Top-10 reverse mortgage lender Nationwide Equities this week announced the hiring of JoAnna Bignell to serve as the Mahwah, N.J.-based company’s National Recruiting Manager.

Bignell brings over 10 years of professional recruiting experience and over 20 years of sales management to this position as she hopes to help build Nationwide’s Retail division.

Previously, Bignell served as vice president of retail recruiting at Open Mortgage and as vice president and national recruiting director for Security One Lending from February 2012 to January 2015.

“As I speak to many loan officers or branch prospects they all seem to be tired of moving from company to company. They all seem to want to find their final home,” Bignell said. “And, based on what I see, Nationwide has the platform and commitment to service to be the ‘right fit.'”

The addition of Bignell arrives in the midst of Nationwide Equities’ ongoing retail expansion. This expansion has also seen a series of strategic hirings the company has made this year, including the hiring of Rosina Romano to serve as the company’s head of operations, and the addition of Gwendolyn Griffin as Regional Retail Sales Manager for Nationwide’s south central area of operations.

Nationwide is looking to expand its national footprint by establishing branch offices in key markets across the U.S., according to company president Glenn Wallace.

“We offer unparalleled service to our sales staff and have a track record of underwriting and closing loans in less than two weeks,” Wallace said.

In recent months, Nationwide has added six new offices across the U.S., including New York, Texas and Tennessee. The company ranks among the top-10 industry lenders in terms of volume, with 449 HECM endorsements year-to-date through May 2016, representing an increase of 143% over the same period last year, according to industry data tracked by Reverse Market Insight.

Nationwide is currently on track to close over 120 reverse mortgages in June and hopes to be running at 200 loans per month by year’s end, according to Nationwide Chief Operating Officer Phil Parziale.

“We have over 36 state licenses and we plan to maximize them by having branch offices in most of them,” Parziale said.

Written by Jason Oliva