Career moves

BioMed Realty Trust Inc., a San Diego real estate investment trust focused on providing real estate to the life science industry, today announced that Kent Griffin has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. He will oversee the day-to-day operational activities while continuing to serve chief financial officer. Alan Gold, BioMed's chief executive said, remarked, "I am very pleased that the board has chosen to recognize the contributions that Kent has made to BioMed, originating with him playing a key role in the company's successful initial public offering in August 2004. As our chief financial officer since 2006, Kent has been a critical member of our leadership team, developing and executing key financial strategies, while also taking an increasingly integral role in managing the growth of our organization and overseeing our operations."

L. William Seidman, a past chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has been named senior advisor to SecondMarket, New York, and plans to help the company with expansion plans into such areas as mortgage-backed securities. --> "Bill's experience and expertise will prove critical as SecondMarket expands to fill the market void left by the shift of government funds away from purchasing illiquid assets under the Troubled Asset Relief Program," said SecondMarket CEO Barry E. Silbert. During his long career Mr. Seidman served as an economic advisor to Presidents Reagan and Ford, and ran the Resolution Trust Corp., the S&L bailout agency.

Republic Mortgage Insurance Corp., Winston-Salem, N.C., has handed over the keys to its mergers and acquisitions unit to its founder, Larry Charbonneau. Mr. Charbonneau said the former Republic Strategic Advisory Inc., Houston, will now carry the name Charbonneau & Associates. He said there was no animosity between him and RMIC but that the company wants to concentrate on its core business of mortgage insurance. Besides M&A work, Charbonneau & Associates will focus on advisory work and warehouse lending consulting. Last decade, Mr. Charbonneau ran a well-regarded M&A boutique called Charbonneau-Klein Inc. He joined RMIC four years ago. The MI is a subsidiary of the publicly traded Old Republic International of Chicago. On Thursday, Old Republic paid its regular quarterly dividend of 17 cents a share.

Wilshire Enterprises, Inc., Newark, N.J., has appointed Kevin B. Swill as president and chief operating officer. Mr. Swill joins Wilshire after serving since 2001 as president of Westminster Capital, the financing arm of The Kushner Companies, and president of Kushner Properties. "With his extraordinary combination of directly relevant industry experience, intimate knowledge of the properties and people in the New York and New Jersey real estate markets, and well-established network of senior-level contacts in real estate finance, we expect Kevin to play a major role in helping Wilshire take advantage of the current turmoil in our industry to build long-term value for our shareholders," said Wilshire chairman and chief executive Sherry Wilzig Izak. In 2000, Mr. Swill was an executive director of originations for CIBC World Markets, with responsibility for review and approval of real estate transactions for the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. Earlier, he was senior originator for the Northeastern United States at Deutsche Banc Mortgage Capital LLC, and originator in the Conduit Group at Merrill Lynch Real Estate Investment Banking. On Dec. 4, the proposed merger between Wilshire and NWJ Apartment Holdings Corp. was terminated when Wilshire was informed by NWJ that in the current economic and lending environment, it was not able to secure the financing of the residential properties required to close the merger.

The KKR-controlled Capmark Financial Group - one of the nation's largest commercial mortgage banking firms - has hired Jay N. Levine as its new president and chief executive. He replaces William F. Aldinger III, who resigned his positions as president, chief executive and chairman. Mr. Aldinger, who once ran subprime giant Household Finance, will serve as a consultant to Capmark. Mr. Levine formerly was president and chief of RBS Global Banking & Markets, North America. He also served as chief executive officer of RBS Greenwich Capital with responsibility for the company's institutional, banking and fixed-income businesses in the United States. Dennis D. Dammerman was named chairman of Capmark. Capmark, formerly known as GMAC Commercial Holding Corp., was acquired in March 2006 by an investor group led by affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Five Mile Capital Partners LLC, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Dune Capital Management LP.

