Career moves

The Senate has confirmed Ron Sims to be the deputy secretary and second in command at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Sims is the former executive of King County, Washington, and has plenty of experience in urban affairs. Meanwhile, the HUD secretary continues to support David Stevens to be the new Federal Housing Administration commissioner. But the Senate Banking Committee is holding up his confirmation due to a RESPA lawsuit filed against his former employer -- the real estate brokerage firm Long and Foster. Stevens' supporters are hoping he will be confirmed before the Senate adjourns for the Memorial Day recess.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has placed on hold on the President's nominee David Stevens to be the new Federal Housing Administration commissioner as the result of a lawsuit against his former employer Long and Foster. The Senate Banking Committee approved four other Department of Housing and Urban Development nominees on Tuesday (April 28) and cleared the way for their confirmation by the full Senate. However, committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., did not seek a vote on Mr. Steven's nomination. "Sen. Shelby agreed with chairman Dodd that this matter needs to be thoroughly examined before moving forward with a committee vote on Mr. Stevens' nomination," said a spokesman for Sen. Shelby. The class action lawsuit is understood to involve possible RESPA violations by Long and Foster, which is the largest privately owned real estate brokerage firm. Meanwhile, the committee approved the following HUD nominees: Ronald Sims to be deputy secretary, Helen R. Kanovsky to be general counsel, Peter Kovar to be assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, and John D. Trasvina, to be assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has placed on hold on the President's nominee David Stevens to be the new Federal Housing Administration commissioner as the result of lawsuit against his former employer Long and Foster. The Senate Banking Committee approved four other Department of Housing and Urban Development nominees on Tuesday (April 28) and cleared the way for their confirmation by the full Senate. However, committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., did not seek a vote on Mr. Steven's nomination. "Sen. Shelby agreed with chairman Dodd that this matter needs to be thoroughly examined before moving forward with a committee vote on Mr. Stevens' nomination," said a spokesman for Sen. Shelby. The class action lawsuit is understood to involve possible RESPA violations by Long and Foster, which is the largest privately owned real estate brokerage firm. Meanwhile, the committee approved the following HUD nominees: Ronald Sims to be deputy secretary, Helen R. Kanovsky to be general counsel, Peter Kovar to be assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, and John D. Trasvina, to be assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity.

Former chief executive David Moffett is returning to Freddie Mac to run the finance division in the wake of the apparent suicide of the company's acting chief financial officer David Kellermann.Freddie interim chief executive John Koskinen welcomed Mr. Moffett's offer to temporarily return as a consultant while Freddie searches for a permanent CFO. "He knows the company well from his time as the chief executive, and has built an impressive career in finance and accounting...with other leading public companies," Mr. Koskinen said.

Fannie Mae's new chief executive Michael Williams has recruited three bankers from outside the company to serve as his executive vice presidents in key posts. Timothy Mayopoulos from Bank of America will serve as EVP, general counsel and corporate secretary. Edward G. Watson from Citicorp will be Fannie's new EVP for operations and technology. And Kenneth J. Phelan from Wachovia Corp. will be EVP for risk management.

Fannie Mae's new chief executive Michael Williams has recruited three bankers from outside the company to serve as his executive vice presidents in key posts. Timothy Mayopoulos from Bank of America will serve as EVP, general counsel and corporate secretary. Edward G. Watson from Citicorp will be Fannie's new EVP for operations and technology. And Kenneth J. Phelan from Wachovia Corp. will be EVP for risk management. "Each of these outstanding individuals brings extensive and distinguished experience in their respective fields to the critical positions they assume at Fannie Mae," Mr. Williams said.

CitiMortgage has hired former Fannie Mae servicing executive Harold Lewis to head its Homeowner Assistance Program. He will officially join the bank-owned lender next Monday. According to an official at CitiMortgage, Mr. Lewis, while at Fannie, worked with the Obama administration to develop the GSE's new Making Home Affordable program, which is geared toward refinancing troubled as well as healthy borrowers. At Fannie he held the title of senior vice president of national servicing and was responsible for overseeing 1,400 GSE servicers.

