Career moves

Fannie Mae has agreed to pay its former chief executive officer and chairman Franklin Raines $2.6 million as part of a settlement tied to his early "retirement" in December 2004.In September of last year Mr. Raines -- a key figure in the government-sponsored enterprise's $11 billion accounting scandal -- initiated arbitration proceedings against the company, citing a clause in his employment contract that he provide Fannie with six months notice prior to retiring. Officially, Mr. Raines retired in December 2004, but essentially Fannie's board forced him out of the company as regulators began to question its accounting practices. Mr. Raines has other pending contract-related claims against the company. Fannie's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, has said publicly that it may sue to recover past bonus money paid to certain current and former executives because it believes accounting rules were violated to meet earnings-per-share bonus targets. A few months ago the Justice Department confirmed that it would not bring criminal charges against the company relating to its accounting scandal.

Bruce Karatz has retired as chairman of the board, director, and chief executive officer 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 2005The board has terminated the employment of Gary A. Ray, the company's head of human resources, and Richard B. Hirst has resigned as executive vice president and chief legal officer, effective immediately, the Los Angeles-based company reported. Mr. Karatz, who was with KB Home for 34 years, has agreed to pay the company the difference between the initial strike price and the closing price on the new measurement date for options he has exercised that were incorrectly priced. He has also agreed that each new strike price will be the closing price on the new measurement date. This is expected to involve an aggregate voluntary value transfer from Mr. Karatz to the company of approximately $13 million, KB Home said. The homebuilder said it expects that the incremental noncash compensation expense arising from the errors is not likely to exceed $50 million, spread over the vesting periods of the options in question.

Lehman Brothers has hired First Franklin Financial Corp. executive Steve Skolnik to run its BNC Mortgage affiliate, MortgageWire has learned.A spokesman for Lehman Brothers confirmed the news, which was first reported by National Mortgage News. The spokesman also said BNC's current chief executive officer, Kelly Monahan, will remain with the company but "will have other duties" at Lehman. A spokesman for National City Corp., Cleveland, which owns First Franklin, confirmed that Mr. Skolnik has left the subprime lender. The San Jose, Calif.-based First Franklin is being sold to Merrill Lynch & Co. BNC is headquartered in Irvine, Calif.

The White House has denied that there will be a change at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and maintains that rumors that Secretary Alfonso Jackson will be removed are "absolutely baseless."White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters that "Alphonso has been reassured that he is going to remain the HUD secretary." Mortgage Wire reported earlier that Secretary Jackson would resign in the next few weeks. Despite the White House denial, industry sources indicate that Secretary Jackson plans to leave HUD by Christmas and that HUD Deputy Secretary Roy Bernardi is expected to become the acting secretary. In related developments, HUD General Counsel Keith Gottfried left the department Nov. 3 and Ginnie Mae President Robert Couch is filling in as HUD's chief legal officer.

Robert Hulnick has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager of field services for the appraisal and Realtor-based valuation operations of Fiserv Lending Solutions.Mr. Hulnick, who was most recently senior vice president of strategic projects, will re-engineer the Realtor valuations and appraisal product lines, the company said. He was previously a vice president/director of valuation at GMAC HomeConnects. Mr. Hulnick held various executive posts at GE Mortgage and Fairbanks Capital, where he created one of the mortgage industry's premier Broker Price Opinion services, Fiserv said. The company can be found online at http://www.fiservls.com.

Andrew McCormick, a former Fannie Mae executive, has been named to the newly created post of executive vice president and chief investment officer of Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., Newport Beach, Calif.Mr. McCormick was previously senior vice president of portfolio transactions at Fannie Mae, Impac said. Before his tenure at Fannie Mae, he was a vice president of fixed-income securities at Morgan Stanley. Impac, a mortgage real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.impaccompanies.com.

Department of Housing and Urban Development general counsel Keith Gottfried has resigned, and he left the department Nov. 3 after serving one year as HUD's chief legal officer.It is a "loss" for lenders and real estate settlement providers who supported his efforts to provide guidance on Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act issues, according to RESPA attorney Phillip Schulman. "The fact that he won't be there to carry out that mission is a loss for participants," he said. Mr. Schulman is a partner with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP in Washington. Mr. Gottfried's departure is also expected to delay HUD's RESPA reform effort to revise and improve the good-faith estimate that lenders disclose to mortgage applicants. In a letter to his HUD colleagues, Mr. Gottfried said he is "proud" to have laid the "framework for enhancing regulatory transparency and compliance assistance at HUD." Prior to joining HUD, Mr. Gottfried was general counsel at Borland Software, Scotts Valley, Calif. In the 1990s, he was an attorney with Skadden Arps in New York.

Gary L. Kermott, president of First American Title Insurance Co., has been named vice chairman of the company and will help oversee the business until a new president is appointed, according to The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif.Mr. Kermott has held the position of president of the title insurance company since 1999, and he will retain his post as executive vice president of First American, the parent company. As vice chairman, he will be involved in various strategic activities, including sales efforts aimed at major agents and customers and the strengthening of First American's regulatory relationships, the company said. First American can be found online at http://www.firstam.com.

