Rodrigo Lopez, CMB
Rodrigo López was born and raised in Cali, Colombia, and has lived in Nebraska since 1971; initially as an exchange student in South Central Nebraska. He then went on to receive undergraduate and MBA degrees from the University of Nebraska and continue to develop his professional career in Omaha, Nebraska. He is also a graduate of the Mortgage Bankers Association (“MBA”) School of Mortgage Banking and became a Certified Mortgage Banker (“CMB”) in 1994. On December 19, 1985, Rodrigo became a proud citizen of the United States of America.
Except for the first six years, during which he worked for an architecture firm, the rest of his professional career has been dedicated to commercial real estate finance and development. In 1997, he started a mortgage company in the family’s spare bedroom, which eventually became a Fannie Mae DUS and FHA lender, financing the entire spectrum of multifamily rental housing. The mortgage bank was sold in 2015 to Northmarq Capital. At the time of the sale, the Company had several offices around the United States and approximately $6 billion multifamily rental housing mortgage loan portfolio in 37 states. After the sale, Rodrigo became Executive Chairman of Northmarq Capital, until his retirement in 2017. During that year, Rodrigo was also Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
After his retirement from the mortgage banking industry, from 2019 through 2020, Rodrigo became Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Nebraska, the largest high acuity pediatric hospital in a multistate region. In partnership with his wife, Mary, they developed Capitol Place, a mix-use, mid-rise downtown building completed in 2019.
In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, he remains active on several community not-for-profit boards, including Omaha Performing Arts, The Durham Museum, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, College of Business Administration National Advisory Board. Mary and Rodrigo currently serve on the Executive Committee of a multi-year $3 billion capital campaign that will benefit all four campuses of the University of Nebraska.
Over the past several decades, he has chaired or served on several Boards of Directors, including Children’s Nebraska, MBA’s COMBOG, Fannie Mae’s DUS Advisory Council, City of Omaha Planning Board, United Way of the Midlands, Kiwanis Club of Omaha, University of Nebraska Foundation, Lamp Rynearson, Inc., Mutual of Omaha Bank, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, MBA Opens Doors Foundation, Camp Fire USA Midlands Council, City of Omaha Personnel Board, Nebraska Community Foundation, Nebraska Mortgage Association, Greater Omaha Alliance for Business Ethics, Habitat for Humanity of Omaha, Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and Great Plains Girl Scouts Council.