Robbins' family reunion: John Robbins was a leader in the mortgage business long before he took the chairman's post for the Mortgage Bankers Association. His successful career has been noted for many things, but the loyalty of his senior management team is perhaps the most telling

Mortgage Banking, Oct, 2006 by Janet Reilley Hewitt

It was 1972, in Phoenix, and he had just returned from three years in the U.S. Army with an intelligence unit stationed in both Korea and Alaska. He was living at home, and his Realtor[R] mom suggested he consider becoming a loan officer. He sent resumes to "every mortgage bank in Phoenix." Only Colonial Mortgage Service Company responded, so he took the job.

After joining Colonial as a loan officer, in less than a year he was promoted to branch manager. Then in 1973, Colonial moved him to San Diego. He doesn't try to hide how much he loves his adopted hometown. "In the 33 years that Laura and I have lived here, I have never returned to this city without smiling," Robbins says. He says the joy comes from the fact that the place he gets to call home is "such a beautiful place to live." Someone who knows them both says his wife, Laura, is his soulmate and travels with him as much as possible as he crisscrosses the country on business and MBA missions.

San Diego has gotten a lot back from this grateful transplant. His civic contributions range from a stint as president of the Old Globe Theatre to serving on the board of the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation to being executive director of the San Diego Host Committee for the Republican National Convention in 1995-1996.

During his early mortgage career, he progressed through production management jobs with old-line mortgage banking companies long since gone. Then he landed a job as head of national production for Central Fed Mortgage, a mortgage corporation owned by a thrift.

He clearly hasn't wasted a career's worth of experience in the mortgage business. One particular lesson he learned well from running mortgage companies owned by thrifts is about channel conflict. "In so many cases, when a company acquires or starts a mortgage bank, it already has an existing production platform, and they compete with each other. I have seen that over and over again in my career," he says. You can see Robbins making a mental note to self: Avoid that mistake when you build all future companies.

Starting a family

About 11 years into his career, Robbins got a very big opportunity. It was 1983, and Matthew Shevlin, chairman and chief executive officer of Imperial Corporation of America (ICA), gave him the opportunity to start a mortgage banking company for the $5.2 billion multi-state thrift holding company with 152 offices in California, Colorado and Kansas.

It was his first shot at being a mortgage CEO.

But more than just an opportunity to build a company from scratch, it was the point at which he brought together some of the core managers who have remained by his side. Robbins says, "I hired Jay Fuller, Jim Gilcrest, Judy Berry and a whole host of other people that I think have been significant influences throughout my life."

Unfortunately, channel conflict came along with the opportunity. Robbins remembers, "When we went into ICA Mortgage and started the mortgage banking company, they [ICA] had an existing state of California lending group, as they did in Colorado, Kansas and Texas. And so we weren't viewed all that well when Matt started this mortgage bank. It was a rough year or two, and ultimately Matt just made the decision to put all residential lending under the mortgage bank and stop the conflicts."