Ryan Lambert, FCT

Head of product development and innovation

FCT

Age: 34

Years in the industry: 8

Ryan Lambert began his career as a consultant; after working on a project with his current employer, FCT, he gained an appreciation for the mortgage industry. “I was drawn in by the raw opportunity to think differently about financial services,” he says, “and FCT provided me with the white space and support so that my teams and I could bring it to life.”

That was eight years ago, and Lambert has been thriving ever since. “I loved the tangibility to actually owning all aspects of the product development life cycle, from initial conceptualization to shipping a product and subsequently growing it,” he says. “Each time we’ve launched a new product, I’m proud of the work my teams and I have completed, bringing new innovation to the mortgage industry that creates real value for our users.”

Lambert sees the biggest challenge in the industry as the disjointed experience it presents to borrowers. “Right now our industry is stuck in this weird half-digital, half-offline state,” he says. “There are slick front-end applications and pre-approvals, but condition fulfillment and closing is still rooted in paper. I’m not sure this hybrid state is actually creating the right experience for anyone.”