About Us

Mission

Reverse Market Insight is dedicated to building the most comprehensive, accurate, up-to-date source of performance data in the reverse mortgage industry.

Management

Jeffrey S. Taylor, CMB

Chairman

Jeffrey Taylor is a 35-year veteran of the financial services and mortgage banking industry. He led Wells Fargo’s Senior Products Group to become the nation’s leading retail originator of reverse mortgages according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He retired from Wells Fargo in August of 2009.

Prior to joining the company, he was instrumental in forming retail loan origination, correspondent and wholesale lending and secondary marketing operations. He was the founder of Wendover Funding, Inc. and guided the company to become one of the nation’s largest sub-servicers for forward and reverse mortgages.

Taylor is a Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) through the Mortgage Bankers Association. Additionally, he received the Faculty Fellow Award through the MBA’s School of Mortgage Banking. In 1990, he served as chair for the MBA’s School of Mortgage Banking and was chair of its education committee in 1991 and 1992. In 1993 and 1994, Taylor was chair of the MBA’s Certified Mortgage Banker Committee.

Taylor is the founding chair and continues to serve on the board of directors for the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA). He also served as vice chair and advisory board member for the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Taylor is qualified as an expert witness in reverse mortgage litigation. He has served as a member of Fannie Mae’s Housing Impact Advisory Board, and has provided consulting services to the Central Bank of Barbados.

John K. Lunde

Founder and President

John K. Lunde is an 11 year veteran of financial analysis and investment modeling in a range of industries, including reverse mortgage, investment management, real estate settlement services and wireless telecommunications.

John leads business development efforts for the company, including client engagements and industry partnerships. He also assists in product development for the company, drawing on his deep experience in the reverse mortgage industry and extensive relationships with leaders at top lenders, servicers and investors.

Prior to founding RMI, John served as Vice President for the Business Metrics & Analysis team at Financial Freedom, reporting to the President. Joining the company in 2004 as the first of what would become a team of 10, the BMA team delivered comprehensive ongoing internal performance analysis across all lines of business in the company: Marketing, Sales, Operations and Servicing.

John has previously worked with AT&T Wireless, Cendant Settlement Services and MetaMarkets.com and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Finance from California State University San Bernardino.

Topher Thiessen

Founder and Vice President

Topher Thiessen is a veteran entrepreneur, with experience in startup and early stage venture formation, in addition to serving as Assistant Vice President at Financial Freedom during their dramatic growth as an industry leader in reverse mortgage.

Topher leads product development and operational performance for RMI, ensuring that RMI provides top level service efficiency in client services. He also assists in client engagement and consulting, lending his considerable expertise in both industry and systems design and implementation.

Prior to founding RMI, Topher was a key member of the Business Metrics & Analysis team at Financial Freedom, responsible for both development and operational performance of reporting systems in addition to his direct consultative role with each line of business.

Topher previously founded Urban Diversion, a Bay Area social events services company, and held roles at ML Stern, MetaMarkets Investments and Everen Securities. He is a native of Montana and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Washington.

Jake Shannon

Founder

Jake Shannon is a veteran entrepreneur, with experience in startup and early stage venture formation, in addition to serving as Assistant Vice President at Financial Freedom during their dramatic growth as an industry leader in reverse mortgage.

Jake is a key resource for RMI in model development and performance improvement, having created among the first reverse mortgage servicing rights valuation models during his time as Assistant Vice President at Financial Freedom and its parent, Indymac Bank. He continues to innovate in model development at RMI, extending and enhancing the methodologies for reverse mortgage asset valuation to keep RMI at the cutting edge of the industry and utilizing RMI’s exclusive data repository of reverse mortgage performance data.

Jake previously founded a number of businesses, including web publishing, media and rights management ventures. In addition to roles at Financial Freedom and Indymac Bank, Jake has worked in financial analysis and engineering roles at Trinity Capital, Financial Engineering Associates, NextCard and Abacus Direct. He holds a Master of Science degree in Financial Engineering from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Colorado at Boulder.