Hayes Barnard

CEO

Hayes founded Paramount Equity with a passion to build great businesses with selfless people who are committed to saving their neighbors money. The first division of the company, Paramount Equity Mortgage, was founded in 2003 and quickly grew to over 300 employees serving customers in six states. To date, PEM has completed over $8 billion in loans making it one of the most successful mortgage banking and sales operations in the country. In 2006, Hayes launched Paramount Equity Insurance Services providing families with cost-effective home, auto, and life insurance policies. Paramount Solar was created in 2009 to help customers immediately reduce their energy bills, protect them from rising electricity costs, and preserve the environment by adopting renewable energy technologies.

Along the way, Hayes and Paramount Equity have both received accolades from the communities they serve. This year Hayes has been honored as one of Sacramento Business Journal's 40 under 40 and buildOn awarded Hayes the 2010 Global Impact Award. The company was also recognized as a New California 100 Innovative Business by Golden Capital Network and Hamilton Lane and was awarded first place for all large companies at the Sacramento Business Journal's "A+ Employers" awards. Hayes is a current active member of the Sacramento Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization and serves as the chair for the annual Sacramento Liquidity Event. He also serves on the board for the Positive Coaching Alliance.

Hayes graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Business Management and Marketing. He established his career in the Silicon Valley at Hitachi Data Systems before moving on to positions with Oracle Corporation. From 1995-2003, he worked in a variety of sales, management, and marketing capacities where he was responsible for Oracle's most strategic global accounts.

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Jason Walker

Vice President of Mortgage Banking

Jason is Paramount Equity's primary evaluator of mortgage business risk. His prudent decision-making has enabled the company to continue to thrive by avoiding many of the pitfalls that other mortgage companies have encountered over the last couple of years. Jason's focus on insuring that each customer receives the proper loan for their situation has been an invaluable asset to the company and its clients. He is also responsible for the secondary marketing of mortgage loans to help insure low rates and fees for the company's customers.

Jason graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Finance and Real Estate. He established a career in the mortgage and banking industry starting in loan origination and later working in sales and branch operations management roles. After eight years of working for mortgage companies in the mid-West, Jason moved to Sacramento to launch Paramount Equity Mortgage to provide an unprecedented level of professionalism and service he believed that customers deserved.

Matt Dawson

EVP of Sales

As one of the owners and founders of Paramount Equity, Matt has been responsible for launching many of the company's critical strategic initiatives. His gift for evaluating business opportunities and taking them from ideas to impementation has allowed the company to thrive and grow.

Matt's passion for the environment and talent for business has put him at the head of the sales division.

Matt graduated from the University of Missouri with a BA in Finance and is a mortgage banking industry veteran with over 9 years of experience in this field. After graduating college he managed several mortgage banking branches throughout the mid-west. Shortly thereafter, Matt and the other owners began designing plans to open a company aimed at helping homeowners save money. Matt is very proud of the company he and the team have built and looks forward to expanding into other complimentary industries in the near future.

Michele Magee

Chief Marketing Officer

Michele joined the Paramount Equity team in 2005 as the company's VP of Marketing where she built an in-house advertising agency. In addition to buying radio advertising in as many as 17 cities with nearly 185 radio stations at a given time, she and her team have established the company as a very successful new media advertiser utilizing search, content and lead generation strategies.

The team has also produced TV campaigns, automated marketing systems, and various branding packages for Paramount Equity's new entities. She was responsible for implementing database technologies and building Paramount Equity's in-house telemarketing department. She also handles all public relations initiatives and event management projects.

In 2006 and 2007, Michele added direct responsibility for the Human Resources, Asset Management, Business System/IT, Administrative Service, Recruitment, and Legal departments. In 2008, she launched the Home First sales divisions which serve the changing needs of the company's past customers.

Prior to joining the Paramount Equity team, Michele worked in radio sales and station management capacities for EZ Communications, American Radio Systems, and Infinity Broadcasting over a 15-year period. She has owned two companies, including a chain of five retail franchise locations and a magazine publishing company. Michele graduated from the University of the Pacific with a BS in Business Administration and Marketing.

Oliver Koch

Chief Operating Officer

Oliver Koch joined Paramount Equity as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Oliver moved his family from Australia to be a part of the Paramount Equity team as he shares his passion for excellence in customer service with this growing company. Oliver brings a wealth of business knowledge to Paramount and will drive the national expansion of their solar, mortgage and insurance divisions.

Oliver has an extensive background in international business operations and management. He started his career at Bertelsmann Group, a multinational outsourcing and media corporation where he spent almost 10 years in a number of strategic roles in different subsidiaries including, Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, and CEO & President. Oliver was instrumental in improving processes throughout Bertelsmann, including, overall customer service satisfaction, call center improvements, implementation of large scale logistics projects, restructuring, productivity increase by leveraging state of the art technology and IT.

Oliver is a graduate of the University of Munster and alumni of Harvard Business School through the Advance Management Program. He is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Oliver, his wife, and their daughter currently live in Roseville, California.

