For Gene Thompson, moving up to CEO of InterLinc Mortgage Services this year represents a shift to formulating the company's strategy rather than executing it.

As the former president and chief operating officer of the Houston-based retail lender, Thompson took the helm just as it was ranked 45th in the National Mortgage News 2021 Best Companies to Work For survey. Thompson says the company originated about $2.6 billion last year and he projects a volume of $3.5 billion this year, with more growth to come.

“I've got a three year plan that takes us to $5 billion and a five year plan that takes us to $7.5 billion,” he told NMN.

Former CEO Jim VanSteenhouse, who is now the company's chairman, bought 49% of InterLinc in 2010, and then a year later, both of them acquired the rest of the company.

While it’s a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae seller and servicer, as part of its best execution strategy, InterLinc will also sell loans to aggregators.

It’s licensed in 22 states, with a total of 52 branches in 13 of them, with a footprint that stretches from its home state of Texas through New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Kansas, then east into Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, down to the Carolinas and Florida, and then back across the South to Texas.