Adam Blitzer, chief operating officer of Datadog, joined Rocket Companies as an independent board member on Thursday. He replaces Bill Emerson, who stepped down on Nov. 6 to focus on nonprofit work redeveloping Detroit's Renaissance Center.
Blitzer co-founded marketing automation company Pardot in 2007 and later held senior roles at Salesforce following its acquisition of the firm. At Datadog, he helps lead a cloud monitoring and security company that serves businesses worldwide.
Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket Companies, stated in a release that Blitzer "knows the difference between AI that makes headlines and AI that actually works." Rocket, parent of Rocket Mortgage, recently acquired Redfin and Mr. Cooper Group and is deploying AI across its operations. The company reports that AI voice agents now handle 65% of inbound servicing calls, while AI completes credit pulls on nearly 20% of direct-to-consumer mortgage volume.
Rocket is integrating home search, mortgage origination, closing and servicing into a connected platform using 30 petabytes of data. Blitzer said in a statement that Rocket has "enormous amounts of data, millions of client relationships and businesses that span the entire homeownership experience."
As an independent board member, Blitzer will receive an annual cash retainer of $75,000 and a restricted stock unit grant valued at $215,000, vesting after one year, according to SEC filings.
For the third quarter ending Sept. 30, Rocket reported net income of $709 million, compared with a net loss of $124 million a year earlier. Mortgage originations closed at $43.6 billion in Q3, down from $49.1 billion in Q2 2026.