Christopher G. Curran

President, Essent Guaranty, Inc.

Christopher G. Curran was named President of Essent Guaranty in December 2021, having previously served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development since 2011. Mr. Curran has more than 30 years of mortgage insurance, mortgage banking and financial services experience.

As President, Mr. Curran is responsible for leading Essent’s mortgage insurance (MI) business, including risk management, business development, information technology, operations, marketing and public policy.

Mr. Curran currently serves as a member of the MBA’s Residential Board of Governors and is actively involved with Essent’s philanthropic mission, which is focused on children and education, through his support of the Independence Mission Schools of Philadelphia.

Mr. Curran began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen LLP, specializing in financial services and holds a BS in accounting from La Salle University in Philadelphia.

Vijay Bhasin

Chief Risk Officer, Senior Vice President

Vijay Bhasin has served as Chief Risk Officer and Senior Vice President since 2009. Mr. Bhasin has significant mortgage finance industry expertise, including holding multiple senior management positions specializing in mortgage risk, modeling and analytics.

From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Bhasin served as a managing director of Countrywide Financial Corporation/Bank of America, a mortgage lender, 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, and held research positions with Fannie Mae and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Mr. Bhasin holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India, an MBA in finance and marketing from Southern Illinois University, and a PhD in finance from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Ted Gray

Chief Information Officer, Senior Vice President

Ted Gray has served as Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President since 2009. Mr. Gray has more than 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 served as a vice president of business systems solutions, overseeing application development and delivery to enhance risk management capability and improve operational efficiency.

His 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.

Mr. Gray holds a BS in management information systems from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Kendra Placek

Senior Vice President, Operations

Kendra Placek serves as Senior Vice President of Operations and has been with Essent since 2016.  Ms. Placek has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of technology, operations, capital markets and financial services.

Prior to joining Essent, Ms. Placek served as Vice President of Capital Markets at PHH Mortgage with responsibility for product development and pricing platform operations.

Prior to that, Ms. Placek served as senior vice president at a de novo bank in Hilton Head, South Carolina where she developed and managed secondary marketing, hedging and warehouse operations, capital markets partnerships, and economic forecasting.

Ms. Placek holds a BS from the University of Delaware and is a graduate of the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking.

Wayne Throgmorton

Senior Vice President, Business Development, Essent Guaranty, Inc.

Wayne Throgmorton has served as Senior Vice President, Business Development, since 2021, having previously served as Vice President of National Accounts since 2010.  He has more than 30 years of experience in the mortgage finance industry, including various positions with mortgage originators.

Before joining Essent, Mr. Throgmorton served as a vice president of national accounts,  overseeing account responsibilities for some of the industry’s largest lenders.

He also held senior management positions with Irwin Union Mortgage, Aurora Loan Services and Banc One Mortgage, where he focused on capital markets, asset valuation and hedging and credit risk management.

Mr. Throgmorton holds a BS in finance and MBA from Ball State University.