Michael Johnston (pictured), a long-time Wells Fargo home mortgage executive, has made the switch to Sprout Mortgage, where he will take on the newly created role of head of distributed retail.

After a 20-year career at Wells Fargo, Johnston joins Sprout to help the non-QM lender expand its consumer and retail sales channel. Johnston will report to Sprout president Shea Pallante.

“We are excited to welcome Michael to the Sprout leadership team,” Pallante said.  “Michael will help drive our commitment to significantly build out Sprout’s retail sales channel through direct-to-consumer outreach, brick-and-mortar retail facilities, and strategic joint ventures – all designed to help Sprout better serve our end-user clients with high-quality financial solutions for homeownership and investment properties.”