Career moves

Jefferies continues to expand its residential/commercial mortgage- and asset-backed securities effort with the hiring of a new managing director and head of the company's MBS/ABS/CMBS group in Boston. Mark Plansky, who previously worked for Barclays for eight years, was hired to lead the Boston securitization group. Jefferies said its MBS/ABS/CMBS group now includes more than 60 sales, trading and origination professionals in the U.S. and London, including former RBS Greenwich Capital CMBS researcher Lisa Pendergast, whom it hired in June as head of CMBS strategy and risk.

Southwest Securities Inc., Dallas, has expanded its taxable fixed-income trading desks with two mortgage-related appointments. Steve Palmer has been named senior vice president, mortgage trading in Southwest's New York office. In addition, Southwest has named Derek Rose as senior vice president, asset-backed and commercial mortgage-backed securities in its Chicago office. Most recently, Mr. Palmer was an executive director with JPMorgan, where he traded non-agency fixed rate securities and unsecuritized residential loans. Mr. Rose most recently was an ABS/CMBS trader and director of securitization syndicate in RBC Capital Markets' New York office.

Freddie Mac has named Charles "Ed" Haldeman Jr., a former mutual fund executive, its new chief executive office, effective this August. About a month ago his name leaked out in relation to the CEO job and was considered a done deal but needed the approval of Freddie's regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. FHFA signed off on the nomination this week. Mr. Haldeman, 60, recently stepped down as chairman of Putnam Investment Management after a seven-year term. He succeeds John Koskinen who had been serving as interim CEO since March. Freddie Mac, which continues to lose money, has been operating under a government conservatorship since September. It's expected to release second quarter earnings some time in August.

Fortress Investment Group, which controls a mid-sized subprime servicing operation, has hired former Fannie Mae chief Daniel Mudd to be its new chief executive. Mr. Mudd was forced out of the money-losing Fannie Mae in September when the company and its sister firm, Freddie Mac, were placed into separate conservatorships. Mr. Mudd became CEO of the GSE in 2004 in the wake of a $6 billion accounting scandal where the firm's former management understated its prior years earnings. Under Mr. Mudd's stewardship Fannie became a large investor in MBS backed by alternative-A credit loans. The declining value of those securities has forced the GSE to book multibillion-dollar losses. A few years back Fortress bought Centex Home Equity of Dallas, once one of the nation's largest subprime lenders. Centex changed its name to Nationstar Mortgage and eventually ceased originating new loans but remains as a servicer. Mr. Mudd will take the reins of the publicly traded Fortress on Aug. 11. He is currently a director of the company. Fortress, whose shares trade for $3, manages $26.5 billion in assets.

Catherine Cruz Wojtasik, a Democratic lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, is leaving the trade group to take a job on Capitol Hill. A MBA spokeswoman confirmed her departure noting that it will hire a replacement for Ms. Wojtasik. It's believed that she has accepted a position with the Senate Banking Committee but at press time it could not be confirmed. Meanwhile Cheryl Malloy, who handles multifamily issues for MBA, is retiring soon but will stay on as consultant through September.

The Senate has confirmed David Stevens to be the new Federal Housing Administration commissioner and he is expected to begin work at the mortgage insurance agency on Monday. Mr. Stevens' nomination has been help up for several months due to alleged Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act violations by his former employer Long & Foster — a mid-Atlantic real estate brokerage firm. The RESPA complaints did not name Mr. Stevens and HUD secretary Shaun Donovan continued to support Mr. Stevens, claiming his executive experience at Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo Home Loan is needed at FHA. Meanwhile, FHA commissioner Brian Montgomery finally stepped down on July 3 after it was clear the Mr. Stevens would be confirmed. Mr. Montgomery was appointed to the FHA post by former President Bush and he was asked to stay by the Obama administrations until his successor is confirmed. "I was pleased to be able to serve the Obama Administration as a holdover, which is exactly what Secretary Donovan did back in 2001 in the early months of the Bush Administration," Mr. Montgomery said in a farewell note. "Having worked for Secretary Donovan for the past 5 ½ months, I want to tell you that he is a man of great vision and commitment to the causes that HUD champions," Mr. Montgomery said.

