Meet Our Team

    Ken Niemann

    Principal & Co-Founder
    kniemann@loannex.com

    Amir on LoanNEX Team

    Amir Kundalic

    Chief Technology Officer
    akundalic@loannex.com

    Chris on LoanNEX Team

    Chris Krueger

    VP of Engineering, Distinguished Engineer
    ckrueger@loannex.com

    Raj Parekh

    SVP Business Development
    rparekh@loannex.com

    Chris Rendler

    VP of Product and Partner Success
    crendler@loannex.com

    James Booe

    VP Product and Integrations
    jbooe@loannex.com

    Stephanie Krueger

    Director of Product Requirement and Quality Assurance
    skrueger@loannex.com

    Krista Ard

    Client Success and Account Manager
    mard@loannex.com

    Eloise on LoanNEX Team

    Eloise Schmitz

    CEO & CO-founder

    Eloise Schmitz is an accomplished senior executive with experience in finance, strategy, and corporate finance. Eloise has over 26 years of experience in corporate finance, including 12 years with Charter Communications, where she served as SVP of Finance and Strategy and CFO. Prior to Charter, Eloise had a successful banking career in corporate and commercial banking with Mercantile Bank in Saint Louis (now US Bank) and First Union National Bank in Charlotte (now Wells Fargo). During her banking career, she worked on creating asset-backed securities for large ticket medical equipment and computer leases similar to the Mortgage Backed Security financing vehicles. Eloise holds a Bachelor of Science in Management with a major in Finance from Tulane University. She currently is a member of Enterprise Bank and Trust Board of Directors.
    Ken on LoanNEX Team

    Ken Niemann

    Principal & Co-Founder

    Over the past 27 years, Ken Niemann has been one of the nation’s most prolific residential mortgage originators. Starting in 1989 with a small mortgage bank in St. Louis producing first-time homebuyer loans, he has grown a loan practice that regularly produces in excess of $200 million per year in closed loan production. His career personal production volume is in excess of $2 billion. Ken is an expert in all facets of mortgage origination and he has a wide breadth of experience in secondary marketing, underwriting, regulatory compliance and process management. Most recently as an Executive Vice President for Stifel Bank & Trust, he has been an integral part of the team that developed the mortgage operation from $37 million in production in 2007 into a national operation that produces in excess of $ 1.5 billion in closed volume annually and is widely regarded as one of the Midwest’s highest quality mortgage origination companies. Ken is a 1987 graduate of Vanderbilt University, with a BA in Economics. He lives in St. Louis with his wife Margee and three children.

    Amir on LoanNEX Team

    Amir Kundalic

    Chief Technology Officer

    Amir Kundalic is an accomplished senior technology executive with over 22 years of demonstrated career success in start-up, mid-size and Fortune 500 companies. He has extensive experience as a change agent in both established and high-growth businesses with strong ability to bridge the gap between technology and business functions. Amir has an excellent record of achievement in managing rapid organizational growth and building value through expertise in managing technology in mission-critical markets. Amir is an expert in strategic planning and tactical execution, enterprise and cloud architecture, complete product and customer life-cycle management and security, compliance and risk management.

    Prior to joining LoanNEX®, Amir led the development and implementation of several fraud detection systems for prominent Industry technology leaders including Kroll Factual Data. He was also Technology Leader for one of Industry’s most prominent CRM software companies, Mortgage Returns. Amir designed and developed first-in-industry automated business solution to quantify, price and mitigate risk (mortgage fraud, collateral risk, appraisal risk, regulatory compliance, loss mitigation, loss forecasting and automated valuation models).

    Chris on LoanNEX Team

    Chris Krueger

    VP of Engineering, Distinguished Engineer

    Raj Parekh

    Senior Vice President of Business Development

    Raj Parekh has more than 15 years senior sales & entrepreneurial executive experience in building startup companies, managing sales, marketing, and operations. Most recently Raj was the Vice President of New Market Development at CreditXpert. Prior to CreditXpert, Raj was the Managing Director of LoanScorecard, a cloud based automated underwriting system and product, pricing, and eligibility solution designed specifically for non-agency (Non-QM) lenders and investors. He has also held executive positions at Insellerate, ActiveProspect, LeadPoint, and was the founder and CEO of LeadROI one of the first lead management and CRM solutions for consumer direct lending. Raj holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Kansas, and a Juris Doctorate (JD) from the University of Tulsa College of Law.

    Erin Whitcomb - Employee at LoanNEX

    Erin Whitcomb

    VP of Operations

    Erin Whitcomb joined LoanNEX in January of 2020 as Manager of Strategic Initiatives, responsible for Client Services, Operations and Project Management. With over 12 years working for technology companies, and more than 5 years in the mortgage industry, Erin has extensive experience in implementing efficient and quality processes to scale operations, while meeting both organizational and customer needs. Erin has a Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Missouri – Columbia.

    Chris Rendler

    VP of Product and Partner Success

    Chris Rendler joined our team as VP Product and Partner Success in 2023. With a wealth of experience in the mortgage industry, Chris is instrumental in driving our partner product roadmap and leading our investor support team. 

    Chris came to us from Vontive, an Embedded Mortgage Platform, where he focused on growing the white-label partner vertical. Prior to that, he worked at Black Knight as a Business Systems Analyst for their Product & Pricing Engine. He also served as Team Lead for the Product & Pricing Engine at Compass Analytics, with an emphasis on investor content and rules management.

     

    James Booe

    VP of Product and Integration Manager

    As VP Product and Integration Manager, James Booe leads our partner integration initiatives at LoanNEX. His experience aligning business objectives with customer needs provides LoanNEX with deeper expertise to deliver exceptional value to our clients.


    With over 8 years of experience at EllieMae, Inc./ICE Mortgage Technology, including 6 years as the Product Manager for EPPS, James’ experience brings LoanNEX valuable insights into our client’s needs.

    Nancy Carter

    VP National Sales

    Nancy is an accomplished leader with over thirty years of experience encompassing wholesale & correspondent production, sales & marketing, MBS trading, retail lending management, loss mitigation and REO. Well-versed and experienced in structured transactions and capital markets. Nancy has been instrumental in developing top notch, best-in-class mortgage banking platforms with Lehman Brothers, UBS, Morgan Stanley & others. Most recently she led the Non-QM efforts for the correspondent channel at Caliber Home Loans. She holds a BA from Texas Tech University.

    Stephanie on LoanNEX Team

    Stephanie Krueger

    Director of Product Requirement and Quality Assurance

    Juan Pablo Salamanca on LoanNEX Team

    Juan Pablo Salamanca

    Manager Investor Support

    Krista
    Ard

    Client Success and Account Manager

    Krista Ard joined the LoanNEX Team in 2023 as Client Success and Account Manager. Her extensive background has played a pivotal role in the growth of Mortgage Operations teams. With over 14 years of experience in the mortgage industry, Krista has dedicated 9 years to specializing in the Non-QM market. Additionally, she has earned an FHA DE Certification, further showcasing her expertise in the field.