MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: PHIL d'ORONZIO

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

My name is Phil d’Oronzio and I’m the CEO and a principal of Pilot Mortgage, LLC.  We’re a boutique lender and broker established in Y2K.  We’re a full-spectrum company, but we’re known for our expertise in “finding the pointy end of the spear”: finding ways to pull together transactions that give other lenders heartburn. 

What do you love about the work?

Concocting elegant solutions for seemingly intractable problems.  It’s gratifying to be the White Knight riding to the rescue. 

How did you arrive at this point in your career? What’s your backstory?

I came to Charlottesville in 93 to get a PhD in legal history.  After a couple of years I realized I despised what I was doing all day and most of the people around me.  They started to reciprocate, and I started casting about for a way to pay the bills while I figured out my next move.  A temp agency placed me in an auto financing company’s branch office here in town.  I had a flair for it. A year later I was the credit manager, and less than a year after that I was running the operation.  I was recruited into the mortgage industry in 98 and in y2k I formed Pilot Mortgage with a colleague. So much for the next move.

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point, professionally and or personally along the way?

I realized very early on that financing isn’t about numbers, it’s about narrative. What is the story of how the client got to this point? Why are we where we are, and what do we do to move the story along.  And money is private.  Getting a full understanding of someone’s financial state and their relationship with money is intimate, and even more so when money intersects with housing or more specifically, someone’s home.  Respecting that intimacy and trust is paramount.

Who and or what has been your greatest influence (professionally / personally)?

I can’t point to any one person, but I’ve been fortunate to cross paths with several both in my industry and out of it, who contributed to the formation of my character and identity. 

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

Professionally, I’m adapting to the current housing and mortgage market, just like everyone else.  It’s exciting, but in the “may you live in interesting times” way.   I’m fairly heavily involved in local housing and planning efforts, to include serving as a Planning Commissioner in both the city and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.  There’s a lot of work that has been done and a lot more that needs to be done to address our local housing crisis, and getting into the weeds has been at once fascinating and maddening.

What are you reading, watching, listening to these days?

I have plenty of technical material to wade through, but reading for pleasure is my great escape.   I tend to be both promiscuous and voracious, but at present I’m binging a series of irreverent historical novels by George McDonald Fraser.