Career moves

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., Sun Prairie, Wis., has promoted Paul Walnick from senior vice president of information technology to president of mortgage operations and Dan Cutaia from chief operating officer to president of capital markets and risk management. Walnick will oversee Fairway's day-to-day mortgage business and underwriting operations while providing branch and product support. Cutaia will oversee the overhaul of Fairway's loan origination platform, as well as all technical and compliance related issues, systems and secondary business. In 2009, Fairway closed $3.3 billion in mortgage volume, a 70% increase from the prior year. Steve Jacobson remains as chief executive. Walnick has held sales management positions at both Waterfield Financial Corp., and American Home Mortgage, where he oversaw retail sales production in Texas and Arizona. Cutaia was the founder and former president of Aucita Mortgage Capital and held executive positions with Waterfield Financial, where he oversaw numerous infrastructure initiatives involving post production and delivery, and product and credit risk.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired Wall Street veteran Steve Harris as managing director in charge of mortgage sales for its Americas division. Harris will report to Michael Hokin, head of America's mortgages and securitized product sales at the bank. According to StructuredFinanceNews.com, Hokin-who was formerly head of global securitized markets sales at Citigroup-joined Bank of America Merrill last September. Prior to his hiring, Harris had a six-month stint at Rafferty Capital as a manager in structured products. From 1987 to 2009 he worked for Goldman Sachs as a manager in mortgage sales.

General Growth Properties, Chicago, one of the largest commercial REITs in the nation, said director Glen Rufrano has resigned from its board. In a new SEC filing, the company said his departure "is not due to any disagreement between Mr. Rufrano" and the company. General Growth is a real estate investment trust that invests and owns shopping malls, master planned communities, and other CRE assets.

Jefferies & Co. named Mark Green as a managing director and head of CMBS capital markets. Green will report jointly to William Jennings and Johan Eveland, co-heads of Jefferies' MBS/ABS group, as well as Benjamin Lorello, global head of investment banking and capital markets at Jefferies. According to a report in Asset Securitization Report, Green will become part of a team consisting of Joe Accurso and Lisa Pendergast, who co-head CMBS trading and strategy, and Dana Arrighi who heads CRE origination. Green has 11 years of CMBS capital markets experience and joins Jefferies from UBS, where for four years he was a managing director and head of CMBS capital markets. "With the ongoing rebound in capital markets activity, there is an even greater need and demand from our clients for innovative financing and ideas," Jennings and Eveland said. The company views the CMBS market as a major investment banking opportunity this year. Asset Securitization Report is an affiliate of National Mortgage News.

David Kittle, the immediate past chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association, has joined IMARC, a mortgage auditing firm based in Santa Ana, Calif. A senior director at IMARC, Mr. Kittle will manage the firm's Washington office and will be responsible for government and industry relations as well as the development of client services. Before climbing to the top of the MBA leadership ladder, Mr. Kittle was president and chief executive officer of Principle Wholesale Lending in Louisville. After leaving his MBA post, he joined another former MBA chair, Regina Lowrie, at Vision Mortgage Capital, where he was executive vice president. He continues to serve on the MBA board. IMARC's clients are publicly traded mortgage investors and insurers.

First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., in preparation for the split of its title and information services businesses into separate publicly traded companies, has named Anand K. Nallathambi as chief executive and Buddy Piszel as chief financial officer of its information solutions group. Mr. Nallathambi, who was appointed president and chief operating officer of the ISG in December, will continue to serve in those capacities. Mr. Piszel will continue to serve as the parent company's chief financial officer. The company's Financial Services Group will commence a search for Mr. Piszel's replacement as its chief financial officer. The target date for the split is June 1. Mr. Nallathambi previously served as chief executive and president of First Advantage Corp., which, until November 2009, was a majority-owned public subsidiary of the company and a business segment within the Information Solutions Group. Mr. Piszel joined the company as chief financial officer in January 2009. Prior to that, he was executive vice president and chief financial officer for Freddie Mac. In a separate announcement, First American said it would purchase the remaining 18% of First American CoreLogic that it does not already own. Parker S. Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of First American, said the purchase of the outstanding shares will simplify the structure as the information solutions group, which First American CoreLogic is a part of, moves toward being spun off. "This acquisition will result in an extra measure of flexibility and operational efficiency that will be beneficial as we develop our next-generation analytic capabilities for the financial services and capital markets industries," he added.

