Okai brings years of tech leadership to Rocket as the company continues its strategy of AI-fueled homeownership
Rocket Companies, the Detroit-based fintech platform company including mortgage, real estate and other financial service businesses, today named Venmo Chief Technology Officer and former PayPal technology executive Papanii Okai the Executive Vice President (EVP) of Product Engineering – effective October 7. In this newly created role, Okai will work with the company’s senior technology leaders to create AI-driven products at an even greater velocity.
“We’ve all experienced technology that drives real impact in the world through Papanii’s work with Paypal and Venmo. Now, he will be using that skill to help revolutionize the homeownership journey,” said Shawn Malhotra, Chief Technology Officer of Rocket Companies. “After serving in roles from a hands-on-keyboard engineer all the way to a CTO at both startups and large international tech companies, Papanii’s technical depth and track record for building high-performing and highly engaged teams makes him a valuable asset for us at Rocket. I’m looking forward to working closely with him as he helps us continue to evolve and elevate our technology teams.”
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Okai joins Rocket at a time when the company is modernizing the homeownership experience for clients and partners by harnessing AI to create the most personalized, efficient and accurate process possible. The company created its own loan origination system – called Rocket Logic – that uses AI to identify and automatically extract data from the documents Rocket clients submit. A related tool, Rocket Logic – Synopsis, presents team members with searchable transcripts from calls, chats, relevant documents and data from Rocket Logic. With the company’s AI-powered tools, Rocket is projected to save more than 700,000 hours of time this year.
“Homeownership is one of the most impactful things that can happen in someone’s life. It brings security, stability and can build generational wealth – which is exactly why I jumped on this opportunity,” said Okai. “The best way we can use technology is to make the path to homeownership easier, faster and more accessible. I’m looking forward to bridging the gap between technology and human experience, so people across the country, no matter where they are from, feel confident taking this life changing step.”
Okai spent nearly 11 years in technology leadership roles at Venmo, most recently as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering. He led the technology and engineering teams who built and scaled products used by Venmo’s 90 million users, while driving strategic initiatives that solidified Venmo as a leader in peer-to-peer payments.
Okai also led the engineering teams at PayPal, the global payments company serving more than 400 million accounts, holding many roles ranging from platform engineer to Chief Technology Officer for Branded Checkout and Vice President of Engineering for PayPal Giving. He oversaw the engineers, developers and product managers worldwide who powered PayPal’s payments platform used by both customers and merchants.
Okai will collaborate closely with engineers, product managers and design teams to build upon Rocket’s AI-powered products. His leadership will ensure that Rocket continues to deliver technically advanced, client-focused solutions that drive innovation and efficiency at every stage of the home buying process
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