Justin Helwig is the President/Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Wavelengths Recovery and more importantly Father and Dad to India Rose Helwig, 13. Justin was born in Athens, Georgia where he attended the University of Georgia business school. He moved to Southern California at the age of 23 on a soccer scholarship, only to jump right into the financial industry, where he worked his way through various areas of mortgage banking and real estate, including owning and operating a few of his own companies along the way. In 2009, Justin took over operations and growth of a privately held mortgage company in Irvine, CA.
The detail-oriented, competitive, and generous nature of Helwig led him to build a massive company known as Greenlight Financial from an emerging industry. Justin assumed the role of President with a total staff of 35 people, producing 60 million per month in the residential mortgage loan volume. With his diverse skill set and natural ability to lead, coupled with an innate competitive drive, Justin was able to grow the company from 35 employees to over 1,000 and from 60 million in monthly volume to 1.2 billion monthly in just 4 years. With Justin’s unique ability to strategically scale, attract top talent, and implement a culture and leadership style, Greenlight became the number one direct lender in California and one of the top 10 lenders in the entire nation.
In May of 2013, Greenlight was acquired by the largest non-bank servicer in the US, Nationstar Mortgage out of Dallas, Texas. Justin stayed on with Nationstar, after the acquisition in the role of SVP of production in charge of the Irvine and Dallas offices, which encompassed over 2,200 employees where he continued his education and experience of P&L management, leadership, and strategic planning and growth. Having been in the mortgage banking and real estate industry for over 15 years, Justin had come to a crossroads and yearned to do more with his learned skills and experience.
Having grown up in a religious environment under the teachings of a Father and Mother who directed the missions program at their church and taught English and reading overseas, Justin had philanthropy and passion for helping others in his blood. The random meeting between Justin and Warren sparked a unique partnership and mix of strengths that created what Wavelengths is today, which is nothing short of a movement in the behavioral health and addiction recovery industry. With Justin’s background in finance, real estate deal-making, corporate structuring, and strategic planning, he and Warren have been able to build the infrastructure and roadmap for expansion to widen the net to touch and save more lives. Justin actively gives back to the community and is the founder of All Heart, a nonprofit organization, serving persons suffering from addiction, underprivileged children and victims of domestic violence. His “heart knows no bounds” philosophy will be portrayed in all facets of what he does in his community outreach.
