William D. Dallas ('77)

Bill Dallas is an extraordinary entrepreneur with an extensive biography. Recently, Mr. Dallas, along with CIVC partners and a group of private investors, acquired the stock of Woodland Hills, California-based Oakmont Mortgage, now called Ownit Mortgage Solutions. Mr. Dallas serves as the Chairman and CEO of the company which is an industry leader in non-agency residential lending.

In 1981 Mr. Dallas co-founded First Franklin Financial Corporation and has served as its Chairman, CEO & Chairman Emeritus. First Franklin is the nation’s leading nonprime wholesale lender and is now a subsidiary of National City Bank.  In 1995, Mr. Dallas co-founded Heritage Bank of Commerce, a community business bank serving the Silicon Valley.

After leaving the day-to-day management of First Franklin, Mr. Dallas returned to Dallas Capital Management, the private-equity, advisory firm in Westlake Village, California, to diversify his financial interests. Today, Dallas Capital owns, advises and/or operates several successful companies: Ownit Mortgage Solutions, Sysdome (formerly Affinity), MindBox LLC, and in 2001, Mr. Dallas and his partner Bill Freeman co-founded B&B Restaurant Ventures with Fox Sports.

The New York-based television network launched FOX Sports Grill in November 2002, in Scottsdale, Arizona, and then followed up with openings later that year at the Irvine Spectrum in Irvine, California, and in Seattle, Washington.  FOX Sports Grill has created a “new category” of restaurant/sports bar by elevating the guest experience through an upscale, yet casual environment, complete with signature food, personalized event service, live and behind-the-scenes Fox Sports broadcasts, and Fox-style entertainment.  A nationwide roll-out is underway.

Mr. Dallas is Chairman and CEO of Sysdome Corporation and MindBox LLC. Sysdome provides customers with critical decision-support tools that dramatically enhance loan quality. Through delivery of its newest web-based fraud detection product, Electronic Loan Review (ELR), Sysdome combines complex investigative logic and a powerful database system to help customers validate, authenticate, and interpret data "real-time."

Meanwhile, MindBox, a maker of software that automates complex business decisions, has an impressive track record in many industries and received the Mortgage Banking Industry’s coveted 10X award in 2003.

Mr. Dallas is chairman of Diversified Capital Corporation, a multi-office origination enterprise in Northern California and is a board member with LoanCity and with Trestle Holdings. He is inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs through his support of the Paul J. Hooker Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BGSU.

Published: 2008