Business Leadership | Kurt Noyce, President, Embrace Home Loans
It’s one thing to be an empowering leader. It’s another thing to be a powerful leader in an industry barraged with constant change – such as real estate market volatility – and still find a way to invigorate your team, see creative ways of doing business and mentor others.
Kurt Noyce of Middletown-based Embrace Home Loans has been with the company nearly since its inception in 1983, and president for 18 years. The company has thrived under Noyce’s leadership.
Embrace – with 800 employees across more than 80 U.S. locations – has been recognized by Providence Business News as one of the state’s Best Places to Work every year the program has been in existence. It was named one of the Fastest-Growing Companies in America by Inc. magazine four times. Mortgage Executive magazine has ranked it as a top place to work, and one of the Top 100 Mortgage Companies in America.
In terms of growth, Embrace revenue has grown 69 percent over the past three years, while its workforce grew by 48 percent, according to the company.
This cultural, growth and earnings success comes in part from being in tune to lessons all around us, said Noyce, even at home.
A father of four, ages 13 to 29, Noyce has found that parenting skills are like leadership skills. And the best one, he said, no matter the industry, is a belief in others.
“What distinguishes one firm from another is the experience created for customers. Those experiences come from our staff, and they will model what they see and feel, far more than what they are told,” he said. “I have found the same in my household, and that learning has called me to [do] more encouraging, more communicating, more developing, more empowering … both thrive with that type of sincere, and sustained, investment.”
Senior Vice President of Operations Claudia Mobilia says Noyce offers inspirational quotes that often relate to employee challenges.
“Prior to the internet, he would arrive early to work and print out copies so when staff arrived the printed quotes were on their desks each morning. This is just one of the many trademarks of his investment in the people he leads,” she said.
Noyce has also invested in a diverse workplace, where team members feel represented and a spectrum of perspectives can lend fresh insight. Noyce mentors in and outside the company. He is credited with mentoring three women at Embrace who advanced into senior leadership. More than 80 employees have earned accredited coaching designations. He is a mentor for Year Up, an inner-city vocational training program – hosting internships at Embrace – and grade schoolers, through Mentor RI.
This linking of people also translates into strategic alliances.
Noyce engineered an innovative shift in operations in response to regulatory changes within an industry mortgage lenders consider their competition: banking. “Most see banks and independent mortgage bankers as sworn enemies … if not that dramatic, then certainly two different approaches to the business,” said Noyce.
Embrace opened doors in the B2B realm when Noyce reached out to banks with a potential partnership. He gained their trust. Progress followed. Now, Rockland Trust and Eastern Bank are aligned with Embrace to provide a quality mortgage experience for customers and employees. Each bank continues to be recognized by J.D. Power for customer satisfaction, he said.
The alliance with banks is just one of the changes in 30 years, but technology, regulation, competition and consumers’ preferences have also fluctuated. Nothing stays the same. The CEO of Embrace, Dennis Hardiman, is one of the company’s pillars, said Noyce. The other is understanding what mortgages are about, which some companies don’t.
“Some lose sight of what we are privileged to facilitate. … They are not loan numbers, or files, they are families. … We must never forget that.”
