Our team

Our team

Our team.

APPROVED’s licensing professionals champion a solution-oriented culture that encourages innovative thinking and implements the best ideas in service of our clients. Our team has decades of legal and licensing experience and has successfully represented the full spectrum of financial services and fintech companies.

We value relationships and build on the experience, reputation, and trust our team has earned to guide our clients through the regulatory approval process and deliver work that is accurate, organized, and thorough.

Our team.

APPROVED’s licensing professionals champion a solution-oriented culture that encourages innovative thinking and implements the best ideas in service of our clients.

Our team has decades of legal and licensing experience and has successfully represented the full spectrum of financial services and fintech companies.

We value relationships and build on the experience, reputation, and trust our team has earned to guide our clients through the regulatory approval process and deliver work that is accurate, organized, and thorough.

  • Paul Amann

    Paul Amann

    Applications Programmer

  • Esko Battulga

    Yesun-Erdene (Esko) Battulga

    Licensing Analyst

  • Kristie Battershell

    Kristie Battershell

    Director

  • Annie Coffman

    Annie Coffman

    Client Success Manager

  • Graham Davidson

    Graham Davidson

    Senior Program Manager

  • Gordon Ehrlich

    Gordon Ehrlich

    Licensing Analyst

  • Quinn Schaper

    Tiffany Fowlie

    Senior Program Manager

  • Erica Gloster

    Erica Gloster

    Senior Program Manager

  • John Kromer

    John Kromer

    Founder

  • Tim Lange

    Tim Lange

    Founder & Chief Executive Officer

  • Erika Nakaue

    Erika Nakaue

    Senior Program Manager

  • Brendan Quinn

    Brendan Quinn

    Licensing Analyst

  • Dominic Redding

    Dominic Redding

    Junior Developer

  • Clint Rockwell

    Clint Rockwell

    Founder

  • Valéria Rodrigues

    Valéria Rodrigues

    Licensing Manager

  • Katy Ryan

    Katy Ryan

    Founder

  • Quinn Schaper

    Quinn Schaper

    Licensing Analyst

  • Derek Schultz

    Derek Schultz

    Director

  • Justin Stidham

    Justin Stidham

    Licensing Manager

  • Debbie Stopeck

    Debbie Stopeck

    Senior Program Manager

  • Vina Wioncek

    Vina Wioncek

    Director

Paul Amann

Paul Amann

Applications Programmer

Companies benefit from Paul’s ability to bridge the gap between users and software, as well as from business experience in all aspects of licensing compliance.

He combines technical expertise and experience in the mortgage and financial industries to design software that efficiently manages state-required licensing.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Paul spent 17 years working with in-house licensing departments of mortgage and finance companies to develop license-tracking software and form automation. He also helped design and build interfaces for intercompany and external third-party processes.

Esko Battulga

Yesun-Erdene (Esko) Battulga

Licensing Analyst

Clients benefit from Esko’s attention to detail, legal service experience, and business administration background.

As an APPROVED licensing analyst, Esko draws upon his diverse experience in the legal industry and strong communication skills to deliver efficient, organized and high-quality service on client projects.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Esko worked for a SaaS start-up company as a general manager where he led the product development and enhancement activities of an online booking platform and gained valuable experience in strategic business administration and management.

Kristie Battershell

Kristie Battershell

Director

Clients requiring assistance with state and federal examinations benefit from Kristie’s deep experience in this area.

At APPROVED, Kristie manages a state and federal examination consulting program combining advisory services and technology solutions for Orrick and APPROVED clients. These services include assistance with all single-state, multistate, and federal financial services exams.

Prior to joining APPROVED’s leadership team as a director, Kristie spent more than 13 years at Rocket Mortgage, LLC, where she led teams responsible for multiple compliance matters including individual and corporate licensing, compliance reporting, all state, federal and investor examinations and regulatory change management. In addition, Kristie was a director in product strategy, where she was responsible for collaborating and driving new strategic business partnerships for the company and delivering products powered by technology. Kristie is an active participant in the financial services industry, speaking at numerous conferences, participating in the NMLS Industry Development Working Group from 2010-2019 and serving as a member of the AARMR Advisory Council from 2016-2019.

Annie Coffman

Annie Coffman

Client Success Manager

Annie is the primary point of contact at APPROVED and works to ensure seamless engagement between our clients and our project teams.

Annie joined APPROVED from Buckley LLP and brings significant experience working with financial services clients on a wide range of legal and licensing matters. As client success manager, she works closely with the APPROVED leadership team to tailor each engagement to the client’s specific needs. She helps track and staff each project, and is always available to answer any questions that arise throughout the licensing process.

Graham Davidson

Graham Davidson

Senior Program Manager

Clients benefit from Graham’s extensive licensing and regulatory background.

He draws upon more than a decade of experience, which includes working directly with state regulators in support of the development of the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Graham served as the Regulatory Compliance Manager at a nationwide mortgage lending and servicing company where he oversaw company, branch and mortgage loan originator licensing as well as examinations. Previously, he worked at FINRA and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors where he served as the Manager of Policy Analysis where he worked with various state regulator and industry working groups to enable strategic system enhancements of NMLS.