American International Group subsidiary United Guaranty Corp., Greensboro, N.C., has a new chief operating officer who — like the company's recently named chief executive — at one time worked for Safeco Corp., Seattle. Kim Garland will have responsibility for UGC's claims service and operations, business development, underwriting, marketing and risk management functions. Most recently, he was the president of the Open Seas Solutions group for Safeco. UGC president and CEO Eric Martinez, before joining the mortgage insurer's parent company AIG, New York, earlier this year, was executive vice president — claims, customer care and business operations for Safeco. Mr. Garland's previous positions also include being vice president, auto product management at Safeco, and before that he held various senior management and actuarial positions at Safeco and GEICO.

Former Freddie Mac president Eugene M. McQuade will join Citigroup as chief executive for Citibank N.A. Most recently, Mr. McQuade was vice chairman of Merrill Lynch and president of Merrill Lynch Banks (U.S.) from February 2008 until February 2009. Before that, he was president and chief operating officer of Freddie Mac for three years starting in August 2004; he declined to seek renewal of his contract when it expired in September 2007. Mr. McQuade served as president of Bank of America Corp. after it acquired FleetBoston Corp. where he had been president and COO. He joined Fleet in 1992 and became chief financial officer in 1993, vice chairman in 1997 and president and COO in 2002.

Amherst Holdings LLC, an Austin, Texas-based company that assists institutional investors in the U.S. residential mortgage market, is expanding overseas to Asia. Paul Kan, previously a senior vice president and senior trader of mortgage-backed securities and securitized products for Asia at Lehman Brothers, has been named managing director of the new Hong Kong-based venture. The company said its initial focus will be on facilitating securities transactions in the United States between Asian accounts and Amherst's broker-dealer affiliate, Amherst Securities Group LP.

Freddie Mac's board of directors has selected Charles E. Haldeman Jr., a top executive at Putnam Investments, to be its next chief executive, according to a source familiar with the matter. "He's the leading candidate," said the source. The nomination has been sent to its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has yet to act on the pick. Mr. Haldeman would replace John Koskinen, a former Clinton Administration official. Mr. Koskinen replaced David Moffett who took control of the GSE when the government placed it into conservatorship this past fall. In other company news, the GSE said in a new regulatory filing that it received $6.1 billion in new funds from the Treasury Department to help offset its mounting liabilities. Counting the new infusion, the Treasury Department, to date, has given the GSE $51.7 billion to keep its net worth above zero.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers has elected Jim Pair to be its president for 2009-2010. The announcement came at the trade group's midyear meeting in San Antonio. Mr. Pair, who is from Corpus Christi, Texas, succeeds Marc Savitt, who remains as an officer of the group as immediate past president. The new president-elect is William Howe, Scottsdale, Ariz., who moves up from vice president. The brokerage industry is facing an uphill battle for survival thanks to the credit crisis and the blame placed on third-party originators for poor credit quality. Wholesale production now accounts for about 15% of all fundings compared to 28% three years ago, according to National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Brenda White, an investment banker who brokered some of the largest mortgage-related M&A deals of the past 15 years, died Sunday after a two-year battle with a rare form of cancer. Born in Monmouth County, N.J., in 1954, she is survived by her husband Tim and a daughter, Adrienne. Ms. White began her career at Dun & Bradstreet, and eventually worked at MBS pioneer Salomon Brothers. In 1994 she was named managing director, head of investment banking to the mortgage industry. According to a statement released by her family, her promotion at Salomon was "perhaps her proudest professional achievement." During her career she also held M&A advisory positions and worked at UBS and Deloitte & Touche before starting her own M&A boutique. Over the years she authored several M&A related articles in industry trade publications including NMN sister publications Mortgage Servicing News and American Banker.

The Senate has confirmed Herbert Allison by voice vote to be a Treasury assistant secretary and run the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which is providing loans and capital to stabilize banks, insurance companies and automakers. The former Fannie Mae president and chief executive also will oversee the Obama administration's loan modification program. TARP is providing funds for incentive payments and to cover some of the costs of the modifications. During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Allison told the Senate Banking Committee there is a "great deal of pressure on everyone" to get the Making Home Affordable program going. He stressed that efforts to reach out and contact troubled homeowners will be critical to its success. "People are fearful about losing their homes; fearful of contacting their bank or servicer to describe their problem — for fear that it is going cause a foreclosure on their house," he testified. Prior to his brief stint at Fannie Mae, Mr. Allison was chairman, president and CEO at TIAA-CREF.