American Advisors Group, a reverse mortgage lender based in Irvine, Calif., will remove Peter Graves' image from its national television advertising following the actor's passing. Since October 2009, Mr. Graves had been the celebrity spokesman for the company. In a statement, AAG chief executive Reza Jahangiri said, "We will talk with his family and representatives at a later date about the future. Peter Graves was selected as AAG's spokesperson because of the man he was on and off the camera. He represented everything AAG aspires to be-trustworthy, respectful, intelligent and positive. We felt his values reflected ours, and our professional relationship was always positive for both parties." In an AAG press release earlier this year, Mr. Graves commented about why he was selected as a celebrity spokesman for reverse mortgages. "Well, it's a compliment certainly and I am humbled by the trust seniors have placed in me." Mr. Graves is best known for his role as Jim Phelps in the television series "Mission Impossible" and for his comedic turn as Captain Clarence Oveur in the movie "Airplane!"

Kevin Jackson, previously a director in convexity products at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will be joining Wells Fargo Securities as part of the firm's efforts to bolster its residential financing, origination, and trading activities. In his new position, Mr. Jackson - who joined Merrill in August 2007 - will be a director, specified pool trader and desk strategist. The new hire, who will be officially joining Wells Fargo in two months, will be reporting to Joe Gaziano, who is managing director and head of pass-through trading at the Wells.

Bill Petersohn, director of bulk acquisitions and capital market sales for Residential Capital Corp., Horsham, Pa., has resigned from the mortgage banker to take a job with an analytics firm. Mr. Petersohn is joining MCT Capital Trading, San Diego, as a regional director in charge of sales. Prior to his departure he managed ResCap's '3-D' correspondent program which involves ResCap/GMAC acquiring the servicing rights on mortgages that eventually are sold to Fannie Mae. Recently, according to sources familiar with the situation, ResCap eliminated smaller mortgage correspondents from the program. A ResCap spokeswoman said the 3-D program "has always been geared toward larger correspondents." She said Mr. Petersohn "is not a senior or executive level manager" at the company and his departure is "unrelated to changes made within the 3-D program." She declined to specify what those changes were.

Two top officers in charge of the fast growing MetLife Home Loans, Memphis, have departed the bank-owned residential lender/servicer, National Mortgage News has learned. Leaving the company is Peter Makowiecki, a senior vice president at MetLife Bank who had responsibility for MLHL, and Jeffrey Brown, a vice president at the bank who played a key role in the firm's originations. Both men were on board at First Horizon Mortgage when its parent bank, First Tennessee Corp., sold most of the lender to MetLife almost two years ago. At the end of September, MLHL ranked 11th nationwide in originations with a growth rate of 456%, according to the Quarterly Data Report. A spokesman for MetLife in Rhode Island confirmed to NMN that the two men resigned from the company "effective immediately to pursue other interests." He declined to elaborate. The two men, who were based in Texas, could not be reached for comment. Mr. Brown is the son of Carl Brown who ran Carl I. Brown & Co. for many years before that nonbank was sold to First Tennessee back in 1995. "Jeff has been with them a long time," said one business associate. "At one point he was the head of all production."

Stephen Staid has joined Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., Irving, Texas, as executive vice president of customer relationship management. The Morgan Stanley-owned Saxon is repositioning itself into the residential subservicing space, specializing in distressed asset servicing. In this role, Mr. Staid will be responsible for financial transaction management, early stage delinquency, modification fulfillment, command center, call monitoring and customer service. He also will serve as a member of the Saxon executive committee, reporting directly to chief executive Anthony Meola. Mr. Staid has more than 15 years of mortgage servicing management experience. He specializes in customer service operations and has a deep knowledge of servicing technology.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. has named Wall Street veteran Steve Abrahams as its new chief of securitization/MBS research within the firm's global markets division. Mr. Abrahams, most recently founder and a managing director at Citadel Capital Partners, will carry the title of managing director. During his career, he also worked at Bear Stearns as global head of liquid product strategy, and at Freddie Mac as a credit portfolio manager. Art Frank, who had been DB's director and head of mortgage-backed securities research, has left the company. Mr. Frank could not be reached for comment. Also departing DB is Karen Weaver, who headed securitization research. Ms. Weaver, one of the first on Wall Street to predict the housing bubble and mortgage crash, is retiring. A longtime mortgage researcher, Mr. Frank previously worked for Barclays Capital and for several years headed MBS research for Nomura Securities. In addition to Mr. Abrahams, Deutsche Bank Securities recently hired Dominic Konstam as global head of rates research. Mr. Konstam comes to the firm from Credit Suisse where he was in charge of global interest rate research.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, Calabasas, Calif. said its chief investment officer, Michael Muir, has resigned effective March 2. No reason was given for his departure. The publicly traded mortgage vulture fund named Vandad Fartaj as its new CIO, effective March 3. A spokeswoman for PennyMac said Mr. Fartaj has been with the company since its inception two years ago. As CIO Mr. Fartaj will be responsible for all capital markets activities, including asset valuation, trading, hedging and research. Mr. Fartaj also was named chief capital markets officer for two PennyMac affiliates. Prior to joining PennyMac, he held a number of positions at Countrywide Securities Corp., a broker-dealer, including vice president of whole loan trading. Later this year PennyMac hopes to launch its lending conduit.

