Katherine Le, president of Santa Ana-based Stearns Lending Inc., isn’t one to give up on her goals—no matter how steep the obstacles.
As a teenager in Vietnam, her first attempt at fleeing the war-ravaged country ended in imprisonment.
It took family intervention—including a bribe to officials—to get her out of prison.
“The conditions were pretty bad, but my mom and I wanted to get out (of the country),” Le said.
Came to U.S.
Two years later, at 17, Le was in the U.S., having escaped the communist regime in a “rickety” boat with a handful of other family members.
“I was one of those boat people,” said Le, who got here in the late 1970s and eventually settled in Huntington Beach, learning English and putting herself through college.
“I still feel blessed,” she said.
Le was among five local businesswomen honored at the Business Journal’s 17th annual Women in Business awards luncheon May 25 at Hyatt Regency Irvine.
Le graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a bachelor’s in business management in 1985. She moved up the mortgage industry ranks through a series of lending and underwriting positions.
Le met Stearns Lending founder and Chairman Glenn Stearns in the late 1980s. He was a mortgage broker submitting loans to the company where she worked.
“I teased him a lot, and told him I taught him everything he knows,” Le said. “We hit it right off.”
Le went to work for Stearns in 1995, starting as executive vice president of operations in 1995. She became president in 2000.
She and the company have seen a few downturns in the “feast or famine” industry, Le said.
Nothing compared to the industry collapse a few years ago that saw many of Stearns’ competitors close their doors for good.
Stearns Lending felt its share of pain, losing business and employees in 2006 and 2007.
After a few dicey years, the company rebounded.
It now is larger than it was in the pre-crash days and is the second-largest independent mortgage lender in the state.
The company has grown to $250 million in yearly revenue and more than 1,000 employees. It makes more than $500 million in loans every month, according to company officials.
Strategic Shift
The growth is due in large part to decisions Le and other Stearns Lending executives made just before the bottom fell out of the industry—in particular a decision to close down its option adjustable rate mortgage lending division.
“I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished the past (few) years,” Le said. “I think it’s because of my experience—I’ve seen the (market) go up and down three or four times. I thought my experience and (management) philosophy helped us weather” the bad times.
Le is the third Stearns executive to have been recognized by the Business Journal in recent years.
Glenn Stearns won an Excellence in Entrepreneurship award in 2007, while Chief Financial Officer Bob Telles won a CFO of the Year award last year.
Like Le, Stearns and Telles both count unique and compelling life stories.
Stearns, who was raised poor in the Washington, D.C. area, was a teen father who turned his life around when he came to Orange County.
He made a fortune in the mortgage business and gained fame for a stint as the millionaire on reality TV show “The Real Gilligan’s Island.”
Telles is a Vietnam War veteran who holds the distinction of being the first member of his family to ever graduate from high school.
The executive team’s unconventional personal histories and risk-taking personalities might have helped Stearns survive the mortgage crash.
Company officials were on record in 2005 saying they expected a downturn in the housing market. Many other mortgage industry executives still were looking to grow their subprime and other higher-risk loans.
• Headquarters: Santa Ana
• Founded: 1989
• Business: mortgage lending
• 2010 revenue: about $250 million
• Employees: more than 1,000
• Notable: President Katherine Le one of five Women in Business honorees at Business Journal’s annual luncheon
Cuts
Stearns began making cuts in staff and office space in 2006 and shut down Stearns Lending’s option adjustable rate mortgage division, which made higher-risk loans.
“When the market changed, we took some big steps, our book (of mortgages) went down fast,” Le said.
“We moved a lot faster than our competitors,” Le said.
Cuts
The cuts got more severe in 2007 as the market started eliminating big-time rivals, including Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp., which filed for bankruptcy that year.
Monthly loans at Stearns Lending fell from $140 million to a low of $14 million in 2007. Nearly three-quarters of the company was laid off.
What helped save the company was the quality of the loans it made, according to Le.
“Our book of business performed a lot better (than others),” she said. “It protected us.”
Work Ethic
According to Glenn Stearns, Le’s unassuming management style and her work ethic are behind much of the company’s success in the past couple years.
In good times, she stood behind other managers and let them take the credit. In tougher times, she’d be the last one in the office every night, looking over every loan, according to Stearns.
“I love what I do, I have a passion for this business,” Le said.
That passion for work has, at times, made it a challenge to balance work and family life, she said.
She credits her husband, an engineer, for helping raise their two children.
Le also is active in charities, including helping found Hope Today, a nonprofit that helps poor people in Vietnam.
