- DSNews - https://dsnews.com -

Sara Avery Joins Cenlar as Chief Risk Officer

Mortgage subservicer and federally chartered wholesale bank Cenlar FSB [1] has announced that Sara Avery has joined the company as Chief Risk Officer (CRO).

“Sara has an impressive background, and we are excited she will be spearheading our risk management efforts,” said Cenlar Chairman of the Board, CEO and President Greg Tornquist [2]. “Under Sara’s leadership, she will use her expertise to enhance and identify opportunities in our current risk framework.”

Prior to joining Cenlar, Sara was the Chief Risk Officer for Common Securitization (CSS) [3], a financial technology joint venture that supports back office securitization for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs). CSS is one of the largest mortgage securitization services in the industry, and in her role, she developed and built out the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) function, including implementation of risk policies and standards, RCSA, KRIs and monitoring and first line management testing. She also partnered with business teams across the organization to identify risks and formalize controls that were fundamental in preparing for the implementation of the Uniform Mortgage Back Security (UMBS) in 2019.

“I am excited to be part of the Cenlar ERM team,” said Avery. “I hope to build partnerships with the business units and deliver innovative and effective solutions across the organization.”

Avery also spent nearly a decade working with Freddie Mac in a variety of leadership roles across risk management, including risk, credit risk, and third-party risk management. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from American University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

The addition of Avery comes shortly after Cenlar announced the addition of Jason Shockey as Chief Information Security Officer [4], responsible for implementing the company’s information security strategy and objectives, including strategies to monitor and address current and emerging risks, as well as building a strong cyber engineering function to enable digital transformation.