Career moves

Jess Hartmann has been named president of Mortgage Coach, a provider of mortgage planning software based in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Hartmann was most recently the chief executive officer of ISD Corp., a software development and services firm. Before joining ISD, he was the senior vice president and chief information officer at New Horizons, which Mortgage Coach said is the largest information technology training company in the world. The company pointed to Mr. Hartmann's "proven track record" of expanding companies and said it plans to use his expertise "to further penetrate the mortgage market and capitalize on the vast potential caused by the growing trend toward mortgage planning." Mortgage Coach can be found online at http://www.mortgagecoach.com.

Jeffrey B. Lane has been named chairman and chief executive officer of the troubled Bear Stearns Asset Management, according to The Bear Stearns Cos.Richard Marin, former BSAM chairman and chief executive officer, will remain with BSAM as a senior adviser to Mr. Lane. Before joining BSAM, Mr. Lane was a vice chairman of Lehman Brothers and chairman of Neuberger Berman Inc. He was previously vice chairman of Travelers Group and of the company's Smith Barney subsidiary. Merrill Lynch recently liquidated approximately $850 million in subprime-related assets seized from at least one Bear Stearns hedge fund after the fund failed to meet its margin calls. In a subsequent conference call, Bear Stearns chief financial officer Sam Molinaro said the Wall Street firm was trying to restructure the hedge fund (and a similar one) but that the process could take several months.

Robert M. Dunn has been named president of Oxford Funding Corp., a Houston-based asset resolution company specializing in the purchase and restructuring of subprime residential and commercial mortgage portfolios.Mr. Dunn was most recently the owner and manager of San Felipe Commercial Mortgage, which Oxford Funding recently announced its intention to acquire. He was previously president of Angelina Capital Corp., a mortgage lender, from 1992 to 1998. Oxford has also announced that it plans to acquire Huntington Financial Corp., a Houston-based commercial and residential mortgage broker. Oxford Funding can be found on the Web at http://www.oxfordfunding.com.

American Financial Realty Trust, Jenkintown, Pa., has reported that its president and chief executive officer, Harold "Hal" W. Pote, died suddenly and unexpectedly while vacationing with his wife this week in Turkey.Mr. Pote, 60, had served as president and CEO of the real estate investment trust since August 2006. The company's board of trustees announced the formation of an interim office of the president, consisting of Glenn Blumenthal, chief operating officer; Edward Matey Jr., general counsel; and David Nettina, chief financial officer. They will report to the board and to mortgage industry veteran Lewis S. Ranieri, the board chairman. The company can be found online at http://www.afrt.com.

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, has promoted John G. Stumpf to the position of president and chief executive officer.The former CEO, Dick Kovacevich, continues as chairman but plans to retire no later than the end of next year, when he will be 65. Mr. Stumpf joined Norwest Corp. in 1982 in the loan administration department of Norwest Bank Minneapolis NA. Norwest and Wells merged in 1998. In August 2005, he was named president and chief operating officer. Mr. Kovacevich lauded Mr. Stumpf's promotion, citing "his quarter century of experience with our company, his broad and deep understanding of our unique culture, his personal commitment to people as a competitive advantage, and his passion for our vision, values, and business model." Wells has what it calls a decentralized structure, with four executives overseeing different groups that answer to Mr. Stumpf, including Mark Oman, the senior executive vice president of the Home and Consumer Finance Group.

Three former executives of Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., pleaded guilty June 26 to insider trading in a scheme that generated more than $100,000 in profits.The three former executives (all vice presidents) are: Alan Cao and Quan Zhu, who worked in Countrywide's Calabasas, Calif. headquarters; and Jun Shi, who worked in the Thousand Oaks office of CFC's bank affiliate. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, the three traded on information relating to profits for the third quarter of 2004. The three obtained confidential information revealing that Countrywide would not meet analysts' expectations for that quarter and traded on it. Each man pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. According to the Quarterly Data Report, Countrywide is the nation's largest residential lender. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Robert Couch has been sworn in as the new general counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and has given up his post as president of Ginnie Mae.HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson tapped Mr. Couch to be his general counsel in February after Keith Gottfried suddenly resigned. The former Mortgage Bankers Association chairman was the president and chief executive of New South Federal Savings Bank, Birmingham, Ala., and managing director of a mortgage banking company before his appointment to Ginnie Mae. Meanwhile, Ginnie executive vice president Michael Frenz will have day-to-day responsibility for running Ginnie Mae.

National City Home Equity, Cleveland, has announced a new organizational structure that creates two U.S. divisional sales territories: the Eastern Division, headed by Mike Kelly, and the Western Division, headed by Terry McChrystal.Mr. Kelly joined National City as the credit and business risk manager in 2000, the company said. He was previously head of operational risk management at Chase Manhattan Mortgage and held management post in Chase's consumer products division. National City said Mr. McChrystal joined the company in 2002 as retail sales manager and later managed sales support for National City Mortgage. He previously worked with Record Data Inc., TRW Real Estate Loan Services, Strategic Mortgage Services, and Mortgage Information Services. National City can be found online at http://www.nationalcity.com.

Dave Fauth has been named president and chief executive officer of Stewart Title of Minnesota and will serve as the Minnesota state manager for its underwriter, Stewart Title Guaranty Co.Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston. Mr. Fauth was most recently co-owner and president of Alliance Title Co., a Stewart Title agency based in Hutchison, Minn. He held various positions with Stewart Title of Minnesota from 1994 to 2000, including president, the company said. Stewart can be found on the Web at http://www.stewart.com.

