Inaugural Blog Post for Oakleaf President & CEO Chris Milner

I have heretofore avoided blogging in a way that I hope is natural to someone of my generation. I grew up when computing was still a novelty, and though I personally enjoy all the new gadgets that technology is making available, I have stopped short of using Instagram and Twitter – and blogging, until now.

At The Oakleaf Group, I have tried to create a company that deals with clients, employees and the marketplace with unwavering integrity.  I founded Oakleaf almost 11 years ago, as the world was reeling under a staggering economic crisis.  It was precisely the lack of integrity – and transparency, and trustworthiness – that pitchforked us into the problem in the first place.  Customers were betrayed, employees were laid off, and the marketplace collapsed.

Today, we are still recovering from the crisis, and I think integrity is more important than ever.  Regulations have multiplied and raised the bar on best-practices and the calculation of economic capital, the mortgage industry is taking its first tottering steps to recovery, technology is driving us to ever-faster, ever-better data and modeling.  But without integrity in everything we do, no amount of regulation, no recovery, no technological miracles will prevent another crash.

If we as a company challenge and reward our employees, we will thrill our clients, and if we do that, we will generate both social and economic returns for Oakleaf.  I – along with every member of the Oakleaf team – am committed to this vision, and we’d like to think that it shows.  Most of our new business comes from referrals from satisfied customers.

If you’re visiting us for the first time, though, let me introduce you to Oakleaf. We primarily serve the financial services industry – banks, investment firms, mortgage companies – and also their regulators, law firms involved with them, and the GSEs.  To these, Oakleaf offers a wide range of business, management and technical consulting services, and we provide our clients with integrated holistic solutions for their specific pain points.

To do so, we need a great execution team.  We seek out the best and brightest – SMEs, modelers, financial analysts, data scientists, project managers, developers, underwriters, quality control specialists – and we have a tight, efficient operations team that facilitates their work. Though we all work hard, we take the time to do things right, and to enjoy what we do, and have fun with each other and our clients.  Because ultimately, our assets are our team and our clients!  Our current Oakleaf job openings are always listed on the Careers section of our website.

To meet our clients’ ever-changing needs, we have also re-organized our service offerings to align with what we think is most important to you.

If you are already working with us or have in the past, we appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.  If not, we welcome the opportunity for you to reach out so we can prove ourselves to you.