Career moves

Echo Loans, Foothill Ranch, Calif., announced today that Paul Rodriguez has been promoted to president of the company. The company's primary business focus is on the restructuring of unsustainable home loans through an 11-step loss mitigation process. Mr. Rodriguez's responsibilities will be all facets of the company's operations including production, development of products and services, recruitment and staffing. Mr. Rodriguez said "These are very challenging times for homeowners and lenders and we think we can play a key role in assisting consumers in keeping their homes and at the same time assist the lender in maintaining a return on their investment." His most recent positions were as executive vice president of Sage Credit Co., managing director of Quick Loan Funding Inc. and chief executive of Wall St. Funding Inc.

Gabe Minton, the former Mortgage Bankers Association vice president of industry technology and most recently chief operating officer at LOS vendor Mortgage Cadence, has joined Motivity Solutions Inc., a provider of optimization and risk mitigation software for the mortgage industry, as its chief strategy officer. In his new position, Mr. Minton is responsible for the overall strategic sales marketing and licensing of Motivity's products, third party alliances and strategic initiatives. Together with the engineering team, he will assist in further strengthening and expanding the foundation of their products and services. Also, in working closely with Motivity chief executive Tyler Sherman, Mr. Minton will create the architecture for smart imaging, e-mortgages, increased data integrity, and security to strengthen the positioning of Motivity's technology.

Millard Fuller, who co-founded affordable housing concern Habitat for Humanity International but split from the organization in 2005, died Feb. 3 after a brief illness. Mr. Fuller, 74, founded the Americus, Georgia-based Habitat in 1976 with his wife, Linda. When he left Habitat he started the Fuller Center for Housing, which also is based in Americus.

The co-chief executive officer of New York Mortgage Trust Inc., David A. Akre, has resigned from the company, effective immediately. Steven R. Mumma, who had been co-CEO, president and chief financial officer, is now the company's sole CEO, while retaining his other positions. Mr. Akre was one of the founders of NYMT and held the co-CEO position from when the company went public in 2004. Until the first quarter of 2007, NYMT had been a wholesale and retail mortgage lender. Now the company is a real estate investment trust that invests in mortgage-backed securities and adjustable-rate mortgages.

Jim Miller, a former managing director at J.P. Morgan Chase, has joined First American Information and Outsourcing Solutions as managing director of operations for the company's outsourcing and technology business lines. In his new role, Mr. Miller will be responsible for the unit's seven businesses, which include national default outsourcing, national claims outsourcing, loss mitigation services, loan production solutions, real estate owned servicing, default technologies and global offshore services. Mr. Miller has nearly 25 years of experience in prime, nonprime, and home equity servicing. He managed J.P. Morgan Chase's default servicing operations for the past three years.

BTIG LLC, a New York institutional broker dealer specializing in equity trading and related brokerage services, is launching a fixed income group led by former UBS and Citigroup executives, as well as a new team to expand into mortgage- and asset-backed securities trading. The company said it has hired Jon Bass and John Purcell as co-heads of global fixed income. Mr. Bass most recently was head of fixed income client management at UBS Investment Bank and Mr. Purcell most recently was head of global fixed income syndicates and North America capital markets at Citigroup.

MountainView Capital Holdings, Denver, has formed a new unit to provide mortgage servicing rights hedge advisory services. MountainView has hired industry veteran Gregory Harris as president of MountainView Risk Advisors to lead the risk management and hedge advisory company. Mr. Harris has over 19 years of experience in hedging the risks associated with MSR, most recently as manager of the MSR hedge program on the $500 billion plus portfolio at Washington Mutual. MountainView said its 19-year history in the brokerage and third party evaluation servicers for the MSR industry make the company well qualified to add hedge advisory services.

The former executive vice president and chief financial officer at Freddie Mac, Anthony "Buddy" Piszel, has been named as chief financial officer and treasurer at the First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif. Mr. Piszel was with Freddie Mac starting in November 2006 and left the company following its being placed into conservatorship in September 2008. Before joining Freddie Mac, he was the chief financial officer for Health Net Inc., and before that he held a number of senior financial positions at Prudential Financial Inc., with his final job being senior vice president and corporate controller from 1998 to 2004. At First American, Mr. Piszel will oversee the financial reporting group, capital markets activities and investor relations.