Radian Group has named commercial banker Robert Griffith executive vice president and chief operating officer for its principal mortgage insurance subsidiary, Radian Guaranty Inc. Mr. Griffith will be responsible for the company's operations, loss management and information technology functions and will report directly to Radian Guaranty president Teresa Bryce. Most recently, Mr. Griffith served as senior vice president for Bank of America, where he was responsible for a nationwide network of loan fulfillment centers providing underwriting, processing and loan funding services. Prior to that, he was president and chief executive officer of Irwin Mortgage Corp. Mr. Griffith is a past chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association's Residential Board of Governors. He has been a member of both the Fannie Mae National Advisory Council and the Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable.

Theodore Tozer is the new Ginnie Mae president after being sworn in on Wednesday by HUD secretary Shaun Donovan. "I am looking forward to the challenges and I believe my 30 years' experience in the mortgage capital markets has uniquely prepared me to manage Ginnie Mae," Mr. Tozer said. Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $454 billion in calendar year 2009, up from $270 billion the previous year. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. Tozer said Ginnie Mae has become a major player in the MBS market and it has to address counterparty risk with its MBS issuers. The Senate confirmed Mr. Tozer on Feb. 11. He began working on Ginnie securitizations in 1986 at National City Mortgages, which was acquired by PNC Financial Services Group in 2008. "Ted is the right person to guide Ginnie Mae through the turmoil in the housing and secondary mortgage markets," secretary Donovan said.

LoanMarket.net, an online auction website specializing in residential and commercial loans, has hired mortgage banking veteran David Akre as a managing director. Mr. Akre co-founded New York Mortgage Trust, a mortgage lending and investing REIT that went public back in 2004. During his career, he also worked in secondary marketing and sales at Thornburg Mortgage, Santa Fe. Based in Irvine, Calif., LoanMarket is privately held. The company has been selling performing, subperforming and delinquent notes for almost a year.

The National Housing Conference named Maureen Friar, a New York housing executive, to be its new president and chief executive. She has served as executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York for 14 years and has experience in building a "strong and engaged membership organization," NHC said. Most recently, Ms. Friar was a marketing consultant to the National Equity Fund, a nonprofit investor in low-income housing tax credits. Founded 75 years ago, the National Housing Conference is an umbrella group that strives to promote national housing policies in a nonpartisan way. It also has a research affiliate — the Center for Housing Policy. Conrad Egan has led NHC for the past 12 years and plans to remain with the organization through the end of this year to help with the transition.

Tony Renzi, a 24-year veteran of GMAC Mortgage and its affiliates, has been forced out of his position as chief operating officer and president, according to company employees who work under him. A spokeswoman confirmed to National Mortgage News that Mr. Renzi is departing effective March 2 due to "streamlining efforts" and that his duties have been given to others at GMAC, which oversees Residential Capital Corp. The company declined to elaborate but issued a statement saying, "Tony has made valuable contributions in the mortgage lending and servicing business during his tenure with the company and we thank him for his many years of service." One employee said he and others at GMAC/ResCap were informed of his departure early in the morning "and even though they said his last day" will be in early March, he has not been at the company since Feb. 5 or so. Over the years, Mr. Renzi helped build GMAC's servicing business into one of the largest in the nation.

Royal Bank of Scotland, which is controlled by the U.K government, has expanded its residential and commercial MBS/ABS team by two. Gregory Reiter, previously a portfolio manager at the World Bank, joins RBS as managing director in charge of agency residential security strategy. Jeana Curro, previously a director in fixed-income strategy at UBS, was named vice president, agency MBS/collateralized mortgage obligations. Both will be based in Stamford, Conn.

Residential mortgage lender Platinum Home Mortgage Corp. has appointed a senior executive vice president for the company's "Midwest expansion" division. Don Grudzinski, who previously was vice president of production at Platinum Home Mortgage, has been named to the post. In his new position, Mr. Grudzinski will be responsible for both residential originations and operations. He has more than two decades of experience in mortgage sales.