Career moves

Credit Suisse, Zurich, has hired Claudio Rudolf as a director in charge of acquisition and sales for its real estate management business.Mr. Rudolf was previously UBS Fund Management (Switzerland) AG's head of acquisition and disposition. Credit Suisse can be found on the Web at http://www.creditsuisse.com.

Chris Lau and Kin Lee have been named to co-head the commercial mortgage-backed securities secondary trading desk of RBS Greenwich Capital, Greenwich, Conn.Mr. Lau is a veteran of the firm's CