Bob Shield, Barton Pitts and David Hrobon

Executive Vice President, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, President and CEO
Wintrust Mortgage

Influential industry leader David Hrobon has been involved in every aspect of the industry since his mortgage-lending career began 29 years ago at the Kissel Company. In 1994, he joined WestAmerica Mortgage, which was purchased by Wintrust Financial Corporation in 2004. Hrobon was promoted to president in 2007, and became president and CEO in 2008. “In late 2007, I helped chart a new course for the firm – new technology, pricing structure, products and name – but the biggest change was improving our culture,” Hrobon says. “We weren’t doing a great job at delivering outstanding service levels to our borrowers or referral partners, and that needed to change. I believe that ‘customer satisfaction starts and ends with employee satisfaction,’ so we’ve created an environment where employees enjoy working and have an opportunity to directly influence our success. This resulted in us becoming a top company to work for in Chicago and the 18th largest retail purchase lender in the U.S.”

This type of environment is also conducive to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Barton Pitts, who prides himself on building the company and encouraging its culture by drawing upon his former experience as founder of Professional Mortgage Partners in 1999. “My past career in insurance, finance and running PMP has given me more experience on the sales side of the business than most operations managers,” Pitts says. “This gave me a unique perspective, which has helped build a collaborative sales and operations team at Wintrust.”

For Executive Vice President Bob Shield, the right people make all the difference. After receiving numerous awards for service and sales over a 34-year career, Shield now guides loan officers in growing their business by providing inspiration and focus. “We build our teams by identifying the best qualities in each of our people and utilizing or maximizing those strengths,” Shield says. “Our culture is very grounded and supportive. While we’ve grown from a regional to a national lender, we simply try to be the best, not the biggest. As our leadership always says, ‘If you think or act like you’re big, you’re dead.’”

These three industry professionals are purely the foundation of an amazing management team at Wintrust Mortgage. Their combined industry knowledge and expertise has molded this company into what it is today, and to say Wintrust Mortgage has changed from the company it was 20 years ago would be an understatement. The professional experiences and skills of Hrobon, Shield and Pitts, in addition to their influences on the rest of the management team, creates the perfect combination for equipping Wintrust for today’s mortgage and real estate environment, and for its exciting future.