Chris Varro
Chris Varro, born and raised in Wisconsin, had a keen interest in engineering, computers, and technology from a young age. After excelling in his studies at the University of Minnesota, he graduated with distinction, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. This academic background, coupled with his inherent curiosity, set the foundation for a remarkable journey in the realm of information technology and software development.
In December 2001, Chris started his professional leadership journey as a Software Engineering Manager at GMAC-RFC in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he led several software development teams for over six years. His work at GMAC-RFC was an effective launch pad for his career and in November 2007, he transitioned to Lawson Software as Lead Software Engineer.
In 2012, Chris took up the role of Assistant Vice President of Software Development at Stonegate Mortgage in Indianapolis. Chris founded and led the IT Solution Delivery organization, successfully grew the team from zero to 85 members and managed an annual budget of $7.5M. He made significant strides in stabilizing IT solutions and improving the production incident rate by over 95%. His unwavering dedication led to successful IT solutions for regulatory audits and several acquisitions, eventually culminating in Stonegate's Initial Public Offering.
Chris embraced entrepreneurship in 2018, co-founding TPO Solutions in Saint Paul, Minnesota. As Chief Technical Officer, he was responsible for the technical development of innovative technology products for the mortgage finance industry, including the Athena platform, a cloud-native core application suite that greatly bolstered TPO's value proposition.
Over the last five years, Chris joined Homepoint Financial first as Senior Managing Director of Software Development and then assumed the role of Chief Information Officer. At Homepoint, he oversaw a team of 260 engineers, developers, and IT professionals, managing a hefty $50M technology budget. He successfully expanded the software development organization and navigated the company through a hyper-growth phase, resulting in a successful Initial Public Offering. During his tenure, Chris led the transformation of Homepoint's digital landscape and stabilized its software development organization. He spearheaded the implementation of innovative practices such as Team Topologies, DevOps, Test Automation, Telemetry, and Alerting, that brought about substantial improvements in deployment frequency and a reduction in MTTR (mean time to restore).
Chris is recognized as a down-to-earth leader who values honesty, integrity, resilience, and sound judgment. His deep expertise spans various IT domains, including product development, enterprise architecture, software engineering, security, cloud infrastructure, and vendor management.