Rahul Merchant, the former head of global business technology at Merrill Lynch & Co., has been named executive vice president and chief information officer of Fannie Mae.Fannie Mae said Mr. Merchant, as CIO, will manage the more than one-third of the company's work force that fall within that function. At Merrill Lynch, he had direct oversight of more than 6,000 employees in that company's Global Markets & Investment Banking unit. He was previously an executive vice president at Dresdner, Kleinwort and Benson, a global investment bank. Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Jeffrey Olson has been named president of Equity One Inc., a real estate investment trust based in North Miami Beach, Fla., and Jeffrey Stauffer has been named the company's chief operating officer.The shopping center REIT said the appointments followed the resignation of Doron Valero as president and COO. He will remain with Equity One through Dec. 31. Mr. Olson joined Equity One in September after four years as president of the Eastern and Western shopping center regions of Kimco Realty Corp. As previously announced, he will take over as Equity One's chief executive officer on or before April 1, 2007. Mr. Stauffer was most recently COO of Pan Pacific Retail Properties Inc., a San Diego-based shopping center REIT. Equity One can be found online at http://www.equityone.net.

Victor L. Pepe has been named executive vice president and chief information officer of EMC Mortgage Corp., a Lewisville, Texas-based company specializing in the acquisition, servicing, and disposition of residential mortgage loans.Mr. Pepe has held CIO and chief technology officer positions for the past nine years, most recently with Lehman Brothers, where he was CIO and executive vice president of Aurora Loan Services, a Lehman Brothers subsidiary. He was previously CIO and EVP of SIB Mortgage Corp. EMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bear Stearns Cos., can be found on the Web at http://www.emcmortgage.com.

Patricia "Trish" Kauker has been named vice president of WSFS Financial Corp.'s newly created reverse mortgage business unit.The Wilmington, Del.-based company said Ms. Kauker was most recently head of AIG Bank's reverse mortgage initiative. She was previously employed by Beneficial National Bank, Norwest Mortgage, and Financial Freedom. WSFS said it has been involved in the reverse mortgage business since the early 1990s. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.wsfsbank.com.

C.D. Davies, president of Wachovia Mortgage, Charlotte, N.C., has resigned from the company, effective Oct. 31, MortgageWire has learned.Mr. Davies had been with the bank-owned lender for 18 years. As part of a reorganization, the bank named Jim Judd head of its retail mortgage and credit group. Mr. Judd joined Wachovia from World Savings/Golden West Financial of Oakland, a thrift the bank recently purchased. Mr. Judd was president and chief operating officer of World Savings, a subsidiary of Golden West. Three senior officials at Wachovia Mortgage -- David Pope, Tim Wilson, and Rich Fikani -- will report directly to Mr. Judd. Messrs. Fikani and Wilson, like Mr. Judd, came from Golden West. Wachovia can be found online at http://www.wachovia.com.

Michael I. Wirth, chief financial officer of New York Mortgage Trust Inc., will resign Nov. 3 and be replaced on an interim basis by Steven R. Mumma, the company's chief investment officer and chief operating officer.Mr. Wirth, 48, is resigning "to pursue another opportunity," the company said. Mr. Mumma, 47, has been the company's COO since November 2003 and its chief investment officer since July 2005. He was previously vice president of Natexis ABM Corp. and vice president of mortgage-backed securities trading at Credit Agricole. NYMT, a real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.nymtrust.com.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a privately held wholesale mortgage lender based in Ocala, Fla., has announced the formation of a nationwide correspondent lending group.Doug Miller, who formerly served as manager of correspondent programs at Washington Mutual, Citicorp, and HSBC, has been named executive vice president of the new division. TB&W can be found on the Web at http://www.taylorbean.com.

Taj S. Bindra has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of New Century Financial Corp., a real estate investment trust and mortgage finance company based in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Bindra will assume the EVP post on Nov. 6 and the CFO position on Nov. 15, New Century said. He will replace Patti M. Dodge, who is scheduled to take over as executive vice president of investor relations on Nov. 15. Mr. Bindra was most recently executive vice president of mortgage banking, capital markets, and servicing operations at Washington Mutual Inc. New Century can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Sean Burton has been named chief operating officer of CityView, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based discretionary housing investor headed by former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.Mr. Burton was most recently managing director at CityView, and he will continue to serve on the company's governance and investment committees, CityView said. Mr. Cisneros, who was secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development during former President Bill Clinton's first term, is chairman of CityView. The company said it helps create housing for working families by offering a flexible source of combined debt and equity and providing homebuilder partners a one-stop resource for land acquisition, entitlement support, governmental assistance, marketing, community outreach, and project insurance. CityView can be found online at http://www.city-view.net.

Bob Lewis has been named president of the Fifth Third Mortgage Co., Cincinnati.Mr. Lewis joined Fifth Third in 2005 as senior vice president and director of the residential mortgage wholesale channel. Before that, Mr. Lewis was wholesale national sales manager in the institutional lending division of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. He previously managed Wells Fargo's correspondent banking business. Fifth Third Mortgage is a subsidiary of Fifth Third Bank, which can be found on the Web at https://www.53.com.

Tim G. Henley and David Shaffer have been named regional lender representatives at Stewart Lender Services, Houston.Mr. Henley will be responsible for lender assistance and sales in the Midwest, and Mr. Shaffer will cover the Mountain states and the Pacific Northwest, the company said. Mr. Henley most recently served as area sales manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Mr. Shaffer was most recently in charge of sales of collateral valuation products and analytics for First American Real Estate Solutions. Stewart Lender Services can be found online at http://www.stewartlenderservices.com.

Robert Steel, the new Treasury under secretary in charge of policies and legislation on government-sponsored enterprises, has pledged to work with all key participants to get results."The reality is that success on these difficult issues will be characterized by collaboration and compromise," Mr. Steel said during a formal swearing-in ceremony. The new under secretary for domestic finance's first challenge will be to forge a compromise on long-stalled GSE legislation that strengthens the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called Mr. Steel the "ultimate team player" who is "always willing to subjugate his own ego to get something done." The two men were colleagues at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Steel was vice chair when he left the Wall Street firm in 2004, and Mr. Paulson was chairman.