Relentless + Reliable: Sagent Celebrates John Marquardt’s Four Decades of Excellence

In this series, we’re focused on the humans who make up Sagent. We’re fortunate to have a team that is constantly evolving – both professionally and personally – folks from all over the world who bring a variety of experience, education, and perspectives to advance our challenging mission. We’re excited to introduce you to some of these talented people who make Sagent a vibrant, productive community.

Tell me about your family, pets, where you live, and anything else you would like to share about your life to help people get to know you.  

I live in South Bend, Indiana with my wife of 41 years. Both of our daughters live in the area, and we have six grandchildren. I met my wife while we both worked at First California Mortgage; she was an FHA underwriter, and I was installing a new mortgage origination system. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as one of our daughters is a manager with a mortgage company. 

Where did you grow up? What is your educational background?  

I spent the first 17 years in the Chicago area, and our family moved to the San Francisco area when I entered my senior year of high school. I have a BS in Finance and Economics from California State University Chico. 

What are your hobbies?  

I take any opportunity I can to get outdoors and get active, including mountain biking, kayaking, alpine, and cross-country skiing. 

Do you do any volunteer work or have a soft spot for any charity in your community?  

I served as President of my local Mountain Biking advocacy group, where I helped build two trails in the area. I am currently a level 2 instructor for mountain biking and put on free training classes throughout the spring and summer for kids and adults in the community. 

For the last 20 years, I have also worked at voting centers on Election Day, doing everything from checking voters in to vote setting up and maintaining the current technology. 

What are your favorite movies, music, or TV shows? 

I am still a Seinfeld fan. I love to read, both fiction and historical nonfiction, and recently I have been churning through the Bosch and Reacher novels. Having gone to high school and college in the ‘70s, I enjoy most music from the ‘60s and’ 70s with the exception of disco. I am also a fan of Americana and Alt Country.  

What was your first “real” job?  

When I was a junior in college, a neighbor hired me to work for him during the summers and school breaks at a mortgage company. He was the CFO and had me reconcile the FNMA and GNMA custodial bank accounts. 

Tell me more about your career journey. Highlight a particularly positive or negative experience and what you learned from it. 

When I graduated from college, the mortgage company I had been working part time for did not have any full-time openings. However, they gave me some contacts in the industry, and I reached out to several mortgage companies searching for any job. The president of one company thought it would be a great idea to hire me to be the assistant to his servicing manager. On day one of my first job out of college, I found out that the president of the mortgage company, who was on vacation, had never discussed my job with the servicing manager, who also did not understand why he would need an assistant. The servicing manager had six departments, and he decided that I would spend at least one month in each department, working in each position in the department. The freshly minted college graduate started working in the hazard insurance area, opening the incoming mail, and sorting it. This six-month journey provided me with a rare opportunity to learn all the key functions in loan servicing at the very beginning of my career.  

How did you get into mortgage fintech?  

My last role with a mortgage company was managing problem loans and managing the technology providers that we used for servicing and origination. One of the problem loans I was dealing with was a loan made to a tax collector for a county in California. I had to take a call from the tax collector when he called to complain that his taxes had not been paid for the last two years and that the story had made its way to the local newspaper. After that call I decided that I wanted to lean into the technological side of the business, and I quickly found an opening at a Fiserv business unit that provided online real-time processing for savings and loans. I took a job as a product specialist for mortgage lending. In this role I was a business analyst, level 2 support and a trainer all combined in one position. 

What does your “day to day” look like in your role at Sagent?  

As manager of the specialty support team, I support the technical aspects of Sagent’s LoanServ platform, which powers servicing for all mortgage and consumer loan types with scale compliance, reporting, real-time payments, and happy borrowers. My team also helps support other teams interpreting technical research from the engineering team and dealing with any escalated cases.  

What about your job motivates or challenges you? 

I have been directly involved in helping clients for over forty years. Every day brings up something new, which provides an immense challenge that I enjoy. 

Have you had an impactful mentoring experience, either giving or receiving?  

Early in my fintech career I would be called in during the middle of the night to work on critical system issues that had to be resolved so we could get the servicing system up by 6AM. I represented the application/customer side to resolve these issues. My manager at the time, Dennis, was a Vietnam-era marine who was six years older than I was. He taught me to be relentless, reliable, and creative in solving issues and would push me to identify the critical impacts of issues to our clients and then how to work together to solve each impact as the clock ticked by approaching the 6AM deadline.  

In your opinion, what is the greatest impact of building cloud-native servicing technology? 

Throughout my work in the industry, I am always asking myself why there have only been two real servicing solutions. The cost to develop and maintain servicing systems is immense. Building a servicing system on a modern technology stack will allow Sagent to simplify the ongoing support of the servicing applications and drive industry-wide lasting change.  

What excites you about Sagent’s mission to lead the evolution in loan servicing by solving its most complex challenges?  

Sagent has a long track record of providing flexible, real-time solutions to mortgage servicing. When you combine this experience with a modern technology stack, the Dara product is the clear winner. 

When you think about Sagent’s values of “Relentless, Relevant, Respectful, and Reliable” which of those resonates with you most? 

Relentless and reliable resonate with me the most. Everyone at Sagent is relentless in our support and advocacy for our clients and in providing a reliable product that servicers and homeowners can depend on 24/7, just like the electricity that we all depend on in our personal lives.  

What is your experience with Sagent’s culture? 

Throughout my time assisting with the LoanServ and CARE products, I have been delighted to be a part of such a collaborative, client-focused culture. My colleagues are always willing to step up and help when issues arise. 

What is your favorite thing about working for Sagent?  

New challenges appear every day, providing an opportunity to make a difference for Sagent and our customers.  

Is there anything else you would like to share? 

I have had amazing opportunities over the last forty-one years and have followed the adage that we can never forget the client and that people, more so than technology, make the difference.