Career moves

Barrett Burns has been named president and chief executive officer of VantageScore Solutions LLC, Stamford, Conn., which was launched in March by the three national credit reporting companies to offer a consistent approach to scoring consumer creditworthiness.The company said Mr. Burns, 60, has more than three decades of experience in risk and credit management and has held senior leadership positions at Citibank, Ford Motor Credit, and Bank One. Before joining VantageScore, Mr. Burns was the executive vice president in charge of the National Private Banking Group of U.S. Trust. VantageScore is a predictive scoring system that was created jointly by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. VantageScore can be found online at http://www.vantagescore.com.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association, has announced the appointment of its board of directors.The MISMO board consists of five members selected from the real estate finance industry and one ex-officio member elected from the ranks of MISMO's Governance Committee. The board includes the following newly appointed members: William Shuler, chief information officer of Residential Capital Corp., Horsham, Pa.; William Frazer, senior managing director and chief financial officer of CBRE|Melody, Houston; Stephen W. Gozdan, CFO of Cenlar FSB, Ewing, N.J.; and Dawn Gibbs, president and chief executive officer of FICS, Addison, Texas. Catherine Rodewald, managing director and CIO of Prudential Mortgage Capital Corp., Dallas, was appointed to the board last year, and the ex-officio MISMO governance director is James P. Cooke, of counsel at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP, Washington, D.C. MISMO, which develops technology standards for the real estate finance industry, can be found online at http://www.mismo.org.

Michael W. Perry, chairman and chief executive officer of IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., has signed a five-year CEO contract with IndyMac that contains options for five more years, according to the company.The contract is largely based on a pay-for-performance arrangement under which incentive compensation is targeted as a percentage of net income and tied to the achievement of earnings-per-share growth targets, IndyMac said. John Seymour, an IndyMac director and a former U.S. senator from California, said the company's shareholders have realized average annualized total returns of 22% over Mr. Perry's 14-year tenure. "When Mike joined the company in 1993, we had only four employees and almost no business, and we were marginally profitable," the former senator said. "Today, IndyMac has over 8,000 employees, is the eighth-largest thrift and ninth-largest mortgage lender in the nation, and makes over $360 million in net income per year." The company can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

Donna "Sissie" Childress has been named president of Community Resource Mortgage Inc., Orangeburg, S.C., a subsidiary of Community Bankshares Inc.Ms. Childress was most recently executive vice president and manager of loan operations at the mortgage company. She replaces Wade Douroux, who recently left the company to pursue "other opportunities," Community Bankshares said. Ms. Childress established an independent mortgage company in 1992 and launched two other mortgage businesses, Community Bankshares said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.communitybanksharesinc.com.

Argent Mortgage will be a "major associate sponsor" for two cars owned by Andretti Green Racing, including the one being driven by Danica Patrick.The move apparently ends Argent's relationship with Ms. Patrick's former team, Rahal Letterman Racing, where it had been the primary sponsor of her car and that of former Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice. The other car of which Argent will be the major associate sponsor is driven by Marco Andretti (son of team co-owner Michael Andretti), who in his first-ever Indianapolis 500 last May finished a very close second to Sam Hornish. "Danica and Marco are two of the most talented young drivers in racing and two of the sport's most recognizable names," said Argent president Sam Marzouk. "Bringing them together under the Argent banner creates an unbeatable combination to highlight our brand." The new primary sponsor for Ms. Patrick is Motorola, according to the Andretti Green website.

Daniel P. Sussman has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of People's Choice Financial Corp., an Irvine, Calif.-based residential mortgage lender organized as a real estate investment trust.Before joining People's Choice, Mr. Sussman was senior executive vice president at New Century Mortgage Corp., where he formerly held the title of EVP and COO, People's Choice reported. He previously held senior management posts at EDMC, Western Financial Savings Bank, The CIT Group, and Novus Financial. Mr. Sussman also served as president and chief executive officer of City First Mortgage Corp. People's Choice also announced the promotion of Brad S. Plantiko to executive vice president of finance and strategic planning. People's Choice Home Loan Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the REIT, can be found on the Web at http://www.pchl.com.

