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Technology Stocks : FNCM Finet.Com -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LT who wrote (32)	2/8/1999 11:05:00 AM
From: Caravan	Respond to of 2420

FNHC CEO - Heavy Hitter November 16, 1998 Korell to work his magic for Finet holdings Michelle Pentz With white gloves in place, Mark Korell is poised to pull another rabbit out of his hat. The industry heavy hitter has just joined Walnut Creek-based Finet Holdings Corp., an on and off-line mortgage lender and broker, as chairman and CEO. After months of courting, former Finet CEO Daniel Rawitch lured Korell from his post at a San Ramon e-commerce software firm, IMX Mortgage Exchange. Korell's job is to get Finet's name on the tip of consumers' tongues, expand the business and grow the online segment substantially. "I like entrepreneurial opportunities," said Korell, also former CEO of Norwest Mortgage Inc., the largest U.S. mortgage lender. "There's a chance here for a big impact on creating the way home financing is done, particularly in the new e-commerce area. Our niche in the market is to expand the use of new electronic tools in the course of becoming America's leading technology bank." Rawitch joined Finet in 1994 and nurtured its growth scratch to $3 million a month in revenues. With what he admits has been too low of a profile, the firm has been quietly gobbling up companies to the tune of seven acquisitions in the last two years, including two Internet divisions. Now Rawitch, who will remain as president, is ready to pass the CEO title onto Korell. "I'm the keeper of the vision," said Rawitch. "But I've always said if I could find anyone better than me, I'd hire him. Mark is an icon in the industry. He's the partner I've been looking for all my life. I'm just happy as a clam." According to James Punishill, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research analyst, "The current market for online mortgages is nowhere -- and the potential is huge." Nowhere means less than 1 percent of the $1.2 trillion mortgage market in 1997. But Punishill predicts it will grow to 20 percent or more in the next five years. "I think the numbers are so far conservative, it's almost goofy," said Rawitch. Even so, Korell said the company will stay diversified. Finet initiates about 80 percent of its business electronically. Combined with 800 telephone customer service, Finet's Internet link to lender Fannie Mae's underwriting system can give consumers online mortgage approval in three-and-a-half minutes.