Career moves

PHH Corp., which saw its CEO depart a few weeks ago, late Thursday named Charles Pizzi, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, to its board.

Mark Calvert has joined San Ramon, Calif.-based Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Corp. to continue its national expansion into the Midwest and the East.

Citigroup recently told its mortgage correspondents that going forward it will only buy "low risk" loans. What's a low risk loan, you ask? Answer: any mortgage that has an almost zero chance of going south.

Former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd, who was named last month in a mortgage-related SEC fraud suit, has officially resigned from publicly traded investment manager Fortress Investment Group and its board, ending a leave of absence.

Allonhill, an independent third-party review firm specializing in mortgage due diligence and credit risk management, hired Bill Cushard as director of training and development.

TMS Funding, the wholesale arm of a Connecticut-based nonbank, this week hired Domenic Melillo as vice president of wholesale finance.

Mortgage Contracting Services, Tampa, Fla., named Tod Phelps as chief information officer.

The Home Lending Source, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., has hired 30 loan officers from the MetLife Home Loans, and is talking to another 25 or so.

Titan Lenders Corp., Denver, hired Mark Ridder as executive vice president and general counsel.

Caliber Funding LLC, Irving, Texas, is talking to several loan officers and support staff who worked at MetLife Home Loans and may wind up hiring upwards of 300 full-timers, according to officials familiar with the situation.

Just when Redwood Trust was starting to look a bit like the Maytag repairman of the jumbo MBS market, we began to hear reports this week that two top 10 ranked banks are working on jumbo deals - for later in the year.

zIngenuity Inc., a boutique consulting firm advising mortgage lenders on mortgage finance matters, said that Rob Smith, vice president, has been named as the head of the mortgage analytics team.

VITEK Mortgage Group, Sacramento, Calif., appointed Mike Wheeler as vice president of production.

It would appear that the chief executives managing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in for a pay cut - a significant one at that.

Sara W. Stephens, of Little Rock, Ark., began her one-year term as president of the Appraisal Institute on Jan. 1.

Although women have made much progress in reaching the leadership levels of business, including the mortgage business, the progress is disappointing - and stalled. What is so stubborn about this issue? Why aren't more women making it to (and staying at) the top? The answer may be in awareness of why women leave and what they bring to the table.

Commercial mortgage banker Walker & Dunlop, Bethesda, Md., funded $4 billion of new loans in 2011, a 27% gain from the year prior, according to newly reported figures.

MountainSeed, Atlanta, a provider of appraisal management services to community and regional financial institutions, said that Lisa Scott has joined the company's sales division.

First, some good news: We understand that 350 MetLife Home Loan staffers are about to be made an employment offer. On top of that, other offers are being made to many of MLHL's high-performance loan officers. That's good news for the rank-and-file workers that make up this industry.

Scott Stern, the founder and CEO of Lenders One, a top player in residential finance, confirmed to National Mortgage News that he will leave the organization in March.