Friday, September 7, 2007
The rapid demise of Melville-based American Home Mortgage left 1,500 Long Islanders without jobs. But for Kimberly Collins, Leslie Baran and
Mary Ann Benzola, the closing of the nationís 10th largest mortgage lender was the ticket to self-employment.
The AHM marketing aces weren't ready to go their separate ways Aug. 6, when their employer filed for bankruptcy. So they banded together and
started Koi Marketing Group, based in Bellmore, on the same day, according to Collins, former head of third-party origination marketing for
AHMís wholesale and correspondent divisions.
“We all worked so well together as a team and we did some incredible work while we were at American Home,” Collins said. “
We couldn’t imagine not working together.”
The trio has been together for five years and, with the other 23 members of AHM’s marketing squad, built the American Brokers Conduit brand
– the lender’s wholesale division – from an unknown quantity to the seventh-largest wholesale lender in the country,
according to Collins.
“Our marketing completely drove American Brokers’ bottom line, as well as increased its market share considerably,” she added.
Collins and her crew are now using that industry presence to grow their own business. “Each one of us had multiple job offers (when AHM closed)
and then, when they heard what we were doing, all those people wanted to help,” she said.
Koi Marketing is sticking to the financial industry for its target clientele. It already has two clients in the bag: Lend America, a Melville-based
mortgage company, and United First Financial, a Utah-based producer of mortgage-management software. The fledgling firm should have a third client
this month, according to Collins.
“The overwhelming response to the business so far has just been incredible,” she said.
Collins hasn’t forgotten her old marketing pals, for whom she has been working night and day to find new employment.
Elisamuel de Jesus, formerly AHM’s senior marketing specialist, spent only one day without a job. He is now the marketing manager at
Hauppauge-based Trade Show Fabrications, a company that built booths for the trade shows AHM hosted.
“Once they realized that we were in troubled water, they reached out and let us know that they were sorry about our situation but were
going to stand by us and look out for our employees,” de Jesus said of his new employers.
Trade Show Fabrications needed an in-house marketing resource and de Jesus fit the bill. “Things worked out in my favor,” he said.
Collins really wants to give all of her former AHM team members a new home at Koi Marketing. “We obviously knew that we couldn’t
do that Day One, or even within the first few months,” she said, “but hopefully over time we’ll be able to hire some of
the people back.”
Apart from its three managing partners, Koi currently has two employees, both refugees from AHM’s marketing department. Kelly Antifonario
was the head of the AHM’s events department, where she oversaw live events such as trade shows and seminars. She now serves as director
of events at Koi Marketing and is planning a 10-city national seminar tour for United First Financial, slated to start this week in Tampa, Fla.
Working again with Collins was natural, because “we just have a great rapport together,” Antifonario said.
Collins, who did not want to reveal the identity of the second former AHM employee, is still pursuing options for the still-unemployed members
of her old team. So is the Long Island Chapter of the Financial Planning Association, which has offered free financial planning to anyone displaced
by the AHM bankruptcy, and Suffolk County’s One-Stop Employment Center, which recently hosted a job fair exclusively for former AHM workers.
“The Long Island community has just been fabulous with everybody,” Collins said. “It’s been amazing, to be quite honest.”
Article courtesy of Long Island Business News. Originally published September 7, 2007
Back to News
|