Dallas based Mortgage Search & Acquisition said today that Chris Meyer will be joining the company as managing director of the company's new Phoenix office. Mr. Meyer has an executive recruiting background stemming 30 years, beginning in 1980 with the John Hancock Co. in Anchorage Alaska where he worked with financial planners in recruiting candidates for investment opportunities. In 1982, Mr. Meyer relocated to Phoenix to start his own firm, resulting in two decades of recruiting within the distribution technology area, targeting business owners across the U.S. within a wide spectrum of industries. He joined Arizona-based Competent Search in 2002, where he developed a mortgage banking specialty, delivering highly personalized, results driven recruiting services to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage nationwide. After successfully opening multiple states and training new recruiters for Competent Search, Mr. Meyer began focusing on the Southern California market, transitioning in excess of $800 million annually in branch acquisitions and top performers in the retail and builder sectors. MSA specializes solely within the mortgage banking and financial services industry, providing over 25 years of experience in executive recruiting and acquisition services to its national client base.

PHH Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J., has hired John C. Sites Jr. to provide consulting services to the company and its board. Mr. Sites is a partner at Wexford Capital LP, an investment advisor that manages a series of affiliated hedge funds and private equity funds. There he focuses on Wexford's investments in mortgage-backed securities and mortgage-related enterprises. Previously, Mr. Sites served as a director of Fannie Mae and as a general partner of Daystar Special Situations Fund and Rock Creek Partners II Ltd. From 1981-1995, Mr. Sites was with Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., where he eventually became executive vice president. While at Bear Stearns, Mr. Sites established the firm's mortgage and asset-backed department. PHH chairman A.B. Krongard stated, "We are very pleased that PHH has been able to establish this important relationship with John Sites. We believe that John's extensive mortgage industry and other experience will prove extremely valuable to the board and the company."

President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Barr to be Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions where he will probably play an important role in guiding reform of the mortgage finance system. A professor of law at Michigan University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Barr is currently working in the White House. He previously served as a special assistant to former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration. The Treasury nominee recently told a Center for American Progress forum that consumer protection needs to be at the "heart of our system of mortgage finance — not an after-thought or relegated to second class status." In related news, the President has nominated Helen Kanovsky to be the general counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She is currently the chief operating officer of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and previously served as chief of staff for Sen. John Kerry.

Tom Donatacci, who recently left Residential Capital Corp., has joined The Clayton Group, a loan advisory firm based in Shelton, Conn.Clayton named Mr. Donatacci executive vice president of marketing and sales. At ResCap Mr. Donatacci was in charge of new business development and oversaw its subservicing division. Meanwhile, Clayton named Tom Cronin managing director of government relations.

Attorney J. Thomas Cardwell of Akerman Senterfitt has been appointed to serve on the Florida Supreme Court's task force on residential mortgage foreclosures. The task force recommends policies, procedures, strategies, and methods for easing the backlog of foreclosure cases while protecting the rights of parties involved in them. An interim report from the task force is due by May 8. The task force has 15 members, including state judges, consumer advocates, mediators and lenders. Mr. Cardwell is chair of Akerman Senterfitt's financial institutions practice, a former chairman of the firm and general counsel to the Florida Bankers Association.

President Obama has named Carol Galante, a nonprofit multifamily builder, deputy assistant secretary in charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's multifamily program.Ms. Galante joins HUD from Bridge Housing Corp., which specializes in affordable homes in the California market. At HUD she will be in charge of the FHA's multifamily program, in particular financing and support for the government's $58 billion worth of privately owned rental properties. Ms. Galante joined Bridge in 1987 and was named president in 1996.

A day after press reports suggested that Jerry Howard might be dethroned as president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, the trade group issued a press release saying that he is still in charge. One builder, requesting anonymity, told National Mortgage News that Mr. Howard and certain homebuilding firms that were upset with the trade group's apparent stance on tax breaks that might only benefit small builders "have kissed and made up." In its statement NAHB noted that its High Production Home Builders Council met Monday for a "candid" discussion of issues facing builders, adding that "now more than ever, it is important for all homebuilders to be united." The Wall Street Journal reported in its Monday edition that Mr. Howard might be forced out of NAHB by a faction of large publicly traded building companies.

