Career moves

All Fund Mortgage, Tacoma, Wash., a net branch operator that has been slow in paying its managers, has named a new national branch director, Fallon Vaughan, a former vice president for Wells Fargo.According to a statement All Fund sent to its branch managers, Mr. Fallon replaces Bryan Hart, who had worked at the company for five years. The statement says Mr. Hart left to pursue an "alternative advantageous opportunity." Mr. Hart and All Fund officials in Tacoma either declined to comment on the change or did not return telephone calls placed by MortgageWire. At least five branch managers -- four of whom did not want to be identified -- said All Fund has been delaying commission checks by several weeks. Typically, it used to pay within 48 hours. (Mr. Hart confirmed the 48-hour payment schedule to MW prior to his departure.) In another recent statement sent to its managers, All Fund admitted that it has been slow in paying commissions "over the past few months" but promised to fix the problem by late April or early May.

Fannie Mae's chief financial officer, Robert Blakely, will leave that post and be replaced by Stephen Swad, the company has announced.Fannie Mae said the transition will happen later this year, and that Mr. Blakely will remain as an executive vice president of the company through the end of 2007. The company, noting that Mr. Blakely has overseen the restatement of Fannie Mae's 2002-2004 earnings and the recent completion of its 2005 financial results, said he will focus on the completion of the company's 2006 10-K filing during the remainder of his tenure. Mr. Swad will lead the company's effort to return to timely financial reporting. Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel Mudd praised Mr. Blakely for overseeing "a large, complex financial restatement." The news of Mr. Blakely's pending departure comes just two days after Eugene McQuade, president and chief operating officer at Freddie Mac, announced his decision to leave Freddie Mac in September.

Freddie Mac president and chief operating officer Eugene McQuade has unexpectedly turned down an offer to be the mortgage company's chief executive, and he plans to relinquish his executive duties Sept. 1.The former Boston commercial banker will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors. The announcement by Freddie Mac is particularly surprising because Mr. McQuade was widely expected to take over the CEO duties from CEO and chairman Richard Syron. Over the past year, Mr. McQuade has led Freddie's effort to repair its accounting systems, and the publicly traded company is expected to return to regular quarterly financial reporting this year. The first quarter 2007 report is scheduled to be released in June. "He's been a great partner for me, and his record here is impressive," Mr. Syron said. Freddie Mac also announced that board member Ronald Poe is retiring and that the board has nominated Nicholas Retsinas, the director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and a former federal housing commissioner, to be a director.

Michael B. Skalka has been named president of Stewart Title Guaranty Co., the primary underwriter of Houston-based Stewart Information Services Corp.Mr. Skalka will remain as chairman of Stewart's international group, where he has served since 2005. He has 30 years of experience in the title insurance and real estate industries, Stewart said. Mr. Skalka joined Stewart in 1988 as founding president of Stewart Title Insurance Co., founded Stewart's United Kingdom underwriter in the early 1990s, and became STIC's chairman in 1993, the parent company said. Stewart can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

Matthew W. Morris has been named president of Stewart Professional Solutions, a newly formed support services group for Stewart Title Co. and Stewart Title Guaranty Co.The parent company, Houston-based Stewart Information Services Corp., said current Stewart home-office service centers and their associates form the core of the new group. Stewart Morris Jr., president and co-chief executive officer of the parent company, said the creation of the new unit will enable him and the other co-CEO, Malcolm S. Morris, to "shift much of our energy from support and home-office operational concerns to a major emphasis on our customer base, office profitability, strategy, and the needs of our changing market." Stewart can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

After running origination vendor Del Mar Database, San Diego, for several years, the company's president, John Walsh, has decided to leave the company.Fiserv Lending Solutions recently acquired Del Mar and kept Mr. Walsh on as president. "Simply, the earn-out on the deal expired," Mr. Walsh told MortgageWire. "It was time for me to cut the umbilical cord. Del Mar is, and will continue to be, a very successful company, I have no doubt. I consider myself an entrepreneur, and it was the right time for me to move on." Mr. Walsh said he has no immediate plans. He told MW that Fiserv is in the process of finding a successor. Del Mar, which specializes in providing technology to small and medium-size lenders, can be found on the Web at http://www.delmardb.com.

Jeffrey A. Wiseman and Kevin D. Walsh have been named co-heads of mezzanine lending at JER Investors Trust Inc., a McLean, Va.-based company that originates and acquires commercial real estate structured finance products.Mr. Wiseman was also named a director of J.E. Robert Co. and will be based in the companies' New York City office, while Mr. Walsh, who joined JER in May 2006, will continue as a director of J.E. Robert, the companies reported. Mr. Wiseman was most recently a vice president at JPMorgan, and he was previously employed by Capital Trust Inc. Mr. Walsh was previously employed for 17 years by Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage Finance. JER can be found on the Web at http://www.jer.com.

Residential Capital Corp. chief executive Bruce Paradis will retire on June 1 and be replaced by Jim Jones, who currently serves as the firm's chief operating officer and president.ResCap is the parent company of mortgage giant GMAC Residential. Mr. Paradis, 58, helped create the holding company a few years ago. He has worked for GMAC and its affiliates for 24 years. Late last year, hedge fund Cerberus Capital bought 51% of GMAC.

Christopher C. Mortello has been named managing director of asset-backed securities at PMI Guaranty Co., a Jersey City, N.J.-based provider of credit enhancement for mortgages and other asset classes.Mr. Mortello will be responsible for origination and new business development for structured finance transactions involving mortgage-backed securities, ABS, and collateralized debt obligations, the company said. Before joining PMI Guaranty, Mr. Mortello spent 10 years at Assured Guaranty, a bond insurer, most recently as managing director, senior vice president, and co-head of consumer ABS. The company is a subsidiary of The PMI Group, which is also the parent company of PMI Mortgage Insurance. PMI Guaranty can be found online at http://www.pmiguaranty.com.

