In the months following consecutive rounds of layoffs, Better, the embattled online mortgage company helmed by controversial CEO Vishal Garg has named eight new executives to guide its recovery.
The new hires cover most of the company’s business functions, including its people, marketing, sales and enterprise risk teams, as well as its Better Services, Better Cover and Better Real Estate business units.
Most notable among the deluge of new names is the company’s new Chief Growth Officer, Sushil Sharma, a 20-year tech veteran who previously served as the product chief at LendingTree. Prior to LendingTree, Sharma was Chief Product Officer at Match, where he helped the company go public.
Sharma is the first person to hold the newly created role and will guide Better’s recovery amid an uncertain housing market. In April 2022, Better conducted its third round of layoffs in five months, this time affecting as many as 1,500 employees. The move was made to cut costs and better prepare its business for climbing interest rates, which could lead to a slowdown in Better’s lending business.
Sharma’s arrival also signals a new voice among the top rungs of Better’s corporate ladder and could help strengthen the company’s image after Garg bungled a layoff in December 2021 and made a slew of controversial statements before temporarily stepping aside as CEO.
Garg’s comments alleged that employees were stealing from the company, and this combined with the manner in which the layoffs were conducted — over Zoom — led several senior executives to resign, including Better’s EVP of Customer Experience, Sales and Operations Sarah Pierce and SVP of Capital Markets and Growth Emanuel Santa-Donato.
Some of Better’s most recent hires backfill these positions while others provide the company with veteran leadership in its core business units. Among the new executives are:
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Steve Riddell, who joined Better as the digital home ownership firm’s Head of Sales. Riddell brings over 30 years of executive sales experience and was previously the Head of Customer Experience at Casper. He also served as the Chief Sales Officer of Telesales at Sprint and Chief Sales Officer at Blinds.com.
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Ryan Jewison, who was recruited as the Head of Better Cover, the proptech company’s digital homeowner insurance agency. Jewison brings 19 years of experience leading sales and growth and previously served as SVP of National Expansion at U.S. Bank, VP of New Markets at Doma and VP of Sales at Elavon.
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Nick Taylor, who joined Better from Zillow and leads Better Real Estate, the company’s alternative to a traditional real estate agent. Taylor’s 18 years of experience in real estate and proptech includes nine years at Zillow in sales and strategy and three years as SVP of growth at Modus.
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Josh Durodola, who transitioned from his current role as Better’s Director of Strategy and Operations to serve as the Head of Better Services.
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Brian Ro, who brings 16 years of human capital experience from Deloitte, Zeigler, Ripple, Chekr and Gopuff, has been named as Better’s new VP of People.
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Jennifer Malin, who has accepted the role of VP of Enterprise Risk. Malin has over 20 years of experience in the legal industry, including 15 years as a partner with global law firm Winston & Strawn, where she focused on complex commercial litigation.
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Nitin Bhutani, who decamped from HSBC to become Better’s VP of Marketing. Previously, Bhutani was the VP of Marketing at HSBC and held top marketing roles at LendingTree and J.G. Wentworth.
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