Career moves

John M. Draghi has been promoted to the position of chief operating officer of C-BASS, a New York-based company that acquires, services, and securitizes, credit-sensitive residential mortgages.In addition, C-BASS named Marc Rosenthal and Noelle Savarese co-heads of capital markets, and Mr. Rosenthal was also named chief investment officer. Mr. Draghi has served as the company's chief investment officer since 1996, and he was previously responsible for all the firm's investment activities as head of capital markets, C-BASS reported. Mr. Rosenthal and Ms. Savarese have been managing directors in the capital markets area, Mr. Rosenthal since 2004 and Ms. Savarese since 2000. C-BASS is an affiliate of MGIC Investment Corp. and Radian Group Inc.

Joseph Hoesley has been elected vice chairman and head of commercial real estate by the board of directors of U.S. Bancorp, Minneapolis.Mr. Hoesley, 51, has led commercial real estate at U.S. Bank since joining the company in 1992. The commercial real estate division now consists of 30 regional offices and employs more than 300 people, the bank said. The CRE division's real estate portfolio totals $24 billion. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.usbank.com.

Powell Goldstein LLP, an Atlanta-based law firm, has announced the acquisition of a 13-member capital markets group from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP that will enhance its depth, especially in the area of commercial mortgage-backed securities.Powell Goldstein said the new team -- two partners, eight other attorneys, and three paralegals -- will join its offices in Atlanta and Washington and anchor the opening of a new office in Dallas. Heading that office will be Robin R. Green, who was a partner at Akin Gump in that firm's real estate and finance practice in Dallas. James J. McAlpin Jr., chairman of Powell Goldstein, said the acquisition and expansion "gives us an entree into a new geographic market, one that we have been looking at for some time." The firm said Ms. Green's practice focuses primarily on real estate finance and CMBS, as does that of the other new partner, Keith A. Dunsmore, who worked at Powell Goldstein from 1984 to 1999. The firm can be found online at http://www.pogolaw.com.

Steve O'Connor has been promoted to senior vice president of public policy at the Mortgage Bankers Association.Mr. O'Connor was most recently vice president for industry relations and policy development. The MBA said he will continue to manage the development of the association's residential policy positions, with the additional task of managing outreach efforts to MBA members and industry stakeholders "to align MBA's policy and advocacy efforts with their key business needs and industry trends." Before joining the MBA in 1996, Mr. O'Connor held positions in government affairs with the National Association of Realtors and Freddie Mac. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Joe Anderson, senior managing director in charge of Countrywide's consumer markets division, has left the company.A Countrywide spokesman confirmed to MortgageWire that Mr. Anderson parted ways with the Calabasas, Calif.-based mortgage giant, the nation's largest overall home funder and second-largest retailer. (Mr. Anderson oversaw the company's retail effort.) The spokesman said he left Countrywide this spring and was replaced by Brian Hale, who was the No. 2 executive in consumer markets.

Mark Lammas has been promoted to the newly created position of executive vice president of development at Maguire Properties Inc., a Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust.Mr. Lammas was most recently the REIT's senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. He will continue to provide legal and corporate governance support until a replacement general counsel and secretary is identified, the company said. Maguire can be found on the Web at http://www.maguireproperties.com.

Fannie Mae has disclosed that its executive vice president and chief information officer, Julie St. John -- who is playing a key role in its restructuring -- will leave the GSE at year-end.In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie said Ms. St. John had wanted to leave sooner but agreed to defer her departure date. Fannie says Ms. St. John has been taking a "lead role" in the company's restructuring of its enterprise systems and operations division. A 16-year veteran of Fannie Mae, she has been with the government-sponsored enterprise for 16 years and is entitled to $794,463 in severance, and options to purchase 34,429 shares of stock. The GSE is working its way through a massive accounting scandal that will force it to restate prior earnings downward by about $10.6 billion. Fannie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.fanniemae.com.

American Home Mortgage, Melville, N.Y., has hired six high-level account executives away from Washington Mutual, Seattle, for its fast-growing correspondent division.A spokesman for American Home said the six were heavily courted by the nation's top mortgage banking firms but went with American Home because of its growth prospects. A few months back, National Mortgage News broke the story that WaMu was closing its traditional correspondent channel. The spokesman said he did not know for certain whether the six were slated to lose their jobs at WaMu but that he assumed as much. The new account executives and their respective regional offices include: Steven Campbell (Columbia, S.C.); Molly Gross (Grosse Pointe, Mich.); Mary Niederhaus (Sacramento, Calif.); Mary O’Connell (Nashville, Tenn.); Ed Robinson (Philadelphia); and J. Gordon Terry (Jacksonville, Fla.). American Home's correspondent division was launched a year ago and racked up $1 billion in production after seven months. The six joined American Home on July 3, bringing their AE total to 16. American Home can be found online at http://www.americanhm.com.

