Career moves

Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said he will step down August 14 after nearly completing his five-year term as the top supervisor of national banks.

Total Mortgage Services LLC is expanding its reverse mortgage division and has hired an executive to head it that has held positions at three companies in the residential real estate finance business.

American Bankers Association president and chief executive Edward Yingling is retiring at the end of this year, according to the trade group.

Robert Steel is resigning his seat on Wells Fargo & Co.'s board of directors, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Prudential Real Estate Investors, Parsippany, N.J., hired Eric Adler as CEO-Europe, responsible for overseeing its investments and transaction capabilities throughout Western Europe and the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Adler will be located at the London fund management offices of Pramerica Real Estate Investors Ltd. Before joining Prudential, he co-directed Tishman Speyer's European activities and was a member of its global management and investment committees. Earlier, he worked for Morgan Stanley, where he led MSREF¹s activities in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union has named Dennis Kuncas vice president, mortgage lending operations. He will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Manhattan Beach, Calif., credit union's wholesale and retail mortgage operations, including broker approvals, lock desk, processing, underwriting and funding. Kuncas most recently held the position of branch operations and sales manager at Deutsche Bank/MortgageIT in Irvine.

Valuation Partners, a national appraisal management company, named John Golletti vice president, national account executive, and Dan Kennard vice president, operations. Both Golletti and Kennard join Valuation Partners as veterans of the mortgage industry, with senior management experience from loan origination, processing and operations to appraisal and settlement services product sales among many other responsibilities. Golletti has been hired to broaden the company's sales reach, and will focus his initiatives in the Eastern United States. Kennard has been brought on to utilize his operational expertise to provide better service to the company's customer base.

Ladder Capital Finance Holdings LLC, a New York-based commercial real estate specialty finance company, has appointed Thomas Harney as head of Merchant Banking & Capital Markets to lead Ladder Capital's newly-created Capital Markets/M&A Group. With more than 25 years of experience in real estate and capital markets, including serving as senior managing director and co-head of real estate investment banking at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., Harney has completed over $70 billion in real estate M&A and capital markets transactions during the span of his career. Harney will be joined by Summer Nemeth, who has been appointed as a director of capital markets for the new Capital Markets/M&A Group. Nemeth worked extensively with Harney at Bear Stearns.

The PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. has promoted Chris Hovey to senior vice president of servicing operations and loss management. In his new role, Hovey is responsible for three groups: claims and loss management; homeownership preservation initiatives and loss mitigation; and policy servicing and business intelligence. He will report to executive vice president, chief business officer, Joanne Berkowitz. Prior to his promotion, Hovey served as vice president of policy servicing and business intelligence. He began his career with PMI in 2002, and has held various positions in portfolio analytics and IT operations for PMI's U.S. mortgage insurance business. Prior to joining PMI, Hovey spent over a decade in the software industry where his experience included founding an eCommerce company, which he sold in 1999.

OneWest Bank CEO Terry Laughlin is leaving the company to join Bank of America where he will be reunited with CEO Brian Moynihan and succeed mortgage executive Jack Schakett. Laughlin announced his resignation from OneWest, Pasadena, Calif., on Monday and will stay with the bank through the end of July. At B of A Laughlin will be in charge of limiting home loan losses and monitoring relations with mortgage investors, said a company spokesman. Schakett, a former Countrywide Financial Corp. executive, plans to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. B of A bought Countrywide, once the nation's largest home lender and servicer, in the summer of 2008. OneWest is the successor to IndyMac Bancorp, which was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2008.

Freddie Mac Tuesday dismissed its executive vice president of operations and technology, Mike Perlman, as part of a company reorganization effort, according to officials close to the matter. Operations and technology is one of the largest departments at the GSE, which has been operating under a government conservatorship for almost 22 months. Freddie Mac had no comment on the matter but an official close to the situation said Joe Rossi, a senior vice president, would assume Perlman's duties. Besides Perlman, a small number of other I/T workers were let go, sources confirmed. In August 2007 the GSE named Perlman EVP of operations and technology. Prior to joining Freddie, he was a managing director at Morgan Stanley where he developed operations and technology infrastructure to support the firm's fixed income division. He also was a managing partner at AT&T Solutions' financial services group.

