Fewer concepts can make a mortgage professional nervous the way compliance can. With the potential fines, feels, legal ramifications and impact to reputation, compliance can get even the most productive, and careful, of industry professionals shaking in their shoes.

Jason Roth, co-founder and senior vice president of ComplianceEase, had a notion that this was the case, and by the time he was 25 years old, he had co-founded LogicEase Solutions and ComplianceEase in 2001, introducing the concept of automated compliance to the mortgage industry.

“The company is the market share leader in automated compliance systems for small, medium and large-size lenders,” said nominator Rosalie Berg with Strategic Vantage. “Much of the company’s success can be attributed to Roth’s involvement. In addition to being a highly skilled technologist, he also became an evangelizer of the concept of automated compliance, taking it upon himself to personally meet with hundreds of banks and lenders. In effect, Jason played a pivotal role in changing the perceptions within the mortgage industry.”

Jason graduated from Caltech with a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science, with a concentration in Computer Science. Upon graduation he worked for Adobe’s Acrobat team, and before his 23rd birthday filed for a patent based on some of his work for Adobe, which was ultimately approved and granted in 2003.



I’ve been interested in software since I was very young. In fact, my father definitely influenced my decision to go into software in a couple of ways. First, he always seemed to have a knack for fixing things. As a kid I would watch him build a new staircase or rewire the bathroom, and that instilled in me a passion for figuring out how things work and how to make them work better. Adding to that, when I was maybe 5 or 6, he ended up in a wonderful second career as a software engineer himself. Being significantly less mechanically inclined than he is, software was thus a natural for me from an early age.



The main reason I chose to transition from software programming to a more product-focused software design role was that I enjoy software design much more when there’s a human element to it. Working on the vision for new products and features, as I do now, enables me to interface directly with clients. Sitting down one-on-one with a client and hearing how they use our products is definitely the most satisfying thing about what I do at ComplianceEase. We can sit back with our whiteboards and draw out great solutions all day long; but they don’t mean anything unless people can actually pick them up and use them. I also learn a lot just by sitting down with people who use our products. They’ll often think of something very simple and straightforward that we could change in the way our products work that would make their life a whole lot easier. That two-way dialogue makes it seem more like a partnership, which is far more satisfying than feeling like you’re just out there selling things.



At this point in my career in the mortgage industry, co-founding ComplianceEase and launching our flagship product ComplianceAnalyzer is definitely the highlight for me. My co-founders and I basically started building the product when I was 24, and we founded the company the following year. We started things literally from scratch and found what I believe is the most cost-effective and business-friendly technology solution for managing mortgage lending compliance. Looking back and seeing how the company grew from just a handful of very trusting and visionary customers to over 300 financial institutions before my 30th birthday, is just something you don’t ever imagine when you’re first starting out. I’m proudest of the fact that I can look across our client base and see that a product and a company that I played a part in bringing to life has a positive impact on thousands of people every day.



This is a tough one, but I think I’d most enjoy getting to meet Nobel Laureate and Iconoclast Linus Pauling. Although his work was neither in software nor financial services, as a fellow alum of Caltech, I’ve learned a fair amount about his life, and have always had a certain admiration for the way he was able to blend his passion for the highly technical and scientific with an eye for how to apply that to make the world better. Pauling is the only person to ever win two unshared Nobel prizes, one was in his field of chemistry, of course, but the other was the Nobel Peace Prize. This illustrated the unique way he balanced brilliance in his field with an awareness of how his work would affect the world around him. That’s the kind of balance few can achieve, and if it were possible to sit down and talk with him, I’d hope to gain even the smallest of insights into how he managed it.



I’m actually listening to a Techno DJ, Sasha, streamed via Internet radio through my cellular phone. I’m a self-admitted “early adopter” of technology, and the point we’re at with the technology of music right now is very exciting.



I’m the type of person who doesn’t mind a drive as opposed to a short plane flight. There’s no better way to relax, for me, than to go on a drive for a few hours. Although I’m normally “connected” through my phone and other electronic devices, by forcing myself to disconnect by driving off somewhere that’s very far removed from my daily challenges and modes of communication, I feel like a different part of my brain can come to life. A lot of people talk about “out of the box” thinking, and the only times I’ve really felt completely “out of the box” was when I was out driving in the middle of nowhere. For me, that’s the kind of relaxation that can’t come from a micromanaged vacation, no matter how far you travel.

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