Career moves

Ralph P. Melbourne has been named senior vice president of the Consumer Direct Division of Home123 Corp., a retail lending subsidiary of New Century Financial Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Melbourne has nearly 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, most recently as director of strategic initiatives for Washington Mutual Inc. He was previously director of retail lending at WaMu, and spent 13 years at Citibank in various senior management roles, New Century said. The company can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Michael Edwards, group executive vice president and treasurer of Citizens Bank of Rhode Island and Citizens Financial Group Inc., has been elected to the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.Mr. Edwards was elected to a three-year directorship that had been redesignated by the Federal Housing Finance Board from Connecticut to Rhode Island effective Jan. 1, 2007. The Finance Board redesignated one of the two Connecticut seats, creating a second Rhode Island seat, in response to an increase in proportionate shareholdings of the bank's Rhode Island members, the FHLBank said. The bank can be found on the Web at http://www.fhlbboston.com.

David Lowman has been named chief executive officer of the Global Mortgage business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a member of the Executive Committee.Mr. Lowman, a 25-year veteran of the lending and mortgage industries, has been president and CEO of CitiFinancial International since 2004. Chase said Mr. Lowman will work with other executives to develop an international consumer finance strategy. The company can be found online at http://www.chase.com.

Angelo R. Mozilo, chairman and chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial Corp., has agreed to continue as chairman and CEO through the end of 2009, the company has announced.The terms of the new contract were not disclosed. Stanford L. Kurland, who was once considered a possible heir to Mr. Mozilo as CEO, resigned from the company recently as president and chief operating officer and was replaced by David Sambol, a 21-year veteran of Countrywide. Mr. Mozilo had indicated that he planned to stay on as chairman, but it was unclear whether he would remain as CEO beyond the end of this year. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Michael A. DeVico, executive vice president and chief information officer of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation, has been elected to the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle.Mr. DeVico will serve a three-year term, as will two other directors who were re-elected to the board. They are Craig Dahl, president and chief executive officer of Alaska Pacific Bank in Juneau, Alaska, and Russell J. Lau, vice chairman and chief executive of Finance Factors Ltd., Honolulu. The Seattle FHLBank can be found on the Web at http://www.fhlbsea.com.

Regina Lowrie, outgoing chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, has joined The Prieston Group, a Novato, Calif.-based provider of mortgage fraud insurance, as a principal.Ms. Lowrie, a 29-year veteran of the mortgage banking industry, is currently president and chief executive officer of RML Investments Inc., a consulting firm. She was previously the founder and president of Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Co., Horsham, Pa. "I believe mortgage fraud against lenders is one of the most troubling issues facing our industry today and that TPG's promotion of industrywide best practices is a key component in addressing this problem," Ms. Lowrie said. TPG, which also provides fraud-related training and loss mitigation, can be found on the Web at http://www.priestongroup.com.

Robert Vahradian has joined Golden Tree InSite Partners, a New York-based international real estate investment firm, as a partner and managing director.Mr. Vahradian was most recently president of Allied Partners, a private New York-based real estate investment company. He was previously chief operating officer and principal of The Athena Group, a residential investment and development company in New York, and a director in Credit Suisse First Boston's real estate investment banking group, according to Golden Tree.

Barclays Capital has hired a longtime Nomura Securities International agency mortgage researcher, and Nomura's continued participation in the agency MBS market appears questionable.Art Frank, Nomura's former director of MBS, has been named director and mortgage strategist at Barclays, according to the latter company. A Nomura spokesman had not returned a call by deadline time, and efforts to reach the company's agency MBS team through its switchboard were met with uncertainty about whether the business was still offering services in that area.

Veteran mortgage banker Jon Daurio, a co-founder of Encore Credit Corp., has been added to the staff of The Prieston Group, San Rafael, Calif., which offers fraud protection, mitigation, and indemnification services.Mr. Daurio will focus on institutional sales, strategic enterprise planning, and acting as liaison to Prieston's affiliated legal group, the risk management consulting company said. He served in various executive roles at Encore, a wholesale residential mortgage banker, and its parent company, ECC Capital Corp. Mr. Daurio was previously a co-founder of Park Place Capital Corp., a special services company that included a scratch-and-dent business; president and chief executive officer of Loan Funding Corp. of America, a residential mortgage banker; co-founder of Financing USA, the consumer direct-lending division of Long Beach Mortgage Co.; and senior vice president and corporate counsel at Long Beach Mortgage. Prieston can be found online at http://www.priestongroup.com.

Freddie Mac has named Anthony "Buddy" Piszel its new permanent chief financial officer, effective Nov. 13.A former CFO and executive vice president for Health Net Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif., Mr. Piszel replaces Martin Baumann, who resigned in March but stayed on as a consultant. As CFO, Mr. Piszel will oversee Freddie's financial reporting and controls, and related duties, including annual budgeting. He will also carry an executive vice president title at the government-sponsored enterprise. Still recovering from an accounting scandal that started three years ago, Freddie Mac is not current on its financial reporting, but recently released an estimate on first-half earnings. During his career, Mr. Piszel has worked for Prudential Financial and Deloitte & Touche. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Conshohocken, Pa.-based MortgageHub, a mortgage industry Web services platform provider, has hired David Demster as president of its Mortgage Products Division and Mike Whitson as senior partner in its Services Division.Mr. Demster is charged with overseeing and managing the company's mortgage technology products, including its Web-based wholesale, correspondent, and retail lending systems; its product, pricing, and decisioning engines; and its warehouse lending system. Before joining MortgageHub, Mr. Demster served as vice president of the Mortgage Business Unit of Fair Isaac Corp., where he directed all business operations. Mr. Whitson will focus on managing and developing the company's service offerings, with a focus on strategy consulting and contracting services for the mortgage industry. MortgageHub can be found on the Web at http://www.mortgagehub.com.

