehensive solutions, including loan originations, processing, underwriting, loan servicing, and access to secondary markets
SVP
National Cooperative Bank
05.2023 - 05.2024
- Company Overview: The National Cooperative Bank (NCB) is a boutique financial institution
- It's dedicated to providing banking products and solutions to cooperatives and other member-owned organizations including credit unions, affordable housing initiatives, renewable energy, small businesses, and nonprofit sectors
- Their mission is to help communities thrive by operating for the benefit of cooperative members, not outside investors
- Provided leadership and direction to NCB’s primary deposit vertical, Iowa’s credit unions
- Deep understanding of Federal banking regulations and NCB internal policy resulted in nearly $200mm additional deposits for the bank at a time when industry-wide, deposits were down
- Extensive networks of credit unions and brokers led to identifying and closing two subordinated debt transactions in my first six months
- These transactions are rare and hard to source without the right connections
- Renegotiated contract with key partner
- Current state was NCB paid the partner a flat amount every year regardless of performance
- The outcome was NCB would now pay the partner based on performance and the outcomes aligned the partnership on growth as opposed to maintaining status quo
- The National Cooperative Bank (NCB) is a boutique financial institution
- It's dedicated to providing banking products and solutions to cooperatives and other member-owned organizations including credit unions, affordable housing initiatives, renewable energy, small businesses, and nonprofit sectors
- Their mission is to help communities thrive by operating for the benefit of cooperative members, not outside investors
COO
Coviance (Previously: LenderClose)
02.2018 - 08.2021
- Company Overview: Specializing in automating lending processes
- Their platform helps community banks and credit unions streamline loan origination, improve compliance management, and enhance the borrower’s experience
- Aiming to provide lenders with the tools they need to effectively compete while maintaining a mission-driven approach to financial inclusion
- Designed the strategy and business plan for taking a product which had found a niche product fit into a full vertical
- With a forward-looking approach LenderClose grew from a three-person, thirty partner company to a 75-person, 310 partner company in less than three years
- The sustainable business model was built upon scalable business processes, attracting, hiring and retaining top talent across business units and an unyielding culture of accountability
- Conceived, structured and established sales strategy and processes which grew revenue from $30,000 per month to over $1,000,000 – 30x increase
- Including closing one of the Top 5 largest credit unions in the country and more than 10 of the top 50
- Immediately closed a Series A capital round upon hire, which fueled the initial spike of growth
- This growth spurred other large strategic investors to take notice and indicated interest in Series B
- The development of a future-vision business plan, company valuation and capital campaign happened shortly after resulting in the next major spike in growth
- In total, $11.4mm was raised in Series A & B funding rounds
- Headed daily and strategic operations
- Hired, shared the vision, delegated authority and lead high performing sales, marketing, finance, operations, vendor management and human resources teams
- Specializing in automating lending processes
- Their platform helps community banks and credit unions streamline loan origination, improve compliance management, and enhance the borrower’s experience
- Aiming to provide lenders with the tools they need to effectively compete while maintaining a mission-driven approach to financial inclusion
Vice President of Business Development ('12-'18)
Director of Business Development ('10-'12)
Affiliates Management Company
04.2010 - 02.2018
- Company Overview: Wholly owned subsidiary of the Iowa Credit Union League. AMC provides shared services for a family of companies and was the holding company of TMG Financial Services and Community Business Lenders
- The focus on improving efficiencies and creating opportunities through collaboration and shared resources
- Reversed a negative growth trend in the credit portfolio by building and maintaining relationships with strategic partners
- The result of shifting the relationship model to a value-based delivery method was to more than double the size of the portfolio
- Developed funding strategies to facilitate collective growth
- The number of credit unions participating in the funding of the credit portfolio was concentrated in the state of Iowa
- Through a rigorous process of networking and leveraging broker relationships the funding network was diversified
