Charles Naivar, Paragon’s president, got into the mortgage business after being in the Nuclear industry for nearly 8 years.

“I was a nuclear systems engineer in training and going to school for nuclear engineering,” says Charles, “when I began to think about the future of the business. I felt that the nuclear industry was dying.”

About that time a friend started a commercial finance brokerage company. It made sense at that point to switch from atoms and electricity to something that had a whole lot more real world application.

“That was my introduction to the financial world,” he says. “I got out of nuclear power and started going to Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington.”

That was in 1997, and he did not look back except to bid the South a fond farewell.

“In 1999 my Yankee wife dragged me up to the North kicking and screaming,” he recalls. After having to switch mentally from gray to blue, a shift from commercial to residential lending was comparatively easy.

“I started Paragon Mortgage in a small corner of our one-bedroom apartment in Philadelphia.”

He started branching out in 2000, and it was a good thing because two little girls were not that far behind Dad’s business plan.

A new house, a basement office, two employees, and “around 2003 we expanded into other states--North Carolina and Maryland. We now have nine employee sin three states.”

And those little girls, Madison, now 4, and Morgan, now 2, joined Charles and wife Tami to keep things busy at home.

To say Charles likes to play golf is to say that, well, Katrina was quite a storm. A member of Rivercrest Golf Club in Phoenixville, he plays as often as he can. “I enjoy the competitive aspect of golf because there is no perfect score.”

However, golf’s illusive perfection came as close to reality as he could have imagined when he hit his first-ever hole-in-one at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland, home of the 2007 British Open.

Meanwhile, Charles and his dedicated Paragon associates keep working to make the perfect match between homebuyer and lender. Each time Paragon helps turn over a set of house keys, it feels almost as good as that hole-in-one.