Fifth Third Bank has named Steven Alonso as executive vice president and head of the company's mortgage and consumer lending lines of business. Mr. Alonso previously was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Oakstreet Mortgage LLC, Indianapolis. Prior to that he served as president and CEO of Bank One's Consumer Finance Group. At Fifth Third, Mr. Alonso will develop strategy for the mortgage, consumer lending, student loan and collections areas and will work with his direct reports to implement that strategy.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union of Manhattan Beach, Calif., has hired Jess Lederman, a former Bear Stearns executive who recently departed as chief risk officer of Countrywide Financial Corp. According to a press release issued by the CU, Mr. Lederman will serve as senior vice president and chief credit officer. On July 1 CFC was bought by Bank of America. Mr. Lederman will oversee Kinecta's credit policy, analytics, and loan underwriting for commercial, real estate and consumer lending. He also will have responsibility for portfolio management and secondary marketing.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has made several key appointments in its effort to oversee Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. James Lockhart, director of the FHFA, said the new agency, which combines resources from the former Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the Federal Housing Finance Board, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's government-sponsored enterprise mission team, has great challenges amid the turmoil in the nation's housing markets. "As a new regulatory body, we will be working together to create a new and stronger regulator that will enhance market confidence in the 14 GSEs by ensuring that their oversight is both robust and authoritative," he said. OFHEO veterans Edward DeMarco has been named chief operating officer and deputy director for housing mission and goals; Stephen Cross has been named deputy director of the division of Federal Home Loan Bank regulation; Chris Dickerson has been named deputy director for the division of enterprise regulation, and David Lee has been named the FHFA's chief administrative officer.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has named Catherine Cruz Wojtasik associate vice president of legislative affairs. Among other duties, Ms. Wojtasik will focus her efforts on commercial mortgage issues as they affect MBA's members. She joins the trade group from Popular, Inc. where she served as vice president and director of government affairs. She will report to Francis Creighton, MBA's vice president and chief lobbyist.

National Consumer Cooperative Bank of Washington has promoted Munevver Yolas to senior vice president of capital markets. In her new position Ms. Yolas will manage multiple private, agency, Small Business Administration and commercial real estate loan sales up to $250 million. She also will oversee the bank's capital markets department, keeping an eye on gain-on-sale profits and working with investors and the rating agents.

Former Mortgage Bankers Association chairwoman Regina M. Lowrie has joined the advisory board of Salient Business Solutions, a leading provider of business process outsourcing services based in Gurgaon, India. Ms. Lowrie is currently the president and chief executive of Vision Mortgage Capital LLC, as well as RML Investments Inc., a consulting firm serving the financial services industry. Prior to forming Vision Mortgage Capital, she was president of Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services. "The addition of Ms. Lowrie to the advisory board is a signal to the mortgage industry that Salient is developing a significant presence in the market," said Manoj Malhotra, chief executive of Salient Business Solutions. "The advisory board members regularly provide us with their domain expertise, and our executive team draws upon that experience when making strategic decisions and developing our road map for the expansion of the company. As we seek to expand our presence in the mortgage industry, Ms. Lowrie's insight will prove to be invaluable."

Edmund Hoyt has been named interim chief financial officer of General Growth Properties Inc., a Chicago-based real estate investment trust. Mr. Hoyt, who has served as senior vice president and chief accounting officer of the company since 2000, succeeds Bernard Freibaum, who is no longer employed by the REIT. GGP announced that all continuing executive officers have informed the company that they have repaid in full all margin loans, and therefore "there will be no further sales of company stock by those executive officers to satisfy margin calls." Citing the uncertainty and volatility in the capital markets, the shopping center REIT said its board has decided to suspend the payment of common stock dividends.

Michael A. Gerber has been appointed acting president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., succeeding Henry D. Edelman. Mr. Gerber will continue to serve as CEO of Farm Credit of Western New York, an association in the Farm Credit System. In conjunction with Mr. Gerber's appointment, the board of Farmer Mac has formed an Executive Committee of the Board consisting of Mr. Gerber; Lowell L. Junkins, acting chairman of the board; and Dennis A. Everson, president of the Agri-business Division of First Dakota National Bank. Farmer Mac said the committee will work closely with Mr. Gerber and others at the government-sponsored enterprise regarding the company's operations, capital structure, and the search for a permanent CEO. The GSE can be found online at http://www.farmermac.com.

Two mortgage industry veterans from The Murrayhill Co., a 1990s-era third-party credit risk management firm, have reunited to form a new due-diligence venture supportive of whole loan trading and bond-buying decisions. Murrayhill founder Sue Allon will serve as chief executive officer of Allon Financial, the new Denver-based venture. Daniel Gallery has been named the new company's president. Allon Financial also has acquired Edison Mortgage Decisioning Solutions, a due-diligence and data/analytics reporting company, including the mortgage analysts from EMDS's staff and EMDS's proprietary due-diligence technology.