Bank Mutual Corp., Milwaukee, has hired Thomas H. Koepp as director of investment real estate lending for its Bank Mutual subsidiary bank.Mr. Koepp will have overall responsibility for the origination of "investment real estate mortgage loans" and for the development and implementation of investment real estate mortgage lending objectives, policies, and practices, Bank Mutual said. "Tom has a proven track record and will have a major impact on achieving our strategic goals in the important investment real estate lending line of business," said Michael T. Crowley Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Bank Mutual Corp. Mr. Koepp has over 25 years of experience in investment real estate lending, according to Bank Mutual, and joins the bank from the Milwaukee-based St. Francis Bank division of MAF Bancorp, where he was most recently a vice president in the commercial real estate finance area.

Irwin Financial Corp., Columbus, Ind., the holding company for Irwin Union Bank and Trust Co., has announced the appointment of Jocelyn Martin-Leano as president of Irwin Home Equity Corp., a subsidiary of the bank.Ms. Martin-Leano, 45, has been employed by Irwin Home Equity since shortly after its founding in 1996 and has held leadership positions in both servicing and operations, Irwin Financial said. She was promoted to executive vice president of operations in 2005 and was named interim president later that year upon the retirement of Irwin Home Equity's president, Elena Delgado, the company said. Ms. Martin-Leano was previously employed in the mortgage divisions of ITT Residential Capital Corp., Bank of America, and Citibank. Irwin Home Equity can be found online at http://www.ihe.com.

Fannie Mae director Donald Marron has resigned from the GSE's board, effective July 31, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.As of MortgageWire's deadline, a Fannie Mae spokeswoman had not returned a telephone call about the matter. Mr. Marron, an investment banking veteran, has been a board member since 2001. About two weeks ago Fannie also revealed that longtime director Ann Korologos would step down on July 31. Both directors are defendants in a shareholder lawsuit that accuses board members (and current and former executives) of profiting from the government-sponsored enterprise's accounting manipulations "via huge bonuses, improper stock sales and/or a web of lucrative personal and financial interrelationships…." Mr. Marron currently chairs Lightyear Capital, a private equity fund that controls DeepGreen Financial of Ohio, an online home equity lender.

Robert Couch, the newly sworn-in Ginnie Mae president, says the agency needs to do a better job of promoting Ginnie-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities to foreign investors.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done a great job of tapping foreign capital markets, Mr. Couch told MortgageWire. "We need to get the message out that Ginnie MBS are the only ones that carry the full faith and credit of the U.S. government," he said. "That ought to be a strong message to foreign investors, particularly those looking for a safe investment." But the new Ginnie Mae president said his top priority is to actively support passage of Federal Housing Administration reform that would make FHA single-family loans more competitive and indirectly boost issuance of Ginnie MBS. Ginnie Mae and the FHA are "joined at the hip," Mr. Couch said. In recent years Ginnie MBS issuance has declined with the drop in FHA originations, but he noted that issuance has stabilized thanks to administrative changes that made the FHA program more attractive. Mr. Couch was president of New South Federal Savings Bank, Birmingham, Ala., and managing director of Collateral Mortgage, which originated FHA loans. He was chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association from October 2003 to October 2004. Ginnie Mae can be found online at http://www.ginniemae.gov.

Jonathan H. Yellen has been named executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of FelCor Lodging Trust Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Irving, Texas.Mr. Yellen, 39, is a partner with Damon & Morey LLP in Buffalo, N.Y., where he specializes in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and securities law. His previous experience includes a stint as vice president and associate general counsel at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. FelCor can be found on the Web at http://www.felcor.com.

Teji Singh has been named chief servicing officer for Option One Mortgage Corp., an Irvine, Calif.-based national residential lender and subsidiary of H&R Block Inc.Since joining the company in 1998, Ms. Singh has played various roles in the Servicing Division, including strategic and business planning, call center management, customer advocacy, quality assurance, and default, the company said. She is also a member of Option One's enterprisewide customer advocacy team and oversaw the introduction of a servicing customer engagement survey with Gallup. Before joining Option One, she worked for seven years at KPMG Peat Marwick. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.optiononemortgage.com.

