Career moves

Donald D. Bradley has been promoted to executive vice president and chief investment officer of Nationwide Health Properties Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., and Abdo H. Khoury has been promoted to EVP and chief financial and portfolio officer. Mr. Bradley joined the real estate investment trust in March 2001 as senior vice president and general counsel, adding the title of chief investment officer in early 2004, the REIT said. Mr. Khoury joined NHP in August 2004 as senior vice president and chief portfolio officer, and added the role of chief financial officer to his responsibilities in early 2005. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.nhp-reit.com.

Jerry Pavlas has been appointed chief operating officer of Southwest Securities FSB, a Dallas-based residential construction and mortgage warehouse lender. Before joining Southwest Securities, Mr. Pavlas was chief executive officer of Presidential Finance Co. in Atlanta. He served as president and COO of First State Bank of Texas, part of the Pohlad Banking Group, from 1998 to 2002, and as a senior banker with Hibernia Corp. from 1990 to 1998. Southwest Securities, the subsidiary bank of SWS Group Inc., can be found online at http://www.swsgroupinc.com.

Peter J. Korda and Andrew M. Pearlstein have been named co-chairs of Seyfarth Shaw LLP's Structured and Real Estate Finance Practice Group, a subgroup of the firm's Real Estate Practice Group. Seyfarth Shaw said its SREF attorneys represent lenders in a wide range of real estate finance transactions. Mr. Korda, a partner in the firm's New York office, concentrates on representing lenders in real estate finance matters, workouts, and restructured transactions. Mr. Pearlstein, a partner in the firm's Boston office, concentrates on representing financial institutions, businesses, real estate owners, and developers involved in complex commercial real estate and financial transactions. The law firm can be found online at http://www.seyfarth.com.

Todd Voigt has been named senior vice president and portfolio manager at Cohen & Steers Inc., New York, where he is slated to lead the creation of hedged real estate securities portfolios. Cohen & Steers said he will help formulate the firm's long/short global real estate securities strategy. Mr. Voigt was previously involved in portfolio management for real estate securities hedge funds at Cliffwood Partners LLC, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment management firm.

Richard A. Price Jr. has been named non-executive chairman of the board of CIFG Holding Ltd., the Hamilton, Bermuda-based holding company for several financial guaranty subsidiaries. Mr. Price, 61, was most recently chief executive officer of Zurich Capital Markets and Centre Re and has more than 35 years of experience in banking and insurance, CIFG said. Among his previous positions were several senior posts at FGIC, including president of FGIC Capital Markets. CIFG can be found on the Web at http://www.cifg.com.

Catherine M. Jackson has been named senior vice president and controller of Radian Group Inc., a Philadelphia-based mortgage insurer. Ms. Jackson was most recently executive vice president and chief accounting officer for Capmark Financial Group Inc. She has over 20 years of experience in accounting and corporate financial management as well as "significant experience" in the real estate and the financial services industries, Radian said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.radian.biz

Steven R. Goldman has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc., a real estate investment trust based in San Clemente, Calif., to become president of Global Real Estate and Development at Hilton Hotels Corp. Mr. Goldman will remain at Sunstone until the end of March to assist in the transition of duties, the company said. The board of directors has appointed Robert A. Alter interim CEO, effective March 31. Mr. Alter currently serves as the company's executive chairman and was its CEO from its founding until March 2007. He will remain as interim CEO until a permanent CEO is hired.

Joseph T. Lynyak III, a veteran banking regulatory lawyer with experience in mortgage and subprime lending matters, has joined Venable LLP as a partner in its Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices. Mr. Lynyak moves to Venable from financial services law firm Buckley Kolar LLP, where he practiced in the firm's Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices. In addition to mortgage-related matters, he has experience in retail banking, fair lending, and bank operations issues, including federal pre-emption and strategic planning, Venable said. The law firm can be found online at http://www.venable.com.

Janice Brehm has been named senior vice president for mortgage banking at Ameriana Bank New Castle, Ind. Ms. Brehm will supervise the origination and processing of residential loans and will oversee the servicing responsibilities for the division. Ms. Brehm joined Ameriana in 2004 as a vice president in the Mortgage Lending Division. She was previously a mortgage loan officer and processing supervisor with First Bank Richmond NA in Richmond, Ind.

Citigroup, New York, has given responsibility for risk oversight of its real estate and mortgage exposure to Greg Hawkins, a pioneer in the development of fixed-income valuation models. Notable aspects of his career include his start in 1985 on Wall Street as a mortgage researcher at Salomon Brothers, a firm later acquired by Citi, and his later involvement with the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund as a founding partner in 1993. He is one of four new senior risk managers who will report to Brian Leach, the new chief risk officer. Mr. Leach, the successor to retiring Citi CRO Jorge Bermudez, is the CRO and co-chief operating officer of Citi's Old Lane hedge fund and was one of the six managers involved in the liquidation of LTCM.

Joanne Berkowitz has been named executive vice president for risk management and operations at PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., a subsidiary of The PMI Group Inc. Ms. Berkowitz will be responsible for optimizing the credit risk, portfolio management, and risk-adjusted return objectives for PMI's U.S. mortgage insurance portfolio, as well as for underwriting and servicing operations, the company said. She was most recently the chief enterprise risk officer for The PMI Group. Ms. Berkowitz, who began her career with PMI in 1983, has held a variety of positions, including managing risk management and underwriting for U.S. mortgage insurance operations and for international and strategic investments.