Gordon Ehrlich

Gordon Ehrlich

Licensing Analyst

Clients benefit from Gordon’s communication skills and his past experience in public policy research.

As an APPROVED licensing analyst, Gordon delivers a thorough, organized and dependable work product throughout the licensing process. He draws upon his strong communication skills and meticulous attention to detail to ensure that clients achieve the best results.

Quinn Schaper

Tiffany Fowlie

Senior Program Manager

Financial services and fintech clients benefit from Tiffany’s extensive knowledge of the state regulatory landscape and licensing requirements.

Tiffany has nearly two decades of experience in both the public and private sectors, and much of her career was devoted to the development and implementation of the NMLS. She spent 12 years at the Massachusetts Division of Banks, during which she served as deputy commissioner of nondepository institution supervision, with oversight responsibility of the licensing, examination and enforcement functions for more than 900 money services businesses, finance companies, and debt collectors, and over 3,500 locations. In addition, she served as a subject matter expert during the development of NMLS, and managed Massachusetts’ migration of all license types to NMLS. Tiffany’s private sector experience includes working as a government relations director for a large consumer finance company and as compliance manager for a fintech startup.

Erica Gloster

Erica Gloster

Senior Program Manager

Erica draws upon her extensive licensing and regulatory experience to assist APPROVED clients with licensing and state and federal examinations

Prior to joining APPROVED, Erica led a team of licensing professionals at a large mortgage company responsible for obtaining and maintaining licenses for over 5,000 individuals, regulatory reporting for all 50 states based on various company licenses and managing individuals and company renewals. She has also worked closely with state examiners and business teams with examination requests, fulfillment and responses as an examination specialist.

Erica has also worked in real estate, where she gained experience obtaining and maintaining licenses and MLS memberships. Her work included initial company set-up, ongoing renewals and compliance reporting, researching reciprocity requirements and continuing education reciprocity requirements for brokers who were licensed across multiple states.

John Kromer

John Kromer

Founder

John is a partner at Orrick and one of the nation’s leading consumer financial services lawyers, providing bank, nonbank, fintech and financial sponsor clients with proactive and practical counsel to enable them to meet business objectives and manage risk in a rapidly changing business, legal, and regulatory environment.

He helps clients navigate the complex maze of federal and state laws and regulations. He regularly counsels clients on compliance with regulations issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as examination and enforcement actions by the bureau, federal banking agencies, state regulators and other enforcement agencies. He advises on the laws governing licensing and chartering, usury, advertising, disclosures, privacy, lending, and servicing practices, and laws prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices.

John advises financial services firms on new product and business line development, including structuring and negotiating commercial relationships, joint ventures and partnership agreements. He also assists financial and strategic purchasers of fintechs and financial services firms on regulatory matters, including due diligence of companies, assets and portfolios, and transactional structuring in light of federal and state licensing and regulatory requirements.

Tim Lange

Tim Lange

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Financial services and fintech clients benefit from Tim’s firsthand experience with the licensing procedures in virtually every state, along with extensive knowledge of state regulators, requirements and industry participants.

Tim was instrumental in the development and launch of APPROVED. He draws on a wealth of operational and strategic leadership in his position as CEO, overseeing APPROVED’s technology-enabled, fixed-fee service that assists companies obtaining and maintaining state-required licenses.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Tim spent nine years working at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors as its senior director of policy, where he focused his efforts on policy and system development for state regulatory agencies. While at CSBS, Tim led external stakeholder engagement for NMLS 2.0, an overhaul designed to make NMLS more intuitive and efficient for industry users and regulators. He also managed and worked on the SAFE Act implementation in NMLS, the expanded use of NMLS for money transmitter, debt collector, consumer lender and other nonmortgage licenses, as well as the development of the first nationwide electronic surety-bond platform. In addition, he worked nationally with state regulators and industry participants to facilitate corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions.

Erika Nakaue

Erika Nakaue

Senior Program Manager

Erika is an experienced licensing professional with nearly two decades of financial services experience in law firm and corporate settings.

Her experience with NMLS, licensing procedures, and requirements enables her to provide the highest quality of service to APPROVED clients.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Erika held a senior role at a large mortgage company, where she assisted in launching of the company’s multiple joint venture subsidiaries and contributed to the maintenance of all company licenses. She supervised and was the lead trainer of a team of licensing analysts handling branch and individual licensing.

Brendan Quinn

Brendan Quinn

Licensing Analyst

Clients benefit from Brendan’s legal industry experience and strong communication skills.

Brendan draws upon his legal industry experience and strong communication skills to ensure clients receive organized, thorough assistance throughout the licensing process. Before joining APPROVED, Brendan was a case assistant at a law firm where he provided attorneys with legal research assistance for a variety of types of cases and managed databases containing sensitive client information.

Dominic Redding

Dominic Redding

Junior Developer

The APPROVED team benefits from Dominic’s extensive technical background and attention to detail.

Dominic is responsible for most of the database reporting and external automation for APPROVED’s proprietary licensing regtech platform, Mogy. He also draws upon these technical and development skills to create efficiencies that improve internal business processes and workflows.

