Shashank Shekhar

What defines Shashank Shekhar is innovation and motivation. A prolific speaker and writer with multiple bestselling books, this year he leaned on his talents more than ever before as he oversaw a full rebrand of his tech-first mortgage business, InstaMortgage—not only marketing the company, but also transforming it to offer the kind of leading technologies and unique services that outstrip the rest of the industry.

Besides adding automation in the mortgage process and streamlining everything from income verification to providing accurate estimates to consumers, in 2021 Shekhar created what he calls the mortgage industry’s “first digital human”—an AI-powered service that can listen to and answer questions from borrowers. This kind of revolutionary thinking and technology is core to Shekhar’s identity, and has helped propel InstaMortgage to spectacular levels of growth (1,233% over three years). This power, and the power of his leadership is sure to continue shaping the industry.