Brenda Gaines, a former Citigroup executive, and Karen Horn, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, have been elected to the board of directors of Fannie Mae.The pair are the sixth and seventh new directors named to Fannie Mae's board since 2004, according to the government-sponsored enterprise. Ms. Gaines, who was president and chief executive officer of Diners Club North America at Citigroup, will serve on the board's Compensation Committee and its Housing and Community Finance Committee. Ms. Horn, currently a limited partner at Brock Capital LLC, was named to the board's Audit Committee and its Risk Policy and Capital Committee. Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

John Johnson has been elected chairman of MERS, the industry-owned system for tracking ownership of mortgage loans and servicing rights.Mr. Johnson is president and chief executive officer of MortgageAmerica Inc., Birmingham, Ala. He has served as president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Alabama and was chairman of the national Mortgage Bankers Association's Residential Board of Governors. The announcement of Mr. Johnson's election as chairman of MERS came at the organization's annual Strategic Planning Conference. MERS, based in Vienna, Va., can be found online at http://www.mersinc.org.

Beleaguered Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who got caught in a lobbying scandal and could face two years to prison, has resigned as chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on housing, effective immediately.The Ohio congressman recently agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and making false statements regarding the acceptance of gifts and travel from lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Earlier this year, Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe public officials. In a Sept. 15 statement, Rep. Ney said he accepts responsibility for his actions and is seeking professional help for a "dependence on alcohol." Rep. Ney is scheduled to plead guilty at an Oct. 13 court hearing, and federal prosecutors are expected to recommend that the congressman serve 27 months in prison.

James D. Hughes has been named senior vice president and chief information officer of Freddie Mac, effective Sept. 25.Mr. Hughes, 48, will be responsible for managing one of Freddie Mac's largest organizations, with information systems planning and development responsibilities that support the company's finance, investment, sourcing, servicing divisions, and corporate functions, the government-sponsored enterprise said. He comes to the GSE from Cleveland-based National City Corp., where he held positions as CIO and executive vice president and branch banking division head. Before joining National City in 1997, Mr. Hughes served in management roles at Andersen Consulting, USF&G, Seer Technologies, and Credit Suisse First Boston.

Louis Pizante has been named chief executive officer of Mavent Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based provider of automated compliance systems for the financial services industry.Mr. Pizante has been with Mavent for four years, serving as chief operating officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing, the company said. He was previously responsible for originating, marketing, and executing real estate and structured finance transactions for Greenwich Capital Markets. Mavent can be found online at http://www.mavent.com.

Michelle Crecca has been named executive vice president of consumer lending at Webster Financial Corp., Waterbury, Conn., which cited her experience in home equity lending.Ms. Crecca was most recently a managing director in Retail Business for Citi Home Equity. She was previously a vice president and channel director for Smith Barney's Home Equity Cross Sell Program, Webster reported. Webster Financial, the holding company for Webster Bank, can be found on the Web at http://www.websteronline.com.

Former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo revived his political career Tuesday with a victory in the New York State Democratic primary for attorney general.According to the New York Times, with 98% of the vote counted, Mr. Cuomo led his nearest challenger, former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green (the brother of real estate developer Stephen Green), by a margin of 53% to 33%. The current attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, is running for governor. In 2002, Mr. Cuomo ran for governor but dropped out in the midst of the primary campaign. His name still appeared on the statewide general election ballot as the candidate of the Liberal Party, although he did not actively campaign.

Countrywide Financial Corp. chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo is negotiating with the mortgage giant's board to remain as chief executive officer beyond the end of the year.A co-founder of the company, Mr. Mozilo was originally set to step down as CEO on Dec. 31 but remain as chairman. His so-called "retirement" as CEO has been in doubt for several months and came to a head last week when the lender/servicer revealed that company president and chief operating officer Stanford L. Kurland -- once considered a possible heir to Mr. Mozilo -- had resigned. Mr. Kurland was immediately replaced by David Sambol, a 21-year veteran of Countrywide, who served as executive managing director of business-segment operations. On Tuesday, Mr. Mozilo told attendees of a Countrywide investor forum that he was renegotiating his contract. Even though Mr. Mozilo will remain as CEO, many in the industry believe the just-promoted Mr. Sambol eventually will succeed him as the company's top executive. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Gene Devine has been named senior vice president of Intellidyn Corp., a consumer analytics and database marketing company based in Hingham, Mass., a Boston suburb.His principal responsibilities will include creating, deploying, and managing direct-to-consumer marketing and lead generation initiatives for Intellidyn clients. Before joining Intellidyn, Mr. Devine was the executive vice president of marketing for Florida-based First Fidelity Financial Corp., where he was responsible for the creation of an end-to-end lead generation channel for customer acquisition, Intellidyn said. Previously, he was a senior vice president at Data Warehouse Corp., SVP of marketing for Mortgage.com, and SVP of marketing at Eastern Mortgage Services. Intellidyn can be found on the Web at http://www.intellidyn.com.

