Career moves

Heather Russell, who was fired earlier this year as Fifth Third Bancorp's chief legal officer, has re-emerged in a new role.

SunTrust Banks in Atlanta has agreed to buy the multifamily lending business of Pillar Financial in New York.

Stewart Information Services Corp. is reshaping its board by adding three independent directors and its CEO to the panel as part of a settlement with its biggest shareholder, activist investor Starboard Value.

Mortgage Contracting Services has acquired title insurance and settlement services provider Lenders Title Solutions.

A leader who surrounds herself with diverse thought and talent, Nikki Groff of Wallick & Volk Mortgage Bankers, formed a team that helped propel her to Top Producer status from a small Arizona town.

David Schneider, who became Ditech Financial's president in February, is no longer with the lender as parent company Walter Investment Management streamlines leadership under its new CEO, Anthony Renzi.

Mortgage industry hiring and new job appointments for the week ending Oct. 14.

Franklin Codel, Wells Fargo's head of mortgage, will now oversee all consumer lending as part of a management shakeup that comes amid the bank's fake account scandal.

Within hours of taking the reins at Wells Fargo, new chief Tim Sloan pledged to finish the reforms begun by his predecessor, John Stumpf, who stepped aside Wednesday in an attempt to quiet the phony-accounts scandal that has rocked the company.

The Wells Fargo phony-accounts scandal is barely five weeks old, but it felt like John Stumpf had been hanging on for five years.