Embrace Employee Spotlight: Guy Silas and Christi King

There’s a lot to love about Embrace Home Loans, but one of our strongest assets has always been our employees. We have teammates who have been with us for 10, 20, even 30+ years. And we’ve also been hiring new employees at a furious pace recently — new employees that many of us haven’t met yet as we continue to work remotely during the pandemic.

In this Employee Spotlight, we’ll be featuring two Embrace teammates — one new employee, and one employee who has already been with us for a while. Each will give different perspectives on the Embrace experience and a little more personal info so you’ll be able to get to know them better.

Want to nominate someone to feature in a future spotlight? Email Mary Mack at [email protected]

CHRISTI KING, Underwriter

What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?

I am an Underwriter. My responsibility is to review a borrower’s income, assets, debts, and credit history, as well as the property details, and determine if the whole picture represents a loan that is worth making in light of the potential risk it might present. In other words, I must consider all aspects of the deal and assess the risk of the borrower being able to make the proposed mortgage payments, and thus either approve or deny the loan application.

What made you want to work at Embrace?

I was really drawn to the work ethic that focuses on quality, to the kindness and respect that emanates from our CEO, through to the leaders, operations and sales staff, to the company’s commitment to effective and comprehensive training and career development.

How has it been starting a new job during COVID? And just working for Embrace in general?

Starting with a new employer during COVID was definitely a unique experience — especially being a first-time fully remote employee — but at the same time, the process was very smooth and streamlined. Furthermore, the communication with everyone from the Talent Recruiting Executive, the Onboarding Team, HR department, the Training Lead to your permanent Team Leader and Manager is stellar. Everyone really takes the time to genuinely make you feel seen and valued, and I believe that in itself is priceless even when we aren’t dealing with a world pandemic.

What did you do for a living before you came to Embrace?

I have been in the mortgage industry for about 12 years. I started off as an assistant to a very successful, fast-paced Loan Officer team, was given the opportunity to work as a Loan Processor, became a Processing Manager, stepped into working as a Quality Control Underwriter, worked as a Loan Officer, and really found my place in the industry as a Mortgage Underwriter about six years ago. I really love underwriting. I believe it is the perfect marriage of the investigation and analysis of numbers, and human behavior to a certain degree.

We’d love to get to know you better! Tell us about yourself.

First and foremost I am very lucky to be called “Mom” by my amazing seven-year-old son, Jackson. He is absolutely the highlight of my life — I love being a mom.

I also love snowboarding, hiking, eating out, traveling, and shopping with family and friends. I am from MA but lived in the Boulder, CO area for about nine years after my college graduation. We moved back to MA in 2016 and I am so happy to home, and close to family once again AND to be back by the ocean. We spend a lot of time in Gloucester and the Cape during the summer.

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GUY SILAS, Branch Manager – Rockville, Maryland

What is your official title and what do you do at Embrace?

I am the Branch Manager of the award-winning Rockville, Maryland retail office. Focused on being a servant leader, my role is to support and help our team of loan officers and operation partners ensure that our borrowing clients have the best possible home financing experience.

How long have you worked for Embrace?

I joined Embrace in June 2018 after 22 years in community banking. The last 2½ years have been an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience.

What made you want to work at Embrace?

I was seeking an opportunity to utilize my leadership and financing skills and hoping to join a company that made the client and loan officer experience top priority and the industry best. At the same time, I craved a company whose culture and commitment to community aligned with my personal values. After a lengthy courtship with Patrick Mullen and Tim Higgins, who have become not just co-workers but close friends, the answer to my search was clear.

What’s one of your favorite Embrace memories?

During the final stage in my career decision, I had the opportunity to visit Newport, RI. The headquarters visit with a variety of department leaders was immensely important to me; establishing work relationships that continue to deepen to this day.

Finally, the icing was the two-hour meeting with our leader Dennis Hardiman. As we talked and shared mostly personal views and feelings about family and faith, it became abundantly clear that I wanted to work for Dennis and the Embrace family.

How has it been working from home for most of this year? Has Embrace made it easier for you in any way?

Working from home has been a mixed blessing. Our sales team is uniquely close with each other and to this day we crave the face-to-face interaction and social relationships that make Rockville a special office. I am very thankful that our Embrace technology and support made this almost seamless; although we never imagined we would be out of the office for a full year. Personally, the quality time I have been able to spend with my wonderful wife and family is an experience that, up until now, I could have only dreamed about.

We’d love to get to know you a little better! Tell us about yourself.

I am a proud husband and father, married to my best friend and college sweetheart for 36 years. We split our time between our home in Glenwood, MD, and the beach in Ocean City, MD where we enjoy family beach time, boating, fishing, and biking. We have three terrific grown children, and the real apple of my eye is our two beautiful grandchildren that we have been blessed with. If we knew having grands was so awesome, we would have had them first.