Personnel Biographies
The entire management and staff of Phoenix come from the servicing, finance, secondary marketing, loan production, or information systems disciplines of various financial institutions. Our varied experiences have been instrumental in creating the structured divisions of Phoenix.

Richard J. Barnes, Chief Executive Officer - Phoenix Capital, Inc. and Phoenix Analytic Services, Inc. He has 23 years in the mortgage banking industry with 16 years in the servicing brokerage industry. Rick co-founded both Phoenix CAPITAL and Phoenix Analytic Services and remains active guiding both firms. In addition to brokering hundreds of servicing transactions, Rick is credited with conceptualizing the forward bulk servicing transfer mechanism. This structured transaction has become one of three industry standards that effectuate the sale and transfer of mortgage loan servicing rights. Prior to Phoenix, Rick entered the servicing brokerage industry with Lincoln Financial after gaining experience in warehouse lending and secondary marketing with Security Pacific Mortgage Corporation. He then spent six years with United Financial, Inc. Rick holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Wyoming.

Brett H. Schaffer, President - Phoenix Capital, Inc. and Phoenix Analytic Services, Inc. He has 19 years of mortgage banking experience including 17 years in the mortgage servicing brokerage industry. During this period, Brett has managed several hundred bulk and flow servicing transactions amounting to nearly half a trillion in principal balances. Brett co-founded Phoenix CAPITAL in 1997 and has been instrumental in helping it develop into a top-tier brokerage, analytic, and consulting firm. Brett has developed a solid and long-term client base with his reputation for maintaining his clients’ objectives first and emphasizing a level-headed approach to negotiating transactions while pushing Phoenix clients to deal practically with market realities in managing the MSR asset. Prior to starting Phoenix CAPITAL, Brett spent four years with United Financial, Inc. and five years with John S. Hopkins, Inc., both servicing brokerage firms. Brett began his career in secondary marketing with the Prudential Home Mortgage Company in 1985 after graduating from the University of Virginia.

Tim Horacek, Chief Operating Officer - Phoenix Capital, Inc. and Phoenix Analytic Services, Inc. has 20 years of programming and systems design. Tim was one of the founders of Phoenix Capital in 1997. His mortgage banking experience includes information systems design for National Mortgage Research, Inc., a national due diligence firm and United Financial, Inc. His experience includes programming related to database scrubs, data conversions, and pricing analyses. He has working experience with data conversions related to virtually every servicing software system, as well as servicing pricing and accounting models. He was the lead designer of United Financial’s FAS 125 accounting outsource system. Prior to his mortgage banking career, Tim spent seven years with the Department of Energy where he designed systems to aid in the manufacture and production of nuclear weapons. Tim was educated at Virginia Tech and holds a B.S. in Computer Science.

Michael P. Lau, Executive Vice President, has 18 years in the mortgage banking industry and has been with Phoenix for over six years. Prior to Phoenix, he spent six years with First Colorado Mortgage Corporation as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He was responsible for corporate operations including secondary marketing, underwriting, shipping and delivery, insuring, information systems and accounting. He was instrumental in the acquisition of four independent mortgage companies in 1998 and 1999; including negotiations of the purchase, negotiation of the stock purchase agreement and related employment agreements, and the assimilation of those companies into the existing infrastructure. He began his career with Criterion Financial Corporation in loan servicing and ultimately moved into secondary marketing where he has spent the balance of his mortgage banking career. Michael has a B.S. in accounting from Gonzaga University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Dean H. DeMeritte, Executive Vice President, has 18 years in the mortgage banking industry and has been with Phoenix for over four years. Prior to Phoenix, he was with Fleet Mortgage as Vice President of Portfolio Transactions. He has also worked at Harbor Financial Mortgage Corp., Banc One Mortgage, Banc Plus Mortgage, Chemical Mortgage and J.I. Kislak Mortgage. His expertise includes buying and selling mortgage servicing rights, FASB 125 and 133 analysis, contract negotiations, company acquisitions, strategic planning, finance and accounting. In addition, he was a principal with a mortgage production company. Dean has a B.S. in marketing from the University of Maryland and has a MBA with a concentration in finance from Duke University.

Brad Weiner, Executive Vice President, has nine years of mortgage banking experience.  Brad has over 20 years experience in residential lending, primarily in Secondary Marketing for both pipeline oriented mortgage bankers as well as lenders having a portfolio objective. Brad has significant experience in negotiating contracts and commitments, pricing strategies, pipeline hedging, portfolio valuations, securitization, and the evaluation/due diligence of lending and sub-servicing platforms. Brad recently joined Phoenix Capital in 2008, having engaged the services of Phoenix Capital as a client and is excited to work with a high integrity firm having similar business philosophies. Most recently he was EVP, Secondary Marketing for First National Bank of Arizona, a large Alt A lender based in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has also worked at Security Pacific, Household International, Barclays American/GreenPoint and was President of Corinthian Mortgage for three years in a turnaround effort. Brad obtained his MBA from the University of Denver.

Luana J. Slettedahl, Senior Vice President and Senior Transaction Manager, has 32 years experience in mortgage banking, specializing in capital markets including the hedging of loan portfolios and sale of loan servicing rights.  Her main responsibilities with Phoenix include bid letter review and negotiations, review and negotiation of loan sale servicing agreements, operations for the firm's Comparative Analysis area and the Regional Vice President of Sales.  Her past experience includes HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation where she was a Senior Vice President of Secondary Marketing and Loan Servicing Operations, and served as a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to that time, she was a Vice President at Security Pacific Mortgage Corporation in their Secondary Marketing Department.  Her area of expertise includes secondary market investor negotiations, contract management, pricing analysis, service released transaction management, oversight for product development, compliance, post closing audit, loan servicing operations and investor loan delivery.

Robin M. Bowes, Vice President, Transaction Operations and Senior Transaction Manager, has nine years of mortgage banking experience.  Her main responsibilities with Phoenix include all functions associated with bid letter review and negotiations, review and negotiation of loan servicing agreements and purchase price reconciliation at sale and transfer date with our clients. Prior to joining Phoenix, she spent four years with Mellon Mortgage Company where she was part of the senior management team of the Sales and Acquisitions Department. Her primary responsibility was the data conversion of incoming purchases and outgoing sales. In her eight years with Phoenix, she has been associated with a multitude of sales structures, funding reconciliations, and specializes in the pricing analysis of all product lines. Robin has a B.S. in Political Science/Pre-Law from Northern Michigan University.

Jeff Boyd, Vice President Analytics, leads the day-to-day management of Phoenix Analytics. He is directly involved with all analytics projects including portfolio valuations, Hold vs. Sell analyses, FAS 140 management and identification of sale universes for bulk servicing transactions. Jeff also trains and oversees all Phoenix Analytics staff. Prior to joining Phoenix Analytics, Jeff worked with Commercial Federal. He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Colorado.