Amy Brandt, who was the chief executive officer of WMC Mortgage Co. during that alternative-A lender's salad days, has returned to the industry by buying two servicers and an Internet originator. Vantium Capital Inc., her private-equity firm, was planning to announce that it has acquired the assets of Strategic Recovery Group LLC, a Plano, Texas-based company that collects on defaulted and charged-off debts; its Acqura Loan Services LLC, which manages subprime portfolios; and Strategic Recovery's online-only lending business, which uses the brand name Go Financial Solutions. Vantium, a New York company, would not make executives available for interviews. In a press release, Ms. Brandt said, "We will use these companies as a platform to develop, or acquire, new businesses that will serve the financial and investment markets." The firm did not say how much it paid for any of the assets. It has financial backing from Leon Black's Apollo Global Management LLC, the New York private-equity firm that sold WMC Mortgage to General Electric Co. in 2004. Acqura is to service assets bought by a Vantium fund managed by Michael Commaroto, the former head of private-label mortgage-backed securities at Deutsche Bank AG, Vantium said.

Bank of America late Monday fired Drew Gissinger, a top production executive at Countrywide Home Loans who was in charge of retail, wholesale, and correspondent lending, according to company officials. Also let go were: Brian Hale, president of retail; Charlie Rogers, managing director of Countrywide's nationwide retail network; and Tom Hunt, managing director of the western U.S. retail branch network. Mr. Gissinger once carried the title of president and chief operating officer of Countrywide Home Loans. Meanwhile, BoA named Craig Buffie the top executive in charge of sales and fulfillment, overseeing 14,000 employees in the mortgage group. BoA bought Countrywide on July 1.

Daniel Farr has been named chief financial officer of CBRE Realty Finance Inc., Hartford, Conn. Mr. Farr, currently manager of financial planning and analysis at the company, will succeed Michael A. Angerthal, who resigned to become CFO of Phoenix Investment Partners. Mr. Farr, 34, was previously employed by General Electric Capital Corp. and Deloitte & Touche LLP. CBRE Realty Finance also announced the appointment of Ryan Murray as chief accounting officer. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.cbrerealtyfinance.com.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has appointed John A. Koskinen the new chairman of Freddie Mac and Philip Laskawy the chairman of Fannie Mae. "Good corporate governance at the enterprises is especially important right now, and I appreciate the willingness of both of these men to provide board leadership during these challenging times," FHFA Director James Lockhart said. The GSE regulator dismissed the chairmen and boards of directors of Fannie and Freddie when the government-sponsored enterprises were placed in conservatorship Sept. 7. Mr. Koskinen was president of the Palmieri Co., which specialized in restructuring troubled companies and provided management services for the Resolution Trust Corp. He also served at the Office of Management and Budget as deputy director. Mr. Laskawy was chairman and chief executive of Ernst & Young until he retired in 2001. "Both of these individuals have the types of skills and experience needed to ensure a healthy financial future for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Mr. Lockhart said.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has promoted Francis Creighton to be the trade group's chief lobbyist. He replaces Erick Gustafson, who is leaving the MBA to head the government relations department of a multinational company. The new vice president and chief lobbyist will be responsible for leading the federal and state legislative activities of the association, according to MBA senior vice president Steve O'Connor. "His background and leadership skills are an ideal fit for managing the day-to-day responsibilities of our legislative and political teams," Mr. O'Connor said. On Capitol Hill, Mr. Creighton previously worked for Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.

Zack Boyers has been named chairman and chief executive officer of St. Louis-based U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corp., an investor in affordable housing developments. Mr. Boyers, who has 14 years of tax credit investment and banking experience, will be responsible for providing strategic direction and leadership to USBCDC's community development team. He started his banking career with Mark Twain Bank, now part of U.S. Bank, and later took a position as a specialist on affordable housing and historic tax credits with the organization in 1998. Since 2003, Mr. Boyers has served in a senior management role with the Historic and New Markets Tax Credit Investments product division. USBCDC is a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, which can be found on the Web at http://www.usbank.com.