Career moves

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.

Frederick Cannon, an equity researcher in the mortgage sector, has been promoted to the newly created positions of associate director of research and chief equity strategist of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Mr. Cannon, 51, joined KBW in 2003, providing equity research on banks and thrifts specializing in the mortgage sector. He was previously executive vice president and director of investor relations at Golden State Bancorp and its subsidiary, California Federal Bank.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has promoted John Mechem to senior director of public affairs. In this capacity, Mr. Mechem will be responsible for developing and implementing MBA public affairs campaigns, serving as a primary spokesperson for the association and acting as a liaison between MBA and other industry communications representatives. "John's strategic vision and excellent communications skills have made him an invaluable asset to the MBA," said Jonathan Kempner, MBA's president and chief executive officer. "As the mortgage industry continues to evolve, we are very fortunate to have John communicating on behalf of MBA and our members." Mr. Mechem joined MBA in 2006 from the American Forest & Paper Association after serving as director of communications. He has over 12 years of experience in public and legislative affairs. His background includes serving as press secretary for Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., and previously as deputy press secretary for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He began his career as a legislative assistant for Rep. Jay Kim, R-Calif.

Lehman Brothers has seen a changing of the guard at the head of its global fixed income division, a market area generally hit hard by the U.S. mortgage woe-sparked credit crunch. Roger Nagioff has retired, citing personal reasons, and the firm has promoted one of the unit¹s co-chief operating officers, Andrew J. Morton, to succeed him. In addition, Lehman has named as co-heads of fixed income for Europe and the Middle East: Georges Assi, the global head of the collateralized debt obligation and structured credit businesses and head of credit products for Europe and the Middle East; and Kieran Higgins, head of interest rate products for Europe and the Middle East. Both Mr. Higgins and Mr. Assi will continue to serve in their previous roles.

Mortgage Assistance Center Corp., Dallas, has hired Dennis D. Downey as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was the founder and chairman of Downey Capital Corp., where he handled the marketing, structuring and closing of commercial real estate financing transactions using a broad range of funding programs. In the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Mr. Downey was the southwest regional director of servicing and real estate owned activities for Freddie Mac. Mr. Downey also currently serves on the board of Lanier Capital REIT Inc.

Thomas B. Akin, the chairman of Dynex Capital Inc., Glen Allen, Va., has added the chief executive title for the company, effective immediately. "I appreciate the Board's confidence in me to lead Dynex forward as the Company grows and diversifies its investment strategies. The current investment environment is quite friendly to a mortgage REIT investment strategy, and I look forward to the opportunity. We appreciate our shareholders patience over the recent past as we waited for the investment cycle to improve. We are excited about the prospects for Dynex and look forward to growing the Company and increasing value for our shareholders," he said. Separately, Dynex's indirect subsidiary, GLS Capital Inc. received $1.625 million from Allegheny County, Pa. for the sale of substantially all of the remaining tax liens that GLS Capital previously owned in Allegheny County. Additional information about the company is available at http://www.dynexcapital.com.

Former California state treasurer Phil Angelides has joined Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, Los Angeles, as a principal of the firm and as chairman of a new fund that has ties to community development executive and former professional basketball player Earvin "Magic" Johnson. The new Canyon-Johnson Urban Communities Fund is slated to focus on acquiring, improving and "greening" residential rental and mixed-use properties in urban communities across the United States. Canyon can be found on the Web at http://www.canyonpartners.com.

David Shillington has been named senior vice president and director of agency lending at KeyBank Real Estate Capital, Cleveland. Mr. Shillington will relocate from Key's office on Charlotte, N.C., to work with the Dallas-based agency lending department, the company said. A 20-year industry veteran, Mr. Shillington has spent the past several years with the bank's Institutional Group. Before joining Key, he was the director of agency executions for Bank of America. KeyBank is a subsidiary of KeyCorp, which can be found on the Web at http://www.key.com.

Fannie Mae president and chief executive Daniel Mudd will receive total compensation of over $12.2 million for 2007, the vast majority of it coming from a performance bonus and incentive award, Fannie Mae has announced. The government-sponsored enterprise said its board of directors has established Mr. Mudd's 2007 bonus at $2,227,500 and his 2007 long-term incentive award at $9 million. Added to his base salary of $990,000, the bonus and incentive award bring his total compensation to $12,217,500 for last year. Fannie said Mr. Mudd's compensation for 2006 totaled $14,449,947. The GSE can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Dana Dillard has been promoted to executive vice president of the Office of the Customer at EMC Mortgage Corp., Lewisville, Texas. Ms. Dillard will manage a staff of 200 and oversee the departments of customer care, customer advocacy network, customer research, and customer communication, the company said. With eight years at EMC Mortgage and more than 21 years of industry experience, Ms. Dillard previously served as vice president of customer service and training at Lomas Mortgage USA and vice president of customer service at Bank of America Mortgage, among other posts.

Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Financial Corp.'s chairman and chief executive, has announced that he will voluntarily relinquish his rights to about $37.5 million in compensation in connection with the proposed merger of Countrywide and Bank of America. The compensation, in the form of severance payments, post-closing consulting fees, and continued perquisites, is provided under his employment agreement with Countrywide and the related consulting arrangement, Countrywide said. The company added that Mr. Mozilo will not receive any cash payments in the merger or upon any related termination of employment other than "amounts that he has already earned in full," such as retirement benefits and deferred compensation. "I believe this decision is the right thing to do as Countrywide works toward the successful completion of the merger with Bank of America," Mr. Mozilo said. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.