Judging Panel

Chris Bennett has been in the real estate industry for 36 years and spent the last 19 years leading the Real Estate Solutions Group at CoreLogic. During his long tenure at CoreLogic, Bennett was responsible for the overall success of the most widely used residential real estate software solutions, supporting over 1.3M brokers and agents in North America. He has been recognized as one of the most influential leaders in residential real estate for many years by T360 and Inman News. Chris Bennett has spent the last year as Cofounder and Managing Partner of PRESTA Team.

Erin Morrison, has been in the property law and real estate space for over 20 years. She started her career as a Petroleum Landman for oil and gas companies, and then switched to residential sales in 2016. Erin is an accomplished Realtor in the Austin, TX area, as well as an investor. Her passion is showing people the power of real estate and how it can create financial freedom. Erin is also an advocate and is very involved with the Austin Board of Realtors serving on the Diversity Committee, and is the national President Elect of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her wife and daughter, traveling, hiking, working out, and trying out new restaurants with her friends.

Gary Acosta is an entrepreneur, public policy advocate, and investor. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP ®). NAHREP is the largest Latino business organizations in the nation. Mr. Acosta is also the co-founder of L’ATTITUDE, and a major-event he produces with international business executive, Sol Trujillo, former United Airlines CEO, Oscar Munoz, and music superstar, Emilio Estefan. L’ATTITUDE celebrates the key role of Latinos in business, entertainment, sports, tech and politics. Acosta is also a general partner of the L’ATTITUDE Ventures, the nation’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on Latino led start-ups. Mr. Acosta writes a weekly blog about business and current events at garyacosta.com.

As the former Editor-in-Chief of HousingWire, one of the premier housing, mortgage and fintech publications in the country, Jacob has spent nearly 15 years writing about the real estate industry and following mortgage trends. During his tenure at HousingWire, Jacob was responsible for all editorial operations and marketing strategy. Prior to his time at HousingWore, he spent a decade abroad in London, holding editor positions for both Reuters and SourceMedia.

Currently, he manages his own full-service public relations firm with his business partner Alyson Austin. Together they have helped clients build media relationships, rebrand their companies and launch video and audio services to create business momentum in the real estate and mortgage spaces.

Molly Dowdy is the co-founder of NEXT Mortgage Events, producers of the NEXT events for executive women and NEXTMORTGAGENEWS.COM. She has nearly 20 years experience marketing the most successful technology brands in the real estate and mortgage industries. She has been awarded “Most Powerful Women in FinTech” by PROGRESS in Lending and named a HousingWire Woman of Influence.

Throughout her nearly twenty year career in fintech marketing, Molly has led efforts that have increased value for several mortgage technology companies that include a la mode, Mercury Network, Built Technologies, AXIS Appraisal Management Services and others. She has spearheaded marketing initiatives that have resulted in quantifiable increases in profitability, from 375% customer growth within a four year period, to several highly profitable sales and acquisitions. She has guided organizations in selecting a marketing approach that supports and furthers their goals, and developed numerous visibility programs that have successfully introduced new companies and new products to the mortgage space and created clear differentiators for organizations in congested markets.

Pete Carroll holds the position of executive, public policy and industry relations at CoreLogic. In this role, Carroll directly oversees industry and public-sector engagement programs, drives enterprise strategic initiatives for CoreLogic, and expands opportunities for the company’s thought leadership, insights, brand awareness and solutions expertise within Washington, D.C., and across the Federal Housing Agencies and other stakeholders.

Prior to joining CoreLogic, Carroll was the executive vice president of Quicken Loans where he led the development and discussion of Quicken’s positions on a broad spectrum of policy issues. He also worked at Capital Markets, Wells Fargo and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). He earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Connecticut College.

Rick is the Executive Vice President of Market Intelligence for ATTOM, a market-leading provider of real estate and property data, including tax, mortgage, deed, foreclosure, natural hazard, environmental risk, and neighborhood data.

One of the country’s most frequently-quoted sources on real estate, mortgage and foreclosure trends, Rick has appeared on CNBC, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, ABC News, FOX, Bloomberg and NPR. Rick is a founding member of the Five Star National Mortgage Servicing Association, on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Default Professionals, and was twice named to the Inman News Inman 100, an annual list of the most influential real estate leaders. 

Rick has over 20 years’ experience in the real estate and mortgage industries, including roles as the Executive Vice President at RealtyTrac, as an EVP for Carrington Mortgage Holdings, and Chief Marketing Officer of the company’s Vylla business unit, and as the Chief Marketing Officer of Ten-X and Auction.com, the leading online real estate marketplace.