James R. Giertz has been named chief financial officer of Residential Capital Corp., a Minneapolis-based real estate finance company.Mr. Giertz joins ResCap, a wholly owned subsidiary of GMAC LLC, from Donaldson Co., a manufacturer of filtration systems and products. He served there as CFO for six years, and most recently led Donaldson's Commercial and Industrial Products division. Mr. Giertz succeeds Davee Olson, who was appointed senior managing director of ResCap's Warehouse Lending business unit in May. He joins ResCap with more than 23 years of experience in financial and operational management. The company can be found online at http://www.rescapholdings.com.

Countrywide Financial Corp. president and chief operating officer Stanford L. Kurland -- once considered a possible heir to chief executive officer Angelo Mozilo -- resigned from the company Thursday evening.Mr. Kurland was immediately replaced by David Sambol, a 21-year veteran of Countrywide who served as executive managing director of business segment operations. A source familiar with the situation told MortgageWire Mr. Sambol "is now in the path of succession" to succeed Mr. Mozilo, whose contract with the company expires at year-end. Who will succeed Mr. Mozilo as CEO, and when, "is now in the hands of the board," said the source. Mr. Mozilo also holds the title of chairman, which he has said he intends to keep after stepping down as CEO. Mr. Kurland worked at Countrywide, the nation's largest lender and servicer, for 28 years. In a statement, Mr. Mozilo said Mr. Kurland "has made significant contributions to Countrywide's success." The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

President Bush has nominated former Goldman Sachs vice chairman Robert K. Steel to oversee domestic finance and government-sponsored enterprise matters at the Treasury Department.Mr. Steel would replace Treasury Under Secretary Randal Quarles, who announced earlier this summer his plans to step down when Congress adjourns for the year. The nomination comes at a time when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is trying to encourage senators to find a legislative solution to the stalemate over a GSE regulatory reform bill that would force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce or limit the size of their giant mortgage portfolios. Mr. Steel worked at the Goldman Sachs Group with Mr. Paulson, who was the chairman and chief executive. The nominee is a senior fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Nancy Detert, a Florida mortgage broker running for Congress, finished second in the Republican primary for the state's 13th Congressional District.According to unofficial returns provided by the Florida Department of State's Division of Elections, Ms. Detert received 15,784 votes, or 24.4% of the total, finishing behind Vern Buchanan, who received 20,903 votes (32.3%), and ahead of Tramm Hudson, who received 15,522 (24.0%) in the five-person primary. The seat she sought is being vacated by Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., who is running for the U.S. Senate. Ms. Detert is the founder and owner of Osprey Mortgage Co., Venice, Fla., and a member of Florida's House of Representatives.

Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston, has announced a reorganization of its real estate information operating subsidiaries into a new subsidiary, PropertyInfo Corp., with industry veteran Patrick Vaden at the helm.The move will affect REIData Inc., First Data Systems Inc., Ultima Corp., Stewart Re-Source Inc., and Information Services of Illinois LLC. "Stewart's vision is for PropertyInfo to be a leading online provider of integrated real estate information and technology to real estate professionals and title agencies," said Stewart Morris Jr., Stewart's president and co-chief executive officer. "Combining and coordinating several related [real estate information] efforts under one leadership umbrella better organizes Stewart to effectively deploy REI directly to real estate agents, brokers, and other customer segments." Mr. Vaden, a 30-year veteran of the title industry, was most recently a senior-level manager of Stewart-affiliated offices and independent agencies in Arkansas and Tennessee, a post he will retain. He will be president and CEO of PropertyInfo. Stewart can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.