Braver Stern Securities has hired veteran Wall Street mortgage analyst Scott Buchta as managing director and head of investment strategy. Braver said his hiring "completes the firm's" formation of a newly created mortgage sales team. Prior to joining Braver Stern, Mr. Buchta was a managing director and head of investments at Guggenheim Securities, LLC. Before that he spent 20 years at Bear Stearns, where he served as a senior managing director in the firm's mortgage analytics group.

Financial services attorney Thomas Vartanian and two of his long-time colleagues at Fried Frank LLP, Washington, have joined the law firm of Dechert LLC. Vartanian, who has been handing out regulatory advice for four decades, will chair Dechert's Financial Institutions Transaction Group. Attorneys David Ansell and Robert Ansell also made the jump to Dechert, an international law firm with offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. "Tom, David and Bob enjoy high-industry profiles, and together they form one of the premier bank regulatory practices in the United States," said Dechert chairman Barton Winokur.

CWCapital, Boston, a national multifamily and healthcare real estate lender, has named David Lundin senior vice president and production manager for its Northeast FHA lending unit. Lundin is a 20 year industry veteran who has underwritten in excess of $500 million of HUD insured loans, the company said. Lundin, who began his career at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Boston, is an approved underwriter for refinance and construction financing of multifamily properties under the MAP program. CWCapital has closed over $11.5 billion in loans since 2002, and currently services a portfolio of $11.6 billion in loans in 48 states.

Meridian Capital Group, New York, has named Chad Johnson managing director of its commercial originations group. As an officer of the firm he will be originating loans nationally. He will work out of the firm's newly formed office in Kansas City, Kan. During his career, Johnson has worked for GMAC Commercial Mortgage, UBS, Deutsche Bank and Wachovia.

Sandler O'Neill Partners LP hired Carlos Mendez to lead its new structured finance group and assist in sales and trading of mortgage-backed securities and other fixed-income products. Mendez joins the firm from Institutional Credit Partners LLC where he was senior managing director in the capital markets division. Sandler O'Neill also hired as managing directors in the new group: Joshua Eaton, Andrew Mauritzen and Chris Howley. Eaton most recently was general counsel and co-chief operating officer of Dune Capital Management LP, where he served in an advisory role on the acquisition of IndyMac Federal Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Mauritzen and Howley also were managing directors at Institutional Credit Partners.

Broward Bank of Commerce, Fort Lauderdale, said it has launched a new residential lending division, giving its customers access to the purchase and refinancing markets. The Florida bank, which has been in business for less than two years, named Regina Blanz senior vice president in charge of the effort. During her career she has worked at Minto Communities and Pointe Federal Savings Bank. Broward Bank, which boasts no delinquent loans, has $77 million in assets. The launch of the new residential unit "reflects the bank's mission to be responsive to our customers' needs and fits our vision for strategic growth," said Broward president Keith Costello.

A second former Republican presidential candidate has become a spokesman for a reverse mortgage originator. Former Sen. Fred Thompson, who represented Tennessee from 1994 through 2003, and who ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008, is the new spokesman for American Advisors Group, Irvine, Calif. Thompson is also well known for his acting, with roles in a number of movies and most notably playing Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch in the NBC television series "Law & Order." He is also an attorney and radio show host. Among other politicians who have become reverse mortgage company spokesmen is Jack Kemp, who was secretary for Housing and Urban Development in the George H.W. Bush administration. Kemp became a spokesman in 2008 for Generation Mortgage Co., Atlanta. A former pro football player, Kemp sought the Republican nomination for president in 1988 and was the vice presidential candidate in 1996.

Paul Peters, the former president of Hibernia Bank's mortgage division, has joined residential mortgage advisory firm KLS Consulting LLC, dba Mortgage Banking Solutions. Peters, who will be a senior mortgage consultant at MBS, will run a national practice focused primarily on bank and credit union-owned mortgage operations. He will advise banks and credit unions on cross selling, risk mitigation, and regulatory compliance issues, among others. In addition to being the former president of Hibernia's mortgage division, Peters also was president of Capital One Mortgage N.A. for two years after the latter company acquired the former.

Clayton Holdings, a mortgage analytics provider, has hired Brian R. Clark as senior managing director and chief business officer in charge of commercial real estate. During his 15 years in the business, Clark has worked for both depositories and investment banks, including stints at Merrill Lynch, and ING. At Merrill he oversaw real estate "hybrids" in the firm's alternative asset group.