Kathryn Lester

Ms. Lester is a Managing Director for Clayton Consulting Services, joining Clayton in November 2002 to provide independent and objective process and performance consulting to the residential mortgage servicing industry. Her current leadership duties include managing a team dedicated to identifying and documenting residential mortgage servicing industry best practices and trends; assessing adherence to governing agreements and settlements; developing servicer evaluation methodology and performing on-site assessments; and providing advisory services to a client base that consists of major mortgage companies, Wall Street firms, national banks, hedge funds, private equity groups, mortgage insurance companies, internal audit divisions, and government entities. The team has conducted over 100 residential mortgage servicer assessments over the past three years. Ms. Lester plays a significant role in project and customer relationship management, including scope, proposal, and contract development and negotiations; project set-up and planning; oversight; and quality control. Engagements have included residential mortgage servicer risk assessments on behalf of bank counsel and RMBS investors; special servicing protocol assessments; special servicer selection advisory services; and mortgage-company start-up and profitability advisory services. Ms. Lester also leads cross-functional teams dedicated to FDIC Surveillance, Oversight, and Compliance Monitoring for Single Family assets. Most recently, Ms. Lester has been actively involved in developing the consulting practice to assessing bank and servicer adherence to the residential mortgage servicing standards contained within the Consent Orders and National Mortgage Settlement agreements, including gap analyses, remediation plans, and development of internal audit/quality control programs. With more than 15 years of experience in the servicing and mortgage banking industry, Ms. Lester possesses an extensive background in pool certification guidelines, servicing transfers, default functions, assignment and release processes, and contract compliance. She is frequently called upon to participate in industry round-table discussions and to serve as a moderator and panelist at national conferences, including serving as a panelist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Office of Regional and Community Affairs 2007 Foreclosure Prevention Strategy meeting and moderating the Bank’s 2008 Process Enhancements to Loan Modification & Loss Mitigation forum. Prior to joining Clayton, Ms. Lester was the Vice President of Operations for American Document Services, Inc., a provider of nationwide release and assignment services, document retrieval, intervening assignment research and remediation, collateral file reconstruction, and GNMA pool certification services to the mortgage banking industry. Ms. Lester received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Kansas.