Former Sovereign Bank chairman and chief executive officer Jay Sidhu has been named chairman and CEO of New Century Bank, Phoenixville, Pa. Mr. Sidhu, who left Sovereign in 2006, has since been working as industry consultant and also set up a private equity firm called Sidhu Capital Partners. Spain's Madrid-based Banco Santander currently owns Sovereign.

PHH Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J., has a new chairman and a new acting chief executive as the incumbents in those positions lost their reelection bids and seats on the company's board. George J. Kilroy is taking the acting chief executive officer post, replacing president and CEO Terence W. Edwards. Mr. Edwards will serve as an advisor to the company for up to six months. The board will conduct a search for a permanent president and CEO and will consider both internal and external candidates. Mr. Kilroy is president and CEO of PHH Arval, the company's fleet management services business. Replacing A.B. Krongard as chairman is James O. Egan. Mr. Egan was first named to the board on March 30 and won a full-three year term in the recent election. He was a managing director of Investcorp International Inc. between 1998 and 2008. Investcorp is the parent company of SourceMedia, which owns National Mortgage News.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is losing yet another lobbyist, the second such departure in the past week. The trade group confirmed to NMN that Meghan Sullivan, who specializes in state mortgage-related legislation, will be leaving at the end of June. She holds the title of director of state legislative affairs. Her departure leaves MBA with just one manager to oversee state bills: Chris Oswald. The trade group said it has lobbyist/consultants "on the ground" to represent it in state capitals. "These are not staff people but consultants," she said. Earlier this week it was revealed that Francis Creighton, MBA's liaison on Capital Hill, was leaving to take a job with a Congressman. MBA will hire a replacement for Ms. Sullivan.

The nomination of David Stevens to be the new Federal Housing Administration commissioner appears to be in limbo while HUD investigates a RESPA complaint against his previous employer. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is conducting an investigation of Long & Foster — a mid-Atlantic real estate brokerage firm — for possible Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act violations. At a Senate Banking Committee meeting this past week, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., noted the HUD investigation is ongoing. "We don't know who is involved or what. We are waiting to see what comes out of the investigations," Sen. Shelby said. Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the nominee "comes highly recommended" for the FHA post. During his career Mr. Stevens also worked in executive positions at Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo Home Loans. Sen. Dodd urged caution and indicated he would like a bipartisan vote in moving the nomination along for confirmation by the full Senate. HUD general counsel Helen Kanovsky told Senators Dodd and Shelby in a letter that the RESPA complaints filed against Long & Foster neither "names nor alleges the personal involvement of David Stevens."

Former Freddie Mac chief executive Gregory J. Parseghian is one of two dissident candidates to win election to the board of PHH Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J. Mr. Parseghian was a nominee submitted by Pennant Capital Management LLC, Chatham, N.J., which owns just under 10% of PHH's stock. The other candidate Pennant supported, Allan Z. Loren, also was elected; Pennant materials describe him as an executive coach to CEOs and as the former chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet. The pair defeated A.B. Krongard, who had been PHH's chairman, and Terence W. Edwards, its president and CEO. Reelected to the board is James O. Egan, the audit committee chairman. Pennant Capital Management LLC is an investment advisor that was founded by Alan Fournier in 2001.

Former Freddie Mac chief executive Gregory J. Parseghian is one of two dissident candidates to win election to the board of PHH Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J. Mr. Parseghian was a nominee submitted by Pennant Capital Management LLC, Chatham, N.J., which owns just under 10% of PHH's stock. The other candidate Pennant supported, Allan Z. Loren, also was elected; Pennant materials describe him as an executive coach to CEOs and as the former chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet. The pair defeated A.B. Krongard, who had been PHH's chairman, and Terence W. Edwards, its president and CEO. Reelected to the board is James O. Egan, the audit committee chairman. Pennant Capital Management LLC is an investment advisor that was founded by Alan Fournier in 2001.

David Palombi, Freddie Mac senior vice president of corporate and marketing communications, has resigned from the GSE. Mr. Palombi, who also worked at Riggs Bank of Washington during his career, has accepted a position with WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis, a health benefits company. He joined Freddie Mac in 1997. The GSE has been operating under a government conservatorship since the fall.