Q&A with Trevor Gauthier of Accenture Mortgage Cadence

By: Mike Sorohan

MBA NewsLink recently posed questions to Trevor Gauthier, managing director of Accenture Mortgage Cadence, Denver.

Gauthier joined Accenture in 2013, leading development and execution of the company’s vision and short/long term strategies. He previously served as chief sales and marketing officer with Mortgage Cadence; his responsibilities included enterprise and mid-market software solutions sales, account management, development and execution of marketing and communication strategies, building cohesive and recognizable brands and recommending strategic approaches and executable plans to maximize sales activity and returns on investment. The company’s website is https://www.accenture.com/us-en/accenture-software-mortgage-cadence.aspx.

MBA NEWSLINK: Mortgage Cadence has had a very eventful two years since its acquisition by Accenture. What’s the ride been like?

TREVOR GAUTHIER: It’s been a great ride so far. While Mortgage Cadence has seen an eventful few years, nothing has been a surprise. It’s kind of been like a cross-country road trip. You know where you’re going, have the proper tools to get there and just enjoy the ride. I’ve worked with most of the executive team for many years. With their combined 200 years of mortgage experience and extensive backgrounds with the company, I knew I was starting on the right foot.

When I transitioned from leading Sales & Marketing to all of Accenture Mortgage Cadence, I went in with a realistic view of where the organization was and where it needed to go. This past year has proven to be transformational. We have substantially increased the size of our enterprise customer base, we have continued growth in the mid-markets, and we have significantly enhanced the Accenture Mortgage Cadence Cloud--all while taking on the single largest regulatory change the industry has ever seen. This is no small order, and I’m fortunate to have inherited a team of individuals and a technology platform that are both second-to-none.

NEWSLINK: What did Mortgage Cadence gain from its acquisition by Accenture? What did Accenture gain in return?

GAUTHIER: From the very beginning, Accenture saw that lenders using outdated technologies and/or multiple systems of record were struggling to keep pace with the changing mortgage landscape. When they met with Mortgage Cadence, it was immediately apparent there was an opportunity to help transform the mortgage industry by partnering together. Mortgage Cadence’s long tenure in the business, coupled with our advanced technology serving both the top 100 and the midmarket space really sealed the deal.

Being part of Accenture gives us access to world-class resources that best position us to be the last loan origination platform our customers ever need. Looking to the future, we will further advance our technology and bring on new solutions that help lower origination costs, while keeping stride with regulatory changes. We all know technology advances rapidly to keep up with the changing times. Accenture is extremely forward-looking and gives us the tools needed to make that happen. With mortgages trending all-digital, we already have clients using our technology to push those digital boundaries. The next step is moving all customers to the fully paperless mortgage.

The acquisition has felt much more like a partnership. Accenture saw the value not only in our technology but also in our people. They maintained our legacy staff and have since helped us double in size over the past two years. The growth has been phenomenal, and the talent among the team is extraordinary. The future is bright, and I couldn’t ask for a better partnership.

NEWSLINK: Is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule as intimidating as it seems?

GAUTHIER: The short answer: no. While the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule is certainly complex in nature, the truth is that with the proper technology in place, proper training of staff and proper education for borrowers, this rule is manageable. For technology providers, the changes were sweeping, requiring months of planning and execution to complete. Most should already be rolling out compliant releases to their lenders. Assuming this is true, the burden of the change is largely off the shoulders of the lenders.

For us, we’ve spent the last year partnering with our customers to make sure they first understood the changes and second, made sure they were aware of the changes we were implementing. We’ve collected their input, incorporated those enhancements into the releases, and have since rolled out TRID-compliant versions of both of our LOS platforms. We plan to continue hosting our monthly webinars to inform lenders--both customers and non-customers--on ways to ensure success in the coming months.

NEWSLINK: TRID has been pushed backed until Oct. 3. What should lenders do with this extra two months to prepare?

GAUTHIER: The change in deadline is a huge benefit to lenders. Assuming their technology providers successfully deliver the system changes by the August 1 deadline, this leaves lenders with several months to test the enhancements, properly educate their loan officers and inform borrowers--all while working through any issues that arise. Lenders will most certainly be well-equipped to succeed come October.

NEWSLINK: You joined Mortgage Cadence as director of marketing and worked your way up. What have you learned, now that you’ve been managing director?

GAUTHIER: I’ve certainly learned a lot. The biggest lesson, though, is to learn as much, if not more, from an undesired outcome as you do from the good. Whether that be a conflict with a boss, a project gone south, or missing a personal goal, you will grow from these experiences if you look at them the right way. Don't give up; instead, use these as valuable learning experiences and be better for it. It's easy to be crippled by the fear of failure, but we will all fail at many points in our career. It's how you handle those failures that will determine your future success. Work hard. Seek to learn more. As long as you are doing this, opportunities you never expected to present themselves will surface.

This has been the motto of Accenture Mortgage Cadence, and it has led us to our most successful year as an organization. We’ve witnessed firsthand the devastation felt by our industry during and after the crash, but we've also witnessed the industry come back stronger than before. Although times were not always easy, we grew exponentially through those experiences, leading us to this unforgettable year.