WEST CTO Named Inman Innovator of the Year

August 24, 2017

Gorkem Kuterdem, chief technology officer (CTO) for WEST, was honored by Inman as Innovator of the Year. WEST is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Williston Financial Group.

Kuterdem was among several honorees announced Aug. 10 at the Inman Connect conference in San Francisco.

“We are honored to celebrate so much creativity and invention,” said Inman publisher Brad Inman. “Never in the history of the Innovator Awards has there been so much innovation and, therefore, never has our list of finalists been so large—these are exciting times.”

Kuterdem was named CTO for WEST in 2016. He came to WFG in 2011 as part of its acquisition of an independent title company in Seattle, Wash. After obtaining his Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, he worked with a startup that was one of the first participants in electronic delivery of title market share data via the Internet. He has since been involved in developing and implementing platforms for title and escrow production, integration, business intelligence and workflow management. He is currently the technical lead and architect for WFG’s transformation to a single operating platform.

“Gorkem is never satisfied with the status quo, which is part of what makes him a driver and a leader for WEST,” said Patrick Stone, chairman and CEO of parent company WFG. “Perhaps more than ever before, the mortgage and real estate industry is ripe for significant integration and enhanced connectivity.   Gorkem embraces those possibilities on a daily basis and is focused on eliminating the rekeying of data; the mistakes that come from that and the possibilities that arise from making the real estate process a single continuum; resulting in money saved and increased efficiency.”


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