FridayWinsLive! with Charlotte Croog, Leading $132B Escrow Ops & Mortgage Servicing Transformation

What happens when you put a people first leader in charge of complex mortgage servicing, escrow operations, and global technology change, and give her a $132 billion portfolio to steward?

In this FridayWinsLive episode, Molly Dowdy and Audra Agen spotlight Charlotte Anne Croog, a dynamic Senior Director in escrow and servicing operations with 15 years of experience in consumer and commercial loan servicing, mortgage servicing, fintech, and asset management. She has led a 42 person team across the United States, India, and the Philippines, supporting insurance, tax, and escrow analysis for $132B AUM and 5,500 loans, and delivering process improvements that cut disbursement setup time by 90% and reduced insurance review time by 50%.

Charlotte is known for mapping end to end processes, fixing compliance and operational gaps, and driving technology adoption in complex, post acquisition environments, all while keeping teams engaged, supported, and excited to come to work. She is truly bilingual in the languages of technology and business, translating between engineers, platforms, and front line operations so change actually sticks.

Grown up in the industry, helping in her mom’s woman led law firm and watching a single mom build a disruptive real estate finance practice from her home office, Charlotte brings a deep commitment to supporting women, bridging silos, and creating leadership opportunities at every level.

In this episode, Charlotte shares

How she led large scale transformation at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), including global escrow operations and servicing operations and technology roles supporting a multi billion dollar portfolio and complex investor base

The story of taking post acquisition siloed teams and turning them into one high trust, high performance organization through manager development, leadership training, cross training, and task force based change

Why she builds task forces and cross functional “mini labs” so frontline experts are the ones leading improvements, not just reacting to them

How she uses data, SQL, SSRS, and dashboards to create real visibility into risk, performance, and customer experience for loan servicing and escrow teams

Her philosophy that failures are “tuition”, and why she wants cultures where people are rewarded for speaking up, testing ideas, and learning fast

How becoming a yoga teacher (hot, loud music, mic on, real people doing hard things) reshaped her leadership into one that is more empathetic, adaptable, and tuned into different learning styles

Why she describes herself as “bilingual in technology and business”, and how she bridges the gap between new platforms and the people who have to use them every day

Why she is excited and open to her next chapter in financial services, mortgage servicing, fintech, or adjacent sectors, especially where technology and operations need a translator and champion

Who should watch

Recruiters and hiring managers seeking a Senior Director level leader for mortgage servicing, escrow operations, servicing technology, or loan servicing transformation

Servicing, operations, and fintech leaders struggling to get people to actually adopt the technology they have already bought

Women in mortgage and financial services who want to see what modern, human centered operational leadership can look like

Change management and post acquisition integration leaders who need practical examples of breaking down silos and unifying teams across continents

Charlotte’s hype song

Every FridayWinsLive guest adds a song to our Athena’s Council “Hype Me Up” Spotify playlist.

Charlotte’s pick: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel.
High energy, impossible not to move, and the perfect soundtrack for leaders who are ready to say, like Charlotte, “Bring it on.”

About FridayWinsLive & Athena’s Council

FridayWinsLive is a weekly LinkedIn live series hosted by Molly Dowdy and Audra Agen, created to help women in financial services, mortgage, and fintech get seen, celebrated, and hired. Each week we spotlight an outstanding professional in transition so recruiters and hiring leaders can see beyond the résumé.

This series is produced by Athena’s Council, a private, curated network for purpose driven women in financial services who grow their careers through trusted relationships, strategic collaboration, and community led learning.

Watch FridayWinsLive on LinkedIn every Friday at 12 pm ET

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