Roland Arnall, who founded both Ameriquest Mortgage and its wholesale affiliate Argent, has resigned as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands effective March 7, citing his son's health. Mr. Arnall was confirmed as ambassador in early 2006 shortly after Ameriquest, once the nation's largest retail subprime lender, agreed to pay $325 million to settle predatory-lending allegations levied against it by attorneys general in 49 states. (Argent, which is now owned by Citigroup, was not a party to the settlement.) Ameriquest's retail arm was closed last year. Mr. Arnall's company, ACC Capital Holdings Corp. of Orange, Calif., is still in business, though it has little or no remaining presence in mortgages. "This was a difficult decision, and one Ambassador Arnall made only after careful consideration," said State Department spokesman Rob McInturff. "In 2006, his son Daniel was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Unfortunately, although initial treatment appeared to be effective, Daniel has had a relapse." Mr. Arnall and his wife Dawn are expected to return to the U.S. shortly.

Craig Macnab, chief executive officer of National Retail Properties Inc., Orlando, Fla., has been appointed to the additional post of chairman of the board. Mr. Macnab succeeds Clifford R. Hinkle, who will remain on the board as lead director. Mr. Macnab joined the real estate investment trust in February 2004. The company also announced that Dennis Gershenson has been appointed to the board. Mr. Gershenson currently serves as president, CEO, and chairman of Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust, a shopping center REIT. National Retail Properties can be found online at http://www.nnnreit.com.

Joe McNally, a veteran mortgage industry executive, has joined BankAnnapolis, Annapolis, Md., as vice president and mortgage sales manager. Mr. McNally, who has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry, comes to BankAnnapolis from First Horizon Home Loan, where he was district/area manager for the Mid-Atlantic Region. He previously spent 25 years with Bank of America and its predecessor institutions, where he held a variety of mortgage lending management positions.

Gary C. Dunton, chairman and chief executive officer of MBIA Inc., a bond insurer that has been wrestling with mortgage-related woes, has resigned and been replaced by former executive chairman Joseph "Jay" Brown. Mr. Brown had been executive chairman of the Armonk, N.Y.-based company until his retirement in May of last year and previously served as chairman/CEO between January 1999 and May 2004. MBIA can be found online at http://www.mbia.com.

The lender processing division of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., which the company plans to spin off in midyear, will be named Lender Processing Services Inc., the Jacksonville, Fla.-based FNIS has announced. Jeff Carbiener, currently executive vice president and chief financial officer of FNIS, will become president and chief executive officer of the new company. George Scanlon, who recently joined FNIS as executive vice president of finance, will assume the role of CFO of FNIS after the spinoff is complete, the company said. FNIS can be found on the Web at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

Andy Morris has been named executive vice president and commercial real estate director at The South Financial Group Inc., Greenville, S.C. Mr. Morris, most recently an executive vice president at Regions Bank, spent 30 years with SouthTrust Bank and Wachovia (following its acquisition of SouthTrust in 2004). At SouthTrust, Mr. Morris built and led their commercial real estate line of business. At Wachovia, he served as the regional manager for commercial real estate activities in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Conrad Vasquez has been named executive vice president of operations at Clayton Holdings Inc., a Shelton, Conn.-based information and analytics company serving the debt markets. Mr. Vasquez, a 25-year industry veteran, will be responsible for the day-to-day operations for Clayton's due diligence and surveillance businesses and will focus on increasing operational productivity, improving service quality, and expanding product offerings, the company said. Mr. Vasquez joins Clayton after five years with Washington Mutual, where he was most recently an executive vice president and head of retail bank operations. He previously held executive positions at Advanta Bank Corp., First USA, Household Finance, American Express, and Sears.

UBS AG, the corporate parent of Wall Street firm UBS, has named a Morgan Stanley executive to head an investment banking unit that has been wrestling with U.S. mortgage-related writedowns. Jerker Johansson, a vice chairman in Europe for Morgan Stanley, has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer of UBS Investment Bank. UBS, which has dual headquarters in Zurich and Basel, also made three appointments to its executive board: Robert Wolf, chairman and CEO of UBS Group Americas and president and chief operating officer of the investment bank; Alexander Wilmot-Sitwell, joint global head of the investment banking department; and Martin Hoekstra, head of wealth management for the Americas.

Certain directors of Bank of America and Washington Mutual may face an election challenge if they do not provide a satisfactory explanation of what they did "to protect shareholders from excessive mortgage-related risk" in the past two years, according to CtW Investment Group. CtW called for the explanations, and threatened to urge shareholders to vote against the directors, in letters to BoA's Jackie M. Ward, Frank P. Bramble Sr., and Robert L. Tillman and WaMu's Mary Pugh, Stephen E. Frank, and William G. Reed Jr. The six directors sit on the BoA and WaMu committees designated to oversee risk for their respective banks, CtW said. "The meltdown of the U.S. mortgage market is among the worst financial disasters of the past 50 years," said Bill Patterson, executive director of CtW. "At the epicenter of this crisis are Bank of America, Washington Mutual, and four other U.S. banks whose failure to manage mortgage-related risk not only destroyed almost $300 billion in combined shareholder value, but also helped destabilize the global capital markets and precipitate a credit crunch that now threatens to throw the U.S. economy into recession." CtW can be found online at http://www.ctwinvestmentgroup.com.