Nectar Kalajian has been named executive vice president for the West Coast region of Power Express Mortgage Bankers, a direct lender of jumbo home loans headquartered in Lake Success, N.Y.A 30-year veteran of the industry, Ms. Kalajian will be based at Power Express's Pasadena, Calif. office, the company said. She was most recently president of the retail division of Ownit Mortgage Solutions Inc., a California-based home lender that was partly owned by Merrill Lynch & Co. before it dissolved in late 2006. Before that, Ms. Kalajian was the founder and owner of Security Pacific Home Loans, a California-based direct lender that was acquired by Ownit. She previously held various executive posts at Countrywide Home Loans, rising to executive vice president.

Mark Sofyanos has been named national sales manager of Cleveland-based KeyBank Mortgage, a division of KeyBank NA's Community Bank.Before joining Key, Mr. Sofyanos served as a senior vice president and regional manager for Countrywide Home Loans in Chicago. He has also held national management positions with ABN Amro Mortgage and PNC Mortgage Corp. of America, both in Chicago, and with National City Bank in Columbus, Ohio, KeyBank said. KeyCorp, the parent company of KeyBank, can be found on the Web at http://www.key.com.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta has named Richard Dorfman, a former investment banker and mortgage market consultant, to be its new president and chief executive, effective June 20."Dorfman's extensive experience and knowledge in the financial services sector, including more than 25 years managing mortgage-related products, will be a tremendous asset to the bank," said board chairman Scott Harvard. The new FHLBank president was managing director and head of a mortgage division at ABN Amro from 1997 to 2005 and previously worked at Lehman Brothers. William Ott has served as interim president and CEO of the Atlanta FHLBank since Raymond Christman resigned. The bank can be found online at http://www.fhlbatl.com.

Paul Rodriguez has been named executive vice president of Sage Credit Co., a mortgage banking company headquartered in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Rodriquez was most recently managing director of Quick Loan Funding Inc. and chief executive officer of Wall St. Funding Inc. Sage said Mr. Rodriquez has two decades of mortgage experience. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.sagecreditcompany.com.

GMAC-ResCap associate counsel Julianne Linder has been elected to a new term as co-chair of the American Securitization Forum's residential mortgage-backed securities issuer subforum. Ms. Linder's term expires mid-year 2009. The other co-chair of the RMBS issuer subforum is Bill Felts, CitiMortgage senior vice president, director of mortgage finance. Mr. Felts is serving a term that ends mid-year 2008.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. has added five mortgage-backed securities researchers.The Wall Street firm has named Arthur Frank as director and head of agency MBS research and Ying Shen as director and head of non-agency MBS research. Deutsche Bank also has hired Yan Dong, William Natcher and Jichun Wu as vice presidents in MBS research. Mr. Frank previously was a director in Barclays Capital's mortgage strategy group and Mr. Shen formerly was head of credit trading modeling at JPMorgan. The three new MBS research VPs hired by Deutsche Bank previously worked for UBS, National City Corp. and Freddie Mac, respectively.

Alan L. Stinson has been promoted to chief executive officer of Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., and Raymond R. Quirk and Brent B. Bickett have been named co-presidents of the company.Mr. Stinson and Mr. Quirk are currently co-chief operating officers of Fidelity National, and Mr. Bickett is currently its president. The company, which provides title insurance, specialty insurance, and claims management services, can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Preston Martin, who served as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and was involved in the formation of Freddie Mac, died of heart disease May 30 in San Francisco at the age of 83, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.Mr. Martin was vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1982 to 1986, and he founded PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. in the early 1970s after heading the FHLBank Board, the predecessor agency of the Federal Housing Finance Board. He was also instrumental in the creation of NeighborWorks America. "Preston Martin, at the helm of the Federal Home Loan Bank system in 1970, was ahead of his time in supporting community-based public-private partnerships as a viable approach to the revitalization of urban residential areas," said Ken Wade, chief executive officer of NeighborWorks. "In an era when conflict was more common than cooperation, Preston Martin helped propel NeighborWorks from very humble beginnings into a national housing and community development network."

Kenneth Ferrari has been named senior vice president of the Eastern division of First Magnus Financial Corp., a privately held mortgage banking company based in Tucson, Ariz., and Stephen Olimpio has been promoted to senior vice president of the Northern division.Mr. Ferrari will be responsible for wholesale prime and alternative-A lending in New England and mid-Atlantic markets, and Mr. Olimpio will focus on the Northeast and upper Midwest markets, First Magnus said. Mr. Ferrari has more than 16 years of experience in mortgage lending, most recently as senior business line executive for Mortgage Lenders Network USA's Prime Wholesale division. Previously, he spent 10 years with Fleet in various production management positions. Mr. Olimpio has served as First Magnus' regional vice president of the Northeast division for five years. He has 12 years of wholesale lending experience and has worked with some of the top companies in the industry, including North American Mortgage, Accubanc, Crossland Mortgage, and Wells Fargo, according to First Magnus. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.firstmagnus.com.

Harvey W. Goldberg has been named president of Dover Mortgage Co., Charlotte, N.C.Mr. Goldberg succeeds the company's founder, W. Edward Joye, as president. Mr. Joye resigned in March. Mr. Goldberg has more than 20 years' experience in the mortgage industry, Dover said. FNB United Corp. is the holding company for Dover Mortgage.

Douglas J. Donatelli has been named chairman of the board and chief executive officer of First Potomac Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust based in Bethesda, Md.Mr. Donatelli will succeed Louis T. Donatelli, who will continue to serve as a trustee, the industrial and flex-property REIT said. Douglas Donatelli has been president, CEO, and trustee of the company since its founding in 1997. The REIT said its portfolio now contains 70 properties totaling 11.2 million square feet.