Mortgage Bankers Association recognizes Optimal Blue CMO Sara Holtz as finalist for inaugural mPower Visionary Awards

Change Maker recognition honors Holtz for guiding organizations through change and helping women leaders embrace AI with confidence

PLANO, Texas, Oct. 21, 2026 – Optimal Blue announced that Chief Marketing Officer Sara Holtz was recognized as a Change Maker finalist for the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) inaugural mPower Visionary Awards. Holtz was honored in Chicago on October 10 at mPowering You, the MBA's Summit for Women in Real Estate Finance, alongside fellow finalists selected from a field of nearly 100 women leaders nominated from across the industry.

Holtz was selected as a finalist for her ability to guide mortgage and financial services organizations through periods of significant change while helping industry professionals adapt to new technologies and ways of working. At Optimal Blue, she led the development of the company's “Modern. Proven.” brand transformation, reinforcing the value of combining modern technology with trusted industry expertise. She also helped guide the market strategy for the Optimal Insights podcast and monthly Market Advantage mortgage data initiative, ensuring the company’s thought leadership evolved into dynamic resources that make complex market developments more accessible and actionable for mortgage professionals.

Beyond her work at Optimal Blue, Holtz has become an advocate for helping women leaders use artificial intelligence (AI) to expand their leadership capacity. At HousingWire's 2026 The Gathering conference, she presented “Using AI as Your Chief of Staff: Expanding Leadership Capacity at Work and at Home,” a keynote session that challenged conventional thinking about AI as simply a productivity tool. Drawing on her own experience, Holtz demonstrated how leaders can use AI to reduce decision fatigue, create more time for strategic thinking and manage competing professional and personal responsibilities without sacrificing human judgment.

“Change is a constant in this industry, and leadership requires more than keeping up with it,” said Holtz. “We have to help people understand what's changing, give them the confidence to try new approaches and create room for them to grow.”

Holtz has applied that same philosophy within Optimal Blue, encouraging experimentation, transparency and continuous learning as teams adopt AI. Her approach emphasizes helping people think differently rather than simply working faster, with a focus on strengthening communication, decision-making and collaboration.

Her career includes leadership roles during major organizational transitions across the mortgage and financial services industries. Before joining Optimal Blue, Holtz helped guide the launch of the ICE Mortgage Technology brand following ICE's acquisition of Ellie Mae, MERS and Simplifile. Earlier, she directed the post-merger rebrand of PremierOne Credit Union, helping establish a unified identity to support the organization's long-term growth.

The mPower Visionary Awards debuted in 2026 to recognize women whose leadership, impact and support of other women are helping shape the future of real estate finance. The inaugural program attracted  nominees across three categories: Change Maker, Community Builder and Grit and Grace. Fourteen finalists were selected, with one winner named in each category. Two additional honors were presented for Visionary of the Year and Lifetime Achievement.

About Optimal Blue
Optimal Blue powers strategic performance across the mortgage capital markets ecosystem. As the industry’s only proven end-to-end capital markets platform, our technology, data and integrations bridge the primary and secondary markets to help lenders of all sizes optimize performance – from pricing accuracy to margin protection and every step in between. Backed by over 20 years of proven expertise, our modern, cloud-native technology delivers the real-time automation, actionable data and seamless connectivity lenders need to navigate market volatility and scale for growth. To learn more about how Optimal Blue helps deliver measurable ROI, visit OptimalBlue.com.

Media Contacts:
Alexandra Kreuter, Optimal Blue
732.861.5012
Alexandra.Kreuter@OptimalBlue.com

Leslie Colley, Depth for Optimal Blue
678.622.6229
leslie@depthpr.com