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Danya Sawyer, Interim CEO, Altisource Asset Management Corporation
Altisource Asset Management Corporation (AAMC) has announced the resignation of its CEO Jason A. Kopcak. Danya Sawyer, COO of Altisource’s Alternative Lending Group, has been tapped to serve as Interim CEO of AAMC.
“We remain committed to the mortgage space,” said Altisource Chairman of the Board Ricardo Byrd. “As the Board considers potential replacements, we have appointed Danya Sawyer, Chief Operating Officer of Alternative Lending Group, the company’s principal operating subsidiary, to serve as Interim CEO of AAMC.”
As COO of Altisource’s Alternative Lending Group, Sawyer helped build and oversee operations across all product lines to support the Alternative Lending Group’s growing market share. She led the company in helping real estate investors and developers by providing a more modern, equitable, and helpful path to capital than traditional lenders.
As Interim CEO of AAMC, Sawyer brings more than 20 years of successful strategic leadership within operations, capital markets, product management, and compliance across multiple origination channels.
Prior to joining Altisource, Sawyer served as SVP, Client Solutions at Consolidated Analytics, overseeing originator assessments and enterprise-wide due diligence on behalf of institutional investors offering warehouse financing solutions, whole loan acquisitions, and securitization options within agency, non-agency, non-QM, and business purpose lending. Sawyer also spent time at Countrywide, initially operating in various pricing and operational roles before developing a de novo broker to banker channel. After growing that channel to a run rate of more than $1 billion in monthly production, she was promoted to various senior management positions at Countrywide/Bank of America.
In 2014, Sawyer was named one of the industry’s top mortgage professionals under the age of 35 by The M Report, and she earned her degree in international economics from UC Berkeley, where she was selected as an NCAA Academic All-American.
As announced during AAMC’s recent Earnings Call, the Board of Directors mandated a review of the company’s mortgage platform to improve the performance of the business. This review involved assessments of operational efficiency and capacity issues, opportunities for cost reductions, strategies for improving liquidity, among other initiatives, all with a view toward enhancing financial performance. While improvements continue, this review is now completed. The AAMC has already made significant progress in reducing costs and streamlining operations, including the following:
- An across-the-board employee right-sizing, considerably reducing annual payroll costs
- Shuttering the company’s Tampa, Florida facility, and absorbing functions previously undertaken at that location into operating subsidiaries
- Reducing expenditures for third-party professional services
- Reducing reliance on short-term lines of credit
- Cash and cash equivalents at the company are currently $16.5 million
- Credit lines have been reduced to $20.2 million
- The current loan portfolio consists of $37.1 million in unpaid principal balance
“Our restructuring and cost reduction efforts are well underway,” Chairman Byrd said. “These are pivotal steps forward which we believe will facilitate a sustainable mortgage operation.”
AAMC acquires, originates, and manages mortgage loans, mortgage-backed securities, and equity investments in underserved markets. AAMC works to employ capital light operating strategies that have historically been implemented across a variety of industry sectors, ranging from REIT management and title insurance and reinsurance, to private loan acquisition, origination, and disposition.
