Rocket
Companies, the
parent
of Rocket
Mortgage,
announced
on
Monday
that
it
has
hired
Shawn
Malhotra,
a
former Thomson
Reuters and Intel executive,
as
the
first
chief
technology
officer
(CTO)
in
the

company’s
history.

  

Malhotra
will
oversee,
among
other
areas,
the
firm’s
artificial
intelligence
(AI)
development,
data
science,
product
engineering,
technology
operations
and
information
security.

HousingWire
reported
in
early
April
that
Rocket
Mortgage
chief
Information
officer


Brian
Woodring

left
the
company
to
pursue
other
opportunities.
Since
then,
the
company
has
been
searching
for
a

“tech
leader.“

From
building
microchips
for
Intel
starting
at
18
to
implementing
generative
AI
as
the
global
head
of
engineering
for
Thomson
Reuters,
Malhotra

has

“led
teams
that
rolled
out
groundbreaking
platforms
for
creating
AI
products
and
hardware,”
Rocket
Companies
CEO
Varun
Krishna
said
in
a social
media
post.

Malhotra
will
lead
the
company’s
tech
initiatives
to
pivot
into
an
AI-fueled
homeownership
journey.
His
teams
will
be
responsible
for
“removing
the
complexity
and
frustration”
in
the
process,
while
his
primary
objective
will
be
“to
increase
the
rate
of
innovation
and
execution
in
the
organization,”
Krishna
added. 

Rocket
has
made
key
appointments
as
part
of
its
strategic
AI
initiatives.
This
includes
the
hiring
of Jonathan
Mildenhall,
a
former

Airbnb
and

Coca-Cola
executive,
to
a
newly
created
chief
marketing
officer
position.
Additionally,
fintech
expert Alastair
(Alex)
Rampell,
who
co-founded
several
fintech
firms,
including Affirm,
joined
the
Rocket’s
board
of
directors. 

The
new
strategy
also
resulted
in
the
launch
last
month
of
a
proprietary
tech
platform
called Rocket
Logic and
a
new
tool
called Synopsis. Rocket
Logic
relies
on
10
petabytes
of
proprietary
data
and
50
million
annual
call
transcripts.

The
company
claims
the
platform
can
automatically
process
nearly
90%
of
data
points
extracted
from
documents
in
a
month.
It
can
also
reduce
by
25%
the
number
of
times
a
mortgage
professional
interacts
with
a
loan
each
year.

Before
Rocket,
Malhotra
spent
seven
years
at
Thomson
Reuters,
with
his
most
recent
position
as
head
of
engineering
and
product
development.
There,
he
established
a
platform
to
accelerate
the
development
of
generative
AI
solutions
and
introduced
an
AI
assistant. 

Previously,
Malhotra
spent
12
years
at
Intel,
including
at
the
acquired
company Altera. The
executive,
who
has
five
patents
issued
in
the
U.S.,
started
his
career
as
a
software
developer
for Qualcomm. 

Rocket
executives
are
optimistic
that
their
investment
in
AI
will
not
only
accelerate
the
company’s
growth
but
also
enhance
profitability.
In
the
first
quarter
of
2024,
Rocket
reported
a
GAAP
net
income
of $291
million,
following
a
loss
of
$233
million
in
Q4
2023,
per
filings
with
the Securities
and
Exchange
Commission (SEC). 

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