Broadpoint DESCAP, the mortgage-backed security/asset-backed security trading division of Broadpoint Capital Inc., New York, has launched a new repurchase desk and expanded its structured products group. The repurchase desk will be headed by Joanmarie Pusateri, a former Bear Stearns managing director. Before joining Broadpoint, Ms. Pusateri worked for 22 years building her career at Bear Stearns with an emphasis on fixed-income trade settlements. In 2003, Ms. Pusateri joined Bear Stearns Asset Management where she was a managing director responsible for creating and managing a multibillion-dollar repurchase book for three fixed-income/structured product hedge funds. Broadpoint Capital is the broker-dealer subsidiary of Broadpoint Securities Group Inc.

Richard D. Parsons, known most recently as being the chief executive of Time Warner, is returning to a high level post in the banking industry, becoming the chairman of Citigroup, effective Feb. 23. He is currently the lead director of Citigroup's board. In 1988, during a tumultuous time in the thrift industry, Mr. Parsons joined Dime Savings Bank of New York, first as chief operating officer, than as chairman and chief executive, a role he held until 1995. That year he became president of Time Warner. Dime was acquired by Washington Mutual in 2002; Washington Mutual was taken over by government regulators late last year and is now part of JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Parsons replaces Sir Win Bischoff, who briefly served as acting chief executive of Citigroup before becoming chairman in December 2007. Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit cited Mr. Parsons' ability to turn around Dime and Time Warner as being key to help Citigroup execute its plan to split into two companies.

Brookfield Properties Corp., New York, has made a series of promotions and additions to its executive management team. Steve Douglas has been named president of Brookfield Properties Corp. He was most recently senior managing partner at an affiliated company, Brookfield Asset Management, focused on that company's operations and international property portfolio. Dennis Friedrich has been named president and chief executive of U.S. Commercial Operations. Mr. Friedrich was formerly president and chief operating officer of U.S. Commercial Operations. Paul Schulman has assumed the post of COO of U.S. Commercial Operations. He was formerly senior vice president and head of the company's Washington region. Tom Farley has been named president and chief executive of the Canadian Commercial Operations, where he was formerly president and COO. The new COO of Canadian Commercial Operations is Jan Sucharda. Brookfield Properties CEO Ric Clark has taken on the added responsibility of overseeing Brookfield Asset Management's global real estate activities with the title of senior managing partner and CEO.

First Industrial Realty Trust Inc., Chicago, has hired Bruce W. Duncan as president and chief executive. He presently serves as chairman of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., a position he has held since 2005. Mr. Duncan also served as Starwood's interim chief executive from April to September 2007. From 2002 through 2005, he was president and CEO of Equity Residential, the largest publicly traded apartment REIT. In a related move W. Ed Tyler, who has served as the company's interim chief executive since October 2008, has been appointed the new non-executive chairman of its board. Jay H. Shidler has resigned as chairman, but will continue to serve as a member of the board and the chairman of the investment committee.

Now that bankrupt LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Richmond, Va., has disposed of its title underwriting units, its chairman and chief executive, Theodore L. Chandler Jr., will leave the company on Jan. 15. The company said he leaves on good terms. The title units were 85% of LandAmerica's revenues. LandAmerica is now focusing on disposing of its remaining businesses. To handle that task, the chief restructuring officer, Jonathan Mitchell, will lead the company. Melissa Hill, most recently president of LandAmerica's residential services channel, has been promoted to executive vice president of operations.

Jonathan L. Kempner, who was president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association until the end of last year, has accepted a position as an independent director of Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I Inc. Before joining MBA in 2001, he spent 14 years as president of the National Multi Housing Council. Said Robert S. Aisner, chief executive of Behringer Harvard, "Jonathan brings to this role more than two decades of experience encompassing all facets of the commercial real estate industry. He's developed extensive expertise in both the multifamily property sector and commercial lending, as well as deep relationships with leaders in both industries."