Freddie Mac Wednesday morning named its current non-executive chairman, John Koskinen, interim chief executive officer and then appointed a director, Robert Glauber, to fill Mr. Koskinen's role. Both appointments will be effective this Friday when current CEO David Moffett officially steps down from the government controlled mortgage investing giant. Mr. Koskinen is currently serving as the company's non-executive chairman, a position he's held since September when the government placed Freddie into a conservatorship. Previously he was president of the United States Soccer Foundation, and before that deputy mayor and city administrator of Washington. Mr. Glauber joined Freddie's board of directors in 2006. He is a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a visiting professor at the college's law school. Prior to that, he served as chairman and CEO of the National Association of Securities Dealers. Mr. Moffett unexpectedly announced his resignation earlier this month. Freddie reports earnings later this week.

Mark Korell, who once headed the nation's largest mortgage banking firm, has joined JPMorgan Chase and will assist the bank in regard to what he calls "cross strategies" tied to its correspondent lending group.Mr. Korell confirmed that he's joining JPM, but offered no other details on what exactly he'll be doing for the company. JPM is the parent of Chase, both the nation's third largest residential funder and servicer.

Finacorp Securities, Irvine, Calif., has expanded its Minneapolis office and named three vice presidents to its mortgage team in an effort to bolster fixed income securities coverage for its institutional clients: Mike Weir, Tom Sullivan and Mike Lingvall. Mr. Weir and Mr. Sullivan, now both VPs in sales and trading at Finacorp, had played roles in founding North American Capital Markets. All three men at one point worked in the fixed income area at Dain Rauscher. Among their most recent positions: Mr. Weir worked in Oak Ridge Financial's investment banking department, Mr. Sullivan worked with Cronin & Co. as a VP and MBS trader, and Mr. Lingvall led fixed-income private placement trading at Morgan Joseph Inc. with a focus on distressed and crossover credits.

William P. Foley II will give up his post as chairman of Lender Processing Services Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., effective on March 15. He will retain his other positions as chairman of both Fidelity National Financial and Fidelity National Information Systems; FIS and LPS were both spun out from FNF. FIS president and chief executive Lee A. Kennedy will become the non-executive chairman of LPS. Daniel D. (Ron) Lane and Cary H. Thompson will retire from LPS's board and Jeff Carbiener, who is LPS's president and CEO, John F. Farrell Jr. and Philip G. Heasley will join the board on March 15. Mr. Farrell was president of North American Mortgage Corp. between 1985 and 1997. Mr. Heasley is the president and CEO of ACI Worldwide. Inc. The LPS compensation committee approved a one-time separation payment totaling $6.8 million to Messrs. Foley, Thompson, and Lane.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has named Fran Sullivan to the newly created position of chief information officer within the company. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services provides regulatory intelligence, policy and process management, and oversight to help financial services organizations address their compliance needs. Mr. Sullivan will be responsible for the overall leadership of processes and practices supporting the flow of technology information across Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' different business lines. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services serves customers in the mortgage, banking, securities, insurance and indirect lending markets. Before he joined Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Mr. Sullivan held several senior management positions related to product development, network services, systems integration and client integration at companies that included Fidelity Investments.

Broadpoint Capital, Inc., a New York broker-dealer subsidiary of Broadpoint Securities Group, Inc. said Chris Lau, Ryan King, Brian Horan, Joseph Lyons, and Mike Regan have joined Broadpoint DESCAP, its mortgage-/asset-backed security and rates division. Mr. Lau, a former managing director on RBS Greenwich Capital's commercial MBS desk, joins Broadpoint as a managing director of the CMBS group. Mr. King, previously associate director of ABS trading at Barclays, is joining Broadpoint's ABS trading group. Mr. Horan, previously a trader of adjustable-rate mortgage products at GMAC-RFC, joins Broadpoint as a director of MBS trading and marks Broadpoint's further expansion into a greater presence in the agency ARM market. Mr. Lyons, previously an executive director of the fixed income structured credit sales group at Morgan Stanley, joins the sales group of the division. Mr. Regan, former director at Bank of America, joins the sales group of the division. Mr. Regan started his career as a mortgage originator at Citimortgage and he managed a team of four covering hedge funds, money managers and insurance companies while at Bank of America.