The Strategic Business Forum with Apex Home Loans' Craig Strent 

Craig Strent is the CEO of Apex Home Loans, Montgomery County’s largest independent mortgage banker headquartered in the county.  Founded in 1998, the 60-employee company has won numerous awards and recognitions, including:

1. Smart CEO list of fastest 50 growing companies (emerging growth category)
2. Mortgage Executive Magazine’s latest list of Top 100 Mortgage Companies in America
3. Scotsman Guide’s latest list of Top 75 Lenders in the US
4. Community Health Charities “Champion of Health Award”

Craig has been originating mortgages since 1994. He received a BSBA from the American University's Kogod School of Business Administration. For the past 10 years, Craig has been recognized by industry publications as one of the "Top 200 Loan Originators" in America.  He is among the 1% of mortgage bankers nationwide to earn both the Certified Residential Mortgage Specialist designation as well as the Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist designation.

As a result of his expertise across multiple disciplines, Craig is often turned to by both the local and national media for commentary on the mortgage and housing markets. He has appeared numerous times on CNBC as well as on the NBC Nightly News, News Channel 8, and the Fox Morning News.  Craig's articles have appeared in several publications, including a feature opinion piece in the Washington Business Journal on home buying.

Craig is a member of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, where he serves on the Board of Directors, has co-chaired the Membership Committee, coordinated the organization's Ambassador Network, and has been recognized as "Ambassador of the Year" and "Most Engaged Small Business Person." Craig is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington, currently sits on the Board of Directors, and recently completed his tenure as Membership Chair. He is also a member of the Economic Club of Washington, DC and was honored by the Washington Business Journal as one of their 40 under 40, signifying his inclusion among the area's emerging business leaders.

About the Strategic Business Forum:

The purpose of the Strategic Business Forum is to educate and inspire business owners and other leaders to create remarkably successful enterprises.  We do this through interviewing founders who have grown their businesses above at least $3M in revenue or CEOs of larger companies that have led their companies through growth periods.  The forum is run at breakeven, there are no sales pitches, and there is nothing to join.  The Strategic Business Forum is a pure lunch and learn, with some light networking thrown in, for the express purpose of enabling business owners to learn from the great successes of others.

Using an interview format, questions are typically along the lines of:

• General background (where the speaker grew up, went to college, etc.  Basically any interesting aspects of his/her formative years,etc.)
• How he/she started or took over the business
• How did he/she grow the business to where it is today (or where it was when he/she exited).  Looking for events, strategies, key hires, key fires, etc.  Whatever were the key building blocks to getting him/her there.
• What were some of his/her most exciting victories (war stories)
• What were some of his/her biggest failures?  Things that if he/she had a chance to do over again, he/she would do it differently (common items here are waiting too long to fire someone, micromanaging, etc.).  Again, looking for war stories.
• What are the key takeaways that the speaker really wants the audience to know (ANYTHING  that is important  – lessons learned, processes, key advisers, hires, fires, leadership, marketing, tenacity, facing reality, etc., etc.)
• Anything else the speaker wants to share with the group?  Any words of wisdom? Who is/was his/her mentor? Where does he/she go for encouragement?  What book is he/she reading? Etc.

We’ll then end with Q&A from the audience.