John Fischer

Executive Vice President

John Fischer comes to Paramount Equity with a wealth of experience and knowledge in the industry. John has been in mortgage banking for 30 years with some of the largest banks in the nation. He is most proud of his ability help create a work environment where companies can grow top talent and create high-performance sales teams.

John started his career at Bank of America where he spent 19 years in a number of roles including sales manager, project manager and operations manager. From there, John joined Citi Bank and Citi Mortgage as the Western Division Director managing all mortgage operations west of the Mississippi. Following that, John was a regional manager for Washington Mutual for the Bay Area. In 2009, John helped to re-launched PNC Mortgage in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Colorado.

John is a graduate of California State University Sacramento with degrees in both Business Administration and Economics as well as the Graduate School of Retail Banking at the University of Virginia. John was born and raised in Northern California and lives in the Sacramento area with his wife Lou Ann, and their two children.

Kelly Resendez

Vice President of Business and Sales Development

Kelly joined Paramount Equity in May 2011 because she shares the company's passion for helping families achieve financial stability. As VP of Business and Sales Development, Kelly assists with mortgage originator recruitment and training. She also spearheads the company's efforts in Realtor® and corporate relationship development.

Kelly brings to Paramount Equity a proven track-record of success as a mortgage originator. Within two years of transitioning from banking into the mortgage business in 1998, she was one of Washington Mutual's top producing loan consultants in northern California. She was honored for the next ten years as a member of the prestigious President's or Leader's Clubs there. After joining Wells Fargo Bank, Kelly became one of the top five mortgage originators (out of approximately 10,000 nationwide) for helping families purchase homes. She credits her success to an exclusive focus on working by referral. She also provides monthly coaching to her network of Realtors assisting them in branding and business development strategies.

Kelly studied Economics at California State University Sacramento and is currently completing her degree in Psychology at University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Ed Fuchs

Vice President of Capital Markets

Joining the company in 2011, Ed brings over 20 years of residential mortgage lending experience to Paramount. While holding many positions of responsibility over the years, Ed is now serving as Paramount’s Vice-President of Capital Markets, handling all pricing and secondary marketing functions.

Ed earned his accounting degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA and is a Certified Public Account (CPA) and Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB). Ed has served on various mortgage banking committees and is a graduate of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s School of Mortgage Banking.

Mike Baldwin

Vice President of Product Development

Mike Baldwin is a mortgage industry entrepreneur and a veteran of three successful mortgage company start-ups. He has done it all, from creating mortgage products, authoring product and operational guidelines to developing strategic relationships with banks, Wall Street and hedge funds.

Immediately prior to joining Paramount as Vice President of Product Development, Mike had become a liquidation specialist as President of Excelsior Mortgage Group.

Although he has spent his entire career in the mortgage industry, he is best known for his years as President of LIME Financial Services. He led LIME through a period of tremendous growth. He directed internal and external growth as well as production and operations. From a small regional lender with 20 employees, LIME transformed into a nationwide lender with 500 employees. Monthly volume increased from $30 million to $300 million. Under his leadership, LIME was honored as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon; and two years in a row was recognized as the State’s 4th Fastest Growing Private Company. Three years running, National Mortgage News singled out LIME as one of the Top 20 Mortgage Originators to Keep an Eye On.

Prior to that he held various positions at Financial Center Mortgage in California and started Trillium Mortgage, a regional wholesale Mortgage Bank. He built Trillium into a 50 million dollar monthly business, which was acquired by First Franklin.

Mike co-founded Meritage Mortgage and served as Chief Operating Officer. Meritage was sold to Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group Inc. Mike remained as Director of Customer Fulfillment, handling all aspects of internal operations of the wholesale and retail mortgage banker.

Mr. Baldwin graduated cum laude from the University of the Pacific with a BS degree in Business Administration.

Patrick Phillips

Vice President of Sales Production

Patrick Phillips joined Paramount Equity in 2005. Since then, he has helped over 2,000 families achieve their financial success through homeownership. Patrick is a member of Paramount Equity’s’ “President’s Club” and a “Paramount All Star” team member. Patrick quickly advanced his career at Paramount Equity starting first as a Financial Specialist, then promoted to Sales Manager in 2009 leading the company’s top performing sales team. In 2011 Patrick was named VP of Sales Production. He works with all the companies’ branches in all markets, helping educate and train the sales staff on loan programs and file quality.

Patrick’s approach with his customer’s center around the education of the mortgage process, he believes this is extremely important in the ever-changing mortgage industry. Patrick prides himself on knowing what loan options are available. He understands that every situation is unique and wants to provide his customers the right loan that best fits their financial situation.

Patrick graduated for the California State University at Sacramento with a BA in Organization Communications. Patrick began his career in retail banking. He also held a number of sales positions with Oracle Corporation. Patrick and his wife Antonina recently celebrated the birth or the first child, a beautiful baby girl named Gia.