Kevin Stitt

John Kevin Stitt (born December 28, 1972) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 28th governor of Oklahoma since 2019.

Kevin Stitt was born in Milton, Florida, on December 28, 1972, to a Cherokee family.

His family moved to Skiatook, Oklahoma, when he was five.

He began school in Wayne, Oklahoma, and the family later moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where his father was the pastor of Riverside Church.

He graduated from Norman High School and from Oklahoma State University with a degree in accounting.

Stitt helped pay his way through college by selling educational products door-to-door for Southwestern Advantage.

He was the first person in the company's 115-year history to achieve top sales as a first-year salesperson.

Stitt is a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

Stitt worked in the financial services sector before starting Gateway in 2000.

Stitt has said he started Gateway in 2000 with "$1,000 and a computer."

His first obstacle was to get approved as a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender, for which the company needed a net worth of $50,000.

To achieve that, Stitt put forward the equity in his home.

In 2002, Gateway secured its first warehouse line, began obtaining licensing in states other than Oklahoma, and started recruiting loan officers.

By 2006, it had over 400 employees.

In 2009, Gateway was listed in a Business Insider article as one of the 15 shadiest lenders in the government-backed mortgage industry.

The article said Gateway originated nearly twice as many bad mortgages as its competitors.

Gateway corrected the application and was issued a license in 2009.

It remains in good standing in Wisconsin.

He founded the company and was president and CEO until January 2014, when he became chairman-CEO.

The state overturned the lifetime ban on Gateway, effective November 2017.

Gateway is able to do business in all 50 states.

During Stitt's gubernatorial campaign, Oklahoma Watch reported that Wisconsin regulators fined Gateway for a "clerical error" regarding its history with regulators from other states.

In July 2017, Stitt announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor in 2018.

Facing nine other candidates in the primary election, he ran a statewide campaign with stops in nearly every city and town in all 77 counties.

He finished second, defeating, among others, Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb.

A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2018, defeating Democrat and former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson with 54.3% of the vote.

Stitt was reelected to a second term in 2022, defeating Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, a Republican turned Democrat, with 55.4% of the vote.

A member of the Cherokee Nation, Stitt is the second Native American governor after former Oklahoma governor Johnston Murray.

Stitt grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in accounting.

He is the founder and former chairman and CEO of Gateway Mortgage Group.

In August 2018, after winning the Republican nomination, Stitt stepped down as Gateway CEO as the company announced a merger with a state-licensed bank and sought its banking license.

An August 19, 2018, Oklahoman newspaper article highlighted the Business Insider article's inaccuracies, reporting that "in the Illinois case, a consent order states that the Illinois banking agency investigated a Gateway loan originator for an 'alleged real estate, appraisal, and mortgage fraud scheme.' Gateway fired the employee, asked for a hearing and then agreed to what investigators found. Gateway agreed to a $10,000 fine. The Stitt campaign responded with a press release that said, "the license in Illinois was never revoked.

The state agreed after the appeal not to revoke the license."

NEWS9 also said that according to Georgia's Department of Banking and Finance, Stitt was banned for five years and the company was banned for life from origination mortgages in Georgia.

According to the Oklahoman, a Gateway corporate attorney said there were misrepresentations and insufficient background checks by employees in the Georgia office but Stitt was not involved.

The employees were fired and Gateway paid a $2,000 fine.

Legal Counsel Scott Gesell became CEO in 2020 and Stitt remained chairman.

Gateway is a midsize company based in Jenks, Oklahoma.

It employs more than 1,500 people and originates mortgages in 42 states.

After a decade of rapid growth, a few Gateway employees were fired for making non-compliant loans.