Alan H. Fishman has been named chairman of Meridian Capital Group LLC, a New York-based mortgage brokerage firm, replacing Howard J. Zuckerman, who will become vice chairman.Mr. Fishman was most recently president and chief operating officer of Sovereign Bank, Meridian said. He was previously president and chief executive officer of Independence Community Bank. Meridian Capital can be found on the Web at http://www.meridiancapital.com.

James Furash, chief executive of a depository owned by Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., has left the company, according to combined news reports.At deadline time, Countrywide spokesman Rick Simon had not returned a telephone call about the matter. Countrywide's federally insured bank had $84 billion in assets at the end of March. Countrywide is the nation's largest residential funder, according to the Quarterly Data Report. Its bank holds deposits of consumers in the form of certificates of deposit and mortgage escrow accounts. The parent company places home equity loans and ARMs on the balance sheet of the bank. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Charles A. Bowsher, a former comptroller general of the United States, has been named the private-citizen director on the board of directors of the Office of Finance, and as such, he will be chairman of the board.Mr. Bowsher was appointed to a three-year term. In addition to serving as comptroller general for 15 years after his appointment to that post in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Bowsher has served on several corporate boards and is currently on the advisory board of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Office of Finance said. The Office of Finance is the debt issuance facility of the Federal Home Loan Banks. It can be found online at http://www.fhlb-of.com.

Mitch Heffernan, the former president and chief executive of the defunct Mortgage Lenders Network, recently sought an injunction in bankruptcy court to stop the Connecticut Department of Labor from pursuing criminal charges against him, according to an article published in the Hartford Courant.The office of a Connecticut state's attorney blocked the injunction and defended the department's right to seek the warrant. The department applied for an arrest warrant for Mr. Heffernan that would charge him with 61 counts of failing to pay wages to employees at MLN, which filed for bankruptcy in March. The arrest warrant for Mr. Heffernan is still pending at the state's attorney's office, said Nancy Stefans, a representative of the department. MLN was a top-20-ranked subprime lender.

Super MergerSub Inc., an affiliate of Australian property investment manager Central Properties Group, has announced the designation of five members of the New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc. board of directors.The new board members, whose appointments were made pursuant to a previously announced merger agreement, are Andrew Scott, John Hutchinson, Graham Terry, Romano Nenna, and Anthony Torney, all of whom are members of Centro's executive committee. New Plan directors William Newman, Glenn J. Rufrano, Raymond H. Bottorf, Norman Gold, Matthew Goldstein, Nina Matis, Melvin Newman, and Gregory White have all resigned from the board, Centro reported. New Plan directors Irwin Engelman, H. Carl McCall, and George Puskar will continue to serve on the eight-member board. Centro and New Plan, a New York-based real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.centro.com.au and http://www.newplan.com.

CitiMortgage has renewed its partnership with America's Community Bankers' for-profit subsidiary to continue providing ACB members with secondary-market execution and services."This agreement rewards our members for delivering high-quality loans, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace," said William Kroll, ACB Business Partners president and chief executive. In other news, ACB has appointed Barbara L. Shyoff to be senior vice president/ legislative counsel and run the trade group's lobbying shop. She was previously special counsel in the Office of Thrift Supervision's regulation and legislation division.

Joe Cartellone has been named president and chief operating officer of Cleveland-based National City Corp., the parent company of National City Mortgage, Miamisburg, Ohio.Mr. Cartellone replaces Rick Smalldon, who has decided to step down from his current post to relocate to Arizona, the company said. Mr. Cartellone was most recently senior vice president and national sales manager of National City Home Equity. Before joining National City in 2000, he held various positions at Chase Manhattan Mortgage. National City can be found on the Web at http://www.nationalcity.com.

Stephen F. Bollenbach, co-chairman and chief executive officer of Hilton Hotels Corp., has been elected non-executive chairman of the board of Los Angeles-based KB Home.Before joining Hilton in 1996, Mr. Bollenbach was senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Walt Disney Co. KB Home said its board created the position of independent non-executive chairman in November 2006 to "enhance KB Home's corporate governance." Also in November, Bruce Karatz retired as chairman, director, and CEO of KB Home following an independent investigation into the company's stock-option granting practices, which concluded that the company used incorrect measurement dates for stock option grants from 1998 to 2005. In addition, the board at that time terminated the employment of Gary A. Ray, the company's head of human resources, and Richard B. Hirst resigned as executive vice president and chief legal officer. KB Home can be found online at http://www.kbhome.com.

American Brokers Conduit, the wholesale division of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., has named Carl Cody branch manager in Dallas.In his new role as branch manager, Mr. Cody is responsible for overseeing and directing all branch activities for the Dallas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri markets. Prior to joining ABC, he was vice president, regional sales manager with LoanCity.

The CFO of Residential Capital, a subsidiary of GMAC Financial Services, has resigned.James Giertz will leave the company on April 13. ResCap said that parent GMAC's chief financial officer, Sanjiv Khattri, will assume interim responsibility as CFO of ResCap until a permanent successor is named.

Bob Dart has been named chairman of LendingForms.com, a provider of printed and electronic mortgage forms and related services based in Southfield, Mich.Before joining the company, Mr. Dart served as president and chief executive officer of VMP Mortgage Forms, where he worked for 17 years. LendingForms.com can be found online at http://www.lendingforms.com.