Volpe is chairman and CEO of Nova Home Loans, Southern Arizona’s largest mortgage lender.
Born at Kincheloe Air Force Base near Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Volpe was only a year old when his family moved to Tucson.
 John Volpe |
“I knew I could play for the Steelers. I would need a scholarship to play in college,” he remembers. “They said I wasn’t fast enough so I joined track. They said I needed better balance so I wrestled my way to two state championships. I lived alone in a house my mom rented in Tucson, went to high school, got straight As, played football and got a scholarship to Stanford in 1986.”
At Stanford University, Volpe was an all-Pac 10 rusher. A coaching change in his senior year found him spending most of his time on the bench.
“It hurt,” he said. “I was ranked pretty high going into the draft my junior year; but with little playing time during my senior year, there would be no draft.”
He believed he had the talent to play in the National Football League but would need to go a different route.
Volpe set his gaze on a graduate degree from Stanford in industrial engineering.
“It turned out to be a very valuable degree,” he said.
After graduate school Volpe joined the BC Lions in Vancouver, British Columbia, who are part of the Canadian Football League.
“I got some breaks. In late preseason I had a great game, made the team, broke five CFL rushing records, and won Rookie of the Year. The following year I made Western Division MVP,” he said.
After three years Volpe signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
At Steelers’ training camp Volpe led in rushing yardage but then suffered a career-ending injury and returned to Tucson.
That’s when Volpe ran into Ray Desmond, who had founded Nova Home Loans 1980 and continues to this day as president.
“I wasn’t interested in working for a mortgage company,” Volpe said. “What I knew about mortgages is that I couldn’t get one between my CFL and my NFL contracts. Even with a Steelers’ contract they said I was ‘between jobs.’ Knowing what I know today I think I could have gotten approved.”
Volpe joined Nova in 1994 and applied what he had learned in industrial engineering to streamline the operation and workflow.
“We have a team approach and a manufacturing-oriented process of producing loans,” he said.
Volpe also set his sights on being the best.
“I didn’t know what goals to set,” he recalled. “A colleague suggested 10 loans per month so I set my long-term goal at 10. Each month I wanted to close one more loan. After a year I was closing 25 to 30 per month. I hit a road block at 30 and reorganized my team; I hit 40. I kept making process improvements and in 1997, two years after joining the firm, was asked to serve as managing partner and executive vice president.”
Working all the way up to closing 300 loans per month, Volpe became Nova’s top originator of units closed, then No. 1 in Arizona and, in 2003, the entire United States. Nova now employs eight of the top 200 loan originators in the country.
Nine years after joining Nova as an assistant loan officer, Volpe was named CEO.
He underscores the importance of listening.
“I wasn’t a listener when I joined Nova. I had to learn. Honestly, it had as much to do with marriage counseling as anything else,” he said. “You also need to learn to anticipate ” to see what’s coming and calculate a response. You need vision.”
As for going up the ladder, Volpe suggests, “You don’t necessarily plan to start at the top. For me it comes down to hard work and preparation ” under-promise and over-deliver.”
Reflecting on mistakes he says, “Admit when you’re wrong and don’t dwell on mistakes. As CEO I look at a mistake as someone learning something new. As long as they don’t keep making the same mistake, it’s a good day.”
Volpe’s biggest challenge as CEO of Nova Home Loans has been the credit crisis.
“It’s been a struggle. If I weren’t on my A game we might not be here. Warehousing, funding our own loans has given us the ability to manage risk and fund more loans,” he said. “We projected 1,300 loans for May and it’s my job to keep us ahead of the curve ” hiring and retaining great staff to meet the current and projected workload.
“If you want the corner office you need to earn it. For me, it was hard work and performance. The only way I’ve ever achieved anything is through hard work, setting and reaching goals, and focus,” he said.
Volpe says he draws inspiration from his wife and children. “My goal now is to be the best husband and father I can be. For years, everything revolved around work. Now my focus is on my family.”
He wants you to know Nova cares. “We care about people and this community. If it weren’t for local business people, my coaches and teachers, the Boys and Girls Clubs I wouldn’t have made it. We are giving back to the community. Local businesses need to stick together to ensure that Tucson prospers.”
Nova Home Loans
6245 E. Broadway, Suite 400
www.novahomeloans.com
(520) 745-0050 or toll-free 1-800-955-9125
Eight other offices:
• 5255 E. Williams Circle, Suite 6000
(520) 750-8888
• 220 E. Wetmore Road, Suite 120
(520) 887-3800
• 1650 E. River Road, Suite 108
(520) 618-5626
• 10355 N. La Cañada Drive, Suite 101, Oro Valley
(520) 777-2000
• 4341 S. Highway 92, #B, Sierra Vista
(520) 249-2421
• 2525 E. Camelback Road, Suite 600, Phoenix
(602) 224-4840
• 8800 E. Raintree Drive, Suite 180, Scottsdale
(480) 614-6682
• 1730 S. Fourth Ave., Suite B, Yuma
(928) 726-7266
In addition to Arizona, Nova also offers home loans in the states of California, Colorado, Idaho,
Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah,
Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.
Contact Gary Hirsch at gary.hirsch@vistage.com or (520) 225-0373 to suggest a CEO or business owner for a future “Inner-view.” Hirsch is a group chair and executive coach with Vistage International - www.vistage.com - and leads a group of CEOs, company presidents and business owners who meet monthly. CEO Inner-view appears the second and fourth weeks of each month in Inside Tucson Business.
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