Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010
Road to Palm Springs

Anita Padilla-Fitzgerald

Megastar Financial Corp.
Denver, Colorado

Spending 21 years in loan operations and rising from an entry-level position at age 18 to executive management sounds like a career achievement for many, but for Anita Padilla-Fitzgerald, she was just getting started.

In 1995, Padilla-Fitzgerald had become the president of a mortgage broker, closing $500 million annually. She converted the company to a mortgage banking operation and obtained a line of credit and built loan volume to $2 billion annually.

In 1998, the company was sold and she was released with no severance package. Using what she had learned over her 20 years in mortgage banking operations, she had some ideas she believed would improve the service process of originating loans.

In 1999, Padilla-Fitzgerald founded Megastar Financial Corp. with a mission statement in mind, “With accountability and integrity you earn autonomy.” Her formula for success was to work with seasoned accountable professionals and build  a cutting edge mortgage technology. 

Her industry witnessed mortgage businesses melt down when the housing market collapsed. Sticking to her value of integrity and accountability helped Megastar not only survive the financial storm but thrive.

The company employs 275 people and had a record-breaking 74 percent increase in production in 2009, producing more than $1.8 billion in residential mortgage loans at a time when other mortgage companies around the country were imploding. Her goal is to assure that America knows Megastar is “America’s most trusted mortgage company®.”