- As the portfolio grew, the access to funding sources did as well
- Total borrowings at time of sale exceeded $200mm and total borrowed over the course of the program was nearly $1 billion
- Slashed cost of funds through the Collateralized Advance Program (CAP) and CU Structured Finance
- Benchmarked the funding rate to a yield-curve similar to what an investor could receive from CD investing
- Overtime the margin was compressed significantly
- Managing director of wholly owned subsidiary, Credit Union Structured Finance
- CUSF was a niche funding raising, financial structuring and collateral monitoring company which would work on transactions such as mortgage warehouse likes of credit, commercial lending loan syndication and collateral reviews
- It arose out of TMGFS’s core competency of raising money from credit unions
- Exited to Elan, a subsidiary of USBank
Director of Business Development
Community Business Lenders
08.2010 - 04.2012
- Company Overview: Commercial lending company credited to be an outlet for credit unions who could not offer commercial loans to their members but wanted to be able to provide their members with a credit union option
- Their mission is to fuel community improvement by offering tailored financial resources for commercial lending needs
- Organized lending syndicate and sold loan participations to financial institutions across the Midwest
- Coming out of the financial crisis credit unions were apprehensive to participate in commercial loans
- Through a meticulous process of meeting one on one with every credit union in CBL’s network 100% of approved loans were funded
- Developed commercial loan opportunities by actively seeking high-quality, highly visible opportunities
- Previous state was leads would come through the network of credit unions
- This new tactic led to new borrowers coming into the ecosystem, higher quality loan opportunities and more visibility into local communities
- Trained front-line credit union employees in the basics of Member Business Lending
- Growth needed to continue to come from credit union partners, training their front-line staff in the basics of how to identify potential opportunities, how to screen the information and set up the process would lead to more loans coming from credit union partners
- Credit unions also paid to have their employees attend the class, it created a non-interest source of income for the business
- Commercial lending company credited to be an outlet for credit unions who could not offer commercial loans to their members but wanted to be able to provide their members with a credit union option
- Their mission is to fuel community improvement by offering tailored financial resources for commercial lending needs
Branch Manager
Regions Bank
01.2009 - 01.2010
- Worked cross-functionally to plan and establish branch goals, supporting strategic objectives.
- During the first quarter as Branch Manager, closed more consumer loans than in the previous two years combined.
- Ranked number 1 in annuity sales.
Branch Manager
HSBC
01.2003 - 01.2009
- Division Branch Manager of the Year.
- Developed sales and marketing plans that led to $32,000,000 in new receivables.
- Led the sales team to 124% of the growth goal and 2,200 mortgage and consumer loans.
- Appointed to the Learning Council, a premier assignment that introduced a standardized national sales strategy to 1,500 branches across the footprint.
- Successfully hired and retained a top sales staff, resulting in no unexpected, unfilled vacancies.
Education
MBA -
University of Iowa - Henry B. Tippie College of Business
B.A. - Marketing - Banking – Finance
University of Nebraska at Omaha
A.A. - Business Administration
Hutchinson Community College
Skills
- Leadership
- Team Building
- Revenue Growth
- Strategic Planning
- Investor Relations
- Data and Analytics
- Scaling Businesses
- Fundraising
- Strategic Partnerships
- Metric-driven Management
- Corporate Transformation
- Network & Influence
Boards
- Canadarm Lending Services, Board Member, 01/19, 06/23
- Orchard Place, Foundation Board Member, 01/15, 09/22
Timeline
President
myCUmortgage
05.2024 - 09.2024
SVP
National Cooperative Bank
05.2023 - 05.2024
Founder and CEO
Rebel Structured Finance
09.2021 - Current
COO
Coviance (Previously: LenderClose)
02.2018 - 08.2021
Director of Business Development
Community Business Lenders
08.2010 - 04.2012
Vice President of Business Development ('12-'18)
Director of Business Development ('10-'12)
04.2010 - 02.2018
Branch Manager
Regions Bank
01.2009 - 01.2010
Branch Manager
HSBC
01.2003 - 01.2009
MBA -
University of Iowa - Henry B. Tippie College of Business
B.A. - Marketing - Banking – Finance
University of Nebraska at Omaha
A.A. - Business Administration
Hutchinson Community College
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