Mark A. Casale
President and Chief Executive Officer

Essent founder Mark Casale has more than 25 years of financial services management experience, with senior roles in the areas of mortgage banking, mortgage insurance, bond insurance and capital markets. Mr. Casale is also a Director of Essent Guaranty, Inc., Essent US Holdings, Inc. and Essent Group Ltd.

Mr. Casale previously served as president of Radian Guaranty, Inc. Prior to his role as president, he held senior positions overseeing capital markets and strategic investments, and managing the company’s concerns in joint venture businesses.

Prior to that, Mr. Casale was senior vice president for corporate finance services at Advanta Mortgage, where he created a new business to offer capital market services, including securitization access, warehouse and residual financing to mid-size mortgage bankers. He also served as vice president and treasurer at Advanta.

Mark Casale holds a BS in accounting from St. Joseph’s University and an MBA in finance from New York University.

Adolfo Marzol
Vice Chairman

Adolfo Marzol is a mortgage finance industry veteran with more than 25 years of wide-ranging experience in the areas of financial management, capital markets, credit risk, operations risk, and mortgage servicing. Most recently, he served as a senior advisor to companies in the areas of mortgage risk management, policy and governance.

Mr. Marzol previously held leadership positions at Fannie Mae, including executive vice president and chief credit officer from 1998 to 2004, and he served as the company’s first chief risk officer in an interim capacity. Prior to Fannie Mae, Mr. Marzol worked at Chase Manhattan Mortgage, where he held a series of senior positions, including executive vice president and chief financial officer. He began his mortgage finance career with Equitable Mortgage Resources Inc.

Adolfo Marzol earned a BS in economics and an MA in finance from the University of Florida.

Vijay Bhasin
Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer

Vijay Bhasin brings to Essent a wealth of mortgage finance industry expertise, including multiple senior management positions specializing in all aspects of mortgage risk, modeling and analytics.

Mr. Bhasin joined Essent from Countrywide Financial Corporation/Bank of America, where he was managing director with responsibility for capital assessment, asset liability management, counterparty credit risk measurement and structured credit analytics. Earlier in his career, he held several management positions with Freddie Mac, including vice president for credit and prepayment modeling, as well as research positions with Fannie Mae and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Vijay Bhasin earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, India; an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Southern Illinois University; and a PhD in Finance from Indiana University.

Jeff Cashmer
Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer

The leader of Essent’s business development team, Jeff Cashmer draws on 18 years of experience in mortgage finance, mortgage insurance and business development.

Most recently, he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of a nationwide mortgage insurer, with responsibility for all operations, pricing and sales functions. Mr. Cashmer held previous management positions within the mortgage insurance industry, including business development, capital markets, international business and strategic planning groups. Prior to that, he worked at Household Finance Corporation with roles in underwriting and quantitative marketing analytics.

Jeff Cashmer earned a BS in finance from Illinois State University and an MBA from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

Mary Lourdes Gibbons
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary

Overseeing Essent’s legal and compliance office, Mary Gibbons brings more than 20 years of experience to the business—most recently as chief legal officer at Wilmington Finance, where her responsibilities included creating and implementing legal strategies to achieve business goals as well as leading the company’s legal and compliance departments.

Ms. Gibbons began her career at the US Bankruptcy Court and White and Williams LLP. Her mortgage-related experience includes senior roles at ContiMortgage Corp. and Advanta Mortgage Corp.

Mary Gibbons received a BS in marketing from Saint Joseph’s University and a JD from The Delaware Law School.

William D. Kaiser
Senior Vice President, Chief Operations Officer

A seasoned mortgage industry executive, Bill Kaiser comes to Essent after a 25-year career in the areas of operations, technology and finance.

Before joining Essent, Mr. Kaiser’s mortgage insurance experience includes serving as senior vice president of operations of a nationwide mortgage insurer, with responsibility for the field underwriting organization, centralized operations, quality assurance, and other service-related functions. Mr. Kaiser previously served as vice president of business solutions of a nationwide mortgage insurer, where he developed and implemented solutions for improved business performance with an emphasis on advanced technology. He has also managed mortgage-lending retail and wholesale channels, as well as a broad range of staff support functions for financial services companies.

Bill Kaiser holds a BS in business administration from Boston University.

Lawrence E. McAlee
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

With a strong background in the areas of finance, accounting, controls and risk management, Essent’s Chief Financial Officer Larry McAlee brings two decades of industry service to Essent.

Most recently, Mr. McAlee held a series of senior management positions at Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., including chief accounting officer, general auditor, and chief enterprise risk management officer. His responsibilities at Sovereign included corporate and business unit accounting, external reporting, operational risk, securitization and investor reporting, the Sarbanes-Oxley internal controls program, loan and credit review, and the corporate internal audit department. Prior to joining Sovereign, Mr. McAlee was a partner with Arthur Andersen LLP.

Larry McAlee holds a BS in accounting from Saint Joseph’s University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Ted Gray
Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer

Responsible for managing Essent’s IT operations, Ted Gray has 25 years of experience serving Fortune 500 companies in the area of information technology, including 17 years in mortgage and financial services.

Before joining Essent, Mr. Gray’s mortgage insurance experience includes serving as vice president of business systems solutions, overseeing application development and delivery to enhance risk management capability and improve operational efficiency.

Mr. Gray’s experience also includes senior management positions with GMAC Mortgage, SunTrust Mortgage, and BearingPoint Consulting, where he focused on information technology strategy, architecture, delivery, and management.

Ted Gray received a BS in Management Information Systems from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Christopher Curran
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Chris Curran has over 24 years experience in mortgage banking and financial services in the areas of financial management, pricing, asset valuation, capital markets, operations and originations. Most recently he served as senior vice president of pricing and operations for a mortgage insurer, where he also lead their capital markets group.

Mr. Curran previously served in a variety of leadership positions with JP Morgan Chase and Advanta at both the corporate and business levels. Leadership areas of responsibility included residual and mortgage servicing valuation, investor relations, corporate development, secondary marketing and corporate controller. Chris began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen LLP, specializing in financial services and securitization.

Chris earned a BS in accounting from LaSalle University, Philadelphia, PA.