Mortgage technology veteran Tim Anderson has joined Stewart Transaction Solutions, Houston, as vice president of business development for the lender channel.Mr. Anderson most recently served as executive vice president of business solutions for Dexma, one of the first companies to support a paperless origination process using Web services. His background also includes work with DocuTech, Ignition Mortgage Technology Solutions (a wholly owned subsidiary of Freddie Mac at the time), Alltel Information Services (now Fidelity Information Services), and HomeSide Lending (now Washington Mutual), where he ran the e-commerce division. Mr. Anderson founded the eMortgage Alliance, which supports MISMO standards for delivering legal paperless processes. "Tim's knowledge and expertise will be invaluable in leading our business development initiatives for e-mortgages and Stewart's overall vision of the paperless real estate transaction," said Travis Wright, president of Stewart Transaction Solutions. The company can be found online at http://www.stewarttransactionsolutions.com.

The Senate has confirmed Wall Street veteran Henry Paulson to be the new secretary of the Treasury and replace John Snow, who is eager to leave.The former chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group breezed through the confirmation process and is expected to take charge at the Treasury Department any day now. Treasury Secretary Snow submitted his resignation to President Bush back on May 30, and he wants to step down from his cabinet post by July 3. During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Paulson was never asked his views on strengthening regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Bush administration's legislative efforts to reduce the size of the government-sponsored enterprises' giant mortgage portfolios. However, the Goldman Sachs executive made it clear that he sees himself as part of a team and supports many Bush administration policies, including efforts to simplify the tax code. In response to a written question about preserving the mortgage interest deduction, Mr. Paulson noted that the president "strongly supports" homeownership. "I also believe that any tax reform plan should be evaluated as a whole," he said.

Rick L. McGuire, a mortgage industry veteran, and M. Scott Bassett have been named to the advisory board of Post-Close America, a Houston-based provider of business process outsourcing for the residential mortgage industry.Mr. McGuire, formerly president and chief executive officer of Irwin Mortgage Corp., Indianapolis, is retired. Mr. Bassett was formerly a partner in the consulting and business process outsourcing practices of Ernst & Young LLP.

Roy DeLoach has been tapped by the National Association of Mortgage Brokers as its new chief executive.Mr. DeLoach, who most recently served as chief financial officer and senior vice president for government affairs for the now 27,000-member group, replaces Michael Nizankiewicz, who left the NAMB in March to pursue other career opportunities. The new executive vice president joined the NAMB's government affairs team in 2003. Before that, we was a staff attorney for the National Credit Union Administration and a legislative representative with the National Association of Realtors.

In an emotional finale to his run as president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, the normally jovial Jim Nabors challenged consumer advocates to join him and other loan officers for a week as they work not just to put people into homes but also to keep them there.Following a three-man fife-and-drum team, and speaking under a banner that said, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Home Ownership," the Cleveland broker said he and his colleagues are unjustly accused of putting people into loans they cannot afford or products they cannot handle. Struggling to rein in his feelings, he said the antagonists fail to see the efforts to which troubled owners go to keep their homes and the countless hours brokers work to help them. Sometimes the only way to save someone's home is to get a new loan at a higher rate, Mr. Nabors said. Yes, the monthly payments go up, but at least the homeowner is not on the street. "We help people realize the American dream, but a lot of what we also are about is helping people keep the American Dream," he said. "We take a lot of heat for that, but if that's the price we have to pay, so be it."

If there is a theme to Harry Dinham's term as the new president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, it is continuity.Elected at the NAMB's annual convention, the 39-year mortgage industry veteran from Plano, Texas, said he aims to maintain the good works of his predecessors. "I firmly believe in continuity from president to president," Mr. Dinham told the convention. One initiative planned by the new NAMB leader is a "serious effort to address the abuses that exist in some affiliated business arrangements." Such schemes "injure consumers because they inhibit and at times outright prevent them" from shopping for the best rates and terms, the soft-spoken Texan said. "We are against the use of affiliated business arrangements as a veil to coercive lending tactics," he said. On another front, the new president said he hopes to expand his group's educational efforts and certification initiatives. Along that line, it will soon pilot a new entry-level professional designation -- the General Mortgage Associate, or GMA.