Laura Trop has been named managing director and head of commercial real estate lending at Deutsche Bank's U.S. Private Wealth Management business.Ms. Trop will be charged with expanding PWM's structured lending business to real estate developers and entrepreneurs, and with "strategically aligning" PWM's commercial real estate business within Deutsche Bank's Global Banking Division, the bank said. She was most recently a director in the Commercial Real Estate Group at Citigroup's Private Bank. Ms. Trop was previously a founder and a partner of Foray Capital, a real estate consulting firm. Deutsche Bank can be found online at http://www.db.com.

Timothy A. Mazzetti has joined Cohen Financial, a Chicago-based commercial real estate lender, as executive vice president.Mr. Mazzetti was most recently with Kansas City, Mo.-based Midland Loan Services, one of the largest commercial mortgage servicers, for about 12 years. Cohen Financial has secured additional capital and company affiliations through a recently completed recapitalization with FirstService Corp., Cohen said, and Mr. Mazzetti will work on leveraging this new relationship. Jack Cohen, Cohen Financial's chief executive officer, said Mr. Mazzetti's appointment will serve to "take the company to the next level." The company can be found on the Web at http://www.cohenfinancial.com.

Marietta Rodriguez has been named national director of home ownership programs at NeighborWorks America, a new position.Ms. Rodriguez had been interim director of the organization's Campaign for Home Ownership since December. As national director, she will have direct responsibility for the Campaign for Home Ownership, the NeighborWorks Center for Foreclosure Solutions, and several other homeownership programs. Ms. Rodriguez previously held various positions with NeighborWorks, including manager of the corporation's Full Cycle Lending program. Before joining NeighborWorks America in 1998, she was director of training and community outreach for the Neighborhood Housing Services of Santa Fe.

Jay Sidhu, chairman and chief executive officer of mortgage lender Sovereign Bancorp, Rosemont, Pa., resigned from the thrift late Tuesday after a marathon board meeting.Spanish banking giant Banco Santander owns about 25% of the company. An active shareholder has been pushing for changes at the thrift. The board named Joe Campanelli as an interim successor to Mr. Sidhu. (Mr. Campanelli is president of the lender's New England division.) Sovereign is a top-50-ranked residential lender, and the nation's fourth-largest thrift based on its holdings of single-family loans. The lender issued a statement saying Mr. Sidhu "resigned and retired," citing "family health related reasons." In a research note, Sandler O'Neill said a sale of the company "is probably not in the offing," adding that it is an underperformer compared with its peers. Sovereign's shares were up 1% as of MortgageWire's deadline.

Rod Colombi has been named executive vice president of corporate development at Option One Mortgage Corp., Irvine, Calif.Mr. Colombi was most recently executive vice president of corporate finance at New Century Financial Corp. He rejoins Option One after serving as the company's vice president and manager of secondary marketing from 1996 to 2001, Option One said. He previously worked for Countrywide Financial Corp. and Bank of America. Option One, a subsidiary of H&R Block Inc., can be found on the Web at http://www.optiononemortgage.com.

The Treasury Department is about to swear in Robert K. Steel as the new under secretary responsible for policies and legislation involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The Senate confirmed the former Goldman Sachs vice chairman Sept. 29 just before Congress left Washington for the Nov. 7 elections. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson handpicked his former colleague at Goldman Sachs to replace Under Secretary Randal Quarles, who announced this summer that he wanted to return to the private sector. The swearing-in ceremony comes at a time when Secretary Paulson wants to break a legislative stalemate over government-sponsored enterprise regulatory reform and pass a bill when Congress returns Nov. 9 for a lame-duck session. But the odds of that happening are slim. Mr. Paulson was the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

Sovereign Bancorp's board is meeting on Tuesday and could remove its long-time chairman and chief executive officer, Jay Sidhu.A top-50-ranked residential lender, the Rosemont, Pa.-based Sovereign is the nation's fourth-largest thrift, based on its holdings of single-family loans. Mr. Sidhu's possible removal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Joe Campanelli, president of the lender's New England division, has been mentioned as a possible interim successor. At deadline time, Mr. Sidhu could not be reached for comment. Spanish banking giant Banco Santander owns about 25% of the company, and there has been talk among investment bankers that eventually it might buy all of Sovereign. An analyst report by Sandler O'Neill notes that the thrift's "profitability metrics have been below peer median levels for quite some time." Still, Sovereign's shares were trading near their 52-week high of $24.62. Among residential servicers, Sovereign ranks 36th, with $18.5 billion in receivables. Sovereign can be found online at http://www.sovereignbank.com.

Corey Owens has been named head of sales and business development at Clayton Holdings Inc., Shelton, Conn., a provider of integrated analytic and consulting services to the mortgage industry.Mr. Owens was previously with Goldman Sachs, where he led execution efforts for numerous commercial mortgage-backed securities, Clayton said. He was involved in developing several commercial mortgage origination/securitization platforms and led Goldman's CMBS financial institutions marketing effort. Clayton can be found online at www.clayton.com.

Teresa Bryce has been named executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of the Radian Group Inc., a global credit risk management company, replacing Howard Yaruss, who is leaving the company.Ms. Bryce comes to Radian from Nexstar Financial Corp., where she served as general counsel, senior vice president, and secretary. She was previously general counsel for Bank of America Mortgage and held other senior legal roles for PNC Mortgage Corp. and Prudential Home Mortgage Co., Radian reported. Ms. Bryce is a member of the board of directors of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Radian can be found on the Web at http://www.radiangroupinc.com.