Clint Rockwell

Clint Rockwell

Founder

Clint is a partner at Orrick and leads the Financial & Fintech Advisory practice, a team that delivers synthesized regulatory, enforcement and transactional advice to more than 700 fintech market participants, as well as other leading financial institutions and funds.

He advises a variety of clients on consumer financial services matters, including private equity, banks, mortgage companies, fintech/wealthtech/proptech, auto lenders, commercial lenders, secondary market loan purchasers, and securities broker-dealers, regarding regulatory, licensing, compliance, and transactional matters on a nationwide basis. His work also includes advising on California-specific lending matters, including the California Financing Law, among other California lending and servicing laws.

Valéria Rodrigues

Valéria Rodrigues

Licensing Manager

Valéria’s project management and process improvement experience help corporate leaders maintain compliance while achieving their business goals.

She draws upon more than 15 years of experience in licensing, project management, reporting and regulatory compliance to deliver results-driven service to APPROVED clients.

Prior to APPROVED, Valéria worked for a global education company where she supported licensing projects for a portfolio of more than 200 domestic and international locations. She managed multiple compliance projects with varied regulatory authorities, and provided oversight on activities, timelines and progress reports in support of the company’s government relations division.

Katy Ryan

Katy Ryan

Founder

Katy is a partner at Orrick and advises financial services companies on a variety of regulatory, licensing, compliance, and transactional matters, including federal and state compliance requirements, Secure and Fair Enforcement Act compliance, Federal Housing Administration compliance, and the risks associated with the False Claims Act and Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act.

She represents banks, first and second mortgage originators and servicers, reverse mortgage originators and servicers, fulfillment service providers, commercial lenders and servicers, bank holding companies, private equity firms, finance companies, debt collection companies, financial institutions and technology companies, payment processors, money transmitters and various related service providers.

Katy assists clients with matters before state regulatory agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, federal banking agencies, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. She also provides strategic and tactical advice to help clients identify and secure the nationwide federal and state approvals necessary to achieve operational goals.

Quinn Schaper

Quinn Schaper

Licensing Analyst

Clients benefit from Quinn’s communication skills and his experience in financial services.

Quinn draws upon his strong communication and organizational skills to provide clients thorough, organized and dependable work product throughout the licensing process. Prior to joining APPROVED, Quinn worked at a financial services firm where he was responsible for creating financial planning-oriented client deliverables and maintaining the in-house CRM platform.

Derek Schultz

Derek Schultz

Director

Derek is a proven problem solver with experience creating new efficiencies in the delivery of various services and products. He pushes the team to meet new challenges, identify solutions and deliver the highest quality services to APPROVED’s clients.

As a director at APPROVED, Derek leads strategic and system-development initiatives. He manages APPROVED’s East Coast team and specializes in money services businesses licensing, scrum product development and criminal background check logistics.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Derek worked at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors on policy and system development for state agencies on the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System. At CSBS, Derek’s focus areas included engagement and development related to money services businesses licensing, the NMLS Federal Registry and criminal background check processing. Major initiatives he led while at CSBS included the design, development and launch of the NMLS Money Services Businesses Call Report and expansion of criminal background check functionality for owners, executive officers and branch managers in NMLS.

Justin Stidham

Justin Stidham

Licensing Manager

Clients benefit from Justin’s experience in legal compliance and as a licensed mortgage loan originator.

Drawing upon his experience both as a licensing professional and as a firsthand licensee, he provides the highest level of service and tangible results in an efficient manner for APPROVED clients.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Justin spent six years at Rocket Mortgage and Rocket Homes Real Estate, working as a licensed mortgage loan originator before transitioning into a legal compliance role. As a mortgage loan originator, he held licenses and assisted clients across 18 different states. During his time at Rocket Homes Real Estate, he worked on expanding a team of licensed real estate agents and brokers to establish and extend coverage in all 50 states.

Debbie Stopeck

Debbie Stopeck

Senior Program Manager

Our clients benefit from Debbie’s three decades of state licensing experience.

Debbie is leading APPROVED’s comprehensive licensing consulting practice for California Financing Law-eligible clients, where she provides oversight of CFL and other state financial services applications, and serves as an escalated level of review for more complex state license applications and client projects.

Before joining APPROVED, she spent 30 years at the California Department of Business Oversight, overseeing the licensing regime that allows various entities to conduct business under the CFL and the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. She also worked with the DBO legal department in drafting the laws and regulations — and the design of the application process — prior to implementation of the CRMLA in 1996.

Vina Wioncek

Vina Wioncek

Director

Clients requiring licensing assistance benefit from Vina’s licensing and regulatory background, as well as her state and federal examination experience.

Prior to joining APPROVED, Vina spent more than 10 years in various leadership roles at Rocket Mortgage and Rocket Homes, where she led teams responsible for regulatory and licensing matters, including individual and corporate licensing, compliance reporting, all state, federal, and investor examinations, and regulatory change management for both the mortgage and real estate business lines. In addition, Vina has more than two decades of experience in the banking industry where she was responsible for managing and growing portfolios of high-net-worth clients.