Chicago-based commercial real estate firm Sheldon Good & Co. Auctions International LLC marked the passing of its chairman and CEO, Steven L. Good - a globally-known author and philanthropist - on Tuesday by closing all its offices as it made plans to reopen Wednesday under its president's day-to-day management. Multiple news reports indicate Mr. Good's death was an apparent suicide. He had been quoted as saying, like many industry executives, that the commercial real estate market has been challenging. A spokeswoman who has worked with the family since 1976, Susan Berman Hammer, told MortgageWire that the death was a surprise to all that knew him and he had been optimistic and energized by his many business and philanthropic activities as well as his writing, and had been looking forward to chairing the National Association of Realtors' commercial alliance this year. Several family members survive Mr. Good, including his father, Sheldon Good, whom his company was named after and who also is a well-known international real estate executive. Company president Alan R. Kravets said in a statement posted on the company's website that it plans to "continue the tradition of excellence established by our founder, Sheldon Good, and expanded upon by our late chief executive" going forward. "We have a number of exciting projects currently in development. Steve enjoyed this fact," he said.

Colonial Properties Trust, Birmingham, Ala., has returned its chairman, Thomas H. Lowder to the chief executive position he held between July 1993 and April 2006. In a related move, C. Reynolds Thompson III, who replaced Mr. Lowder as CEO, has been reassigned to the positions of president and chief financial officer. In the new corporate structure, Mr. Lowder will serve as the principal executive officer and Mr. Thompson will serve as the principal financial officer. The current president and CFO, Weston M. Andress has resigned; he has entered into a one-year consulting agreement with the company. Commenting on the appointments, Mr. Lowder noted, "The board felt it would be in the best interest of our shareholders for me to take a more active role in the day-to-day operations of the company as we navigate the current economic environment." Colonial does not anticipate a material impact to net income or funds from operations per share for the full-year 2008 as a result of these management changes.

Freddie Mac has officially named Raymond G. Romano as the company's chief credit officer, responsible for enterprise-wide credit risk management activities. Mr. Romano has served as senior vice president of credit risk oversight since he joined the company in 2004. In September 2008, Mr. Romano also assumed the role as acting chief credit officer while the company conducted a nationwide search for the position. Prior to joining Freddie Mac, Mr. Romano served as senior vice president and chief credit officer and in other executive positions at different financial institutions including North American Mortgage Company, Dime Savings Bank of NY, and with Citicorp's Investment Bank.

WinTrust Financial Corp., Lake Forest, Ill., has acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of the Downers Grove, Ill.-based Professional Mortgage Partners' mortgage banking business and named PMP's president to an executive post within WinTrust's mortgage subsidiary. WinTrust said a "significant portion" of the cash transaction's purchase price is conditional based upon "certain future profitability measures. The Lake Forest, Ill.-based company also said the deal is not expected to have a material effect on its 2008 or 2009 earnings per share. PMP president Barton Pitts has been named executive vice president of Wintrust Mortgage Corp. as part of the transaction. Terms of the deal were not otherwise disclosed. "The addition of the staff hired from PMP and their offices will create one of the strongest mortgage lenders in the Chicago area," said David Hrobon, president of Wintrust Mortgage Corp. "Combined we will have more than 500 employees, 27 retail offices and, based on historical results, almost $3 billion in annual mortgage originations."

The Mortgage Bankers Association has added the title of senior vice president to the title of Angela Lazear, who continues to serve as the association's chief financial officer. Ms. Lazear will be responsible for overseeing the development of the association's budgets, accounting, treasury, technology infrastructure and information systems. John Courson, the MBA's chief operating officer, said "Angela's leadership has been critical in the financial strategies and practices of the MBA during this important period for our industry." Ms. Lazear joined the MBA in 2000 and previously served as executive director for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Hilco Real Estate LLC, Northbrook, Ill., has named Neil R. Aaronson as its new chief executive and Gregory S. Apter as its new president. Mr. Aaronson replaced Mitchell P. Kahn, 48, who has decided to pursue opportunities outside the Hilco family of companies. Most recently Mr. Aaronson had been executive vice president with Hilco Trading LLC, the parent company of Hilco Real Estate. Mr. Apter was promoted from chief operating officer and will now formally lead Hilco Real Estate's agency transactions group, managing owned and leased property disposition and lease restructuring services. Hilco Real Estate provides comprehensive real estate repositioning services. For more information about the company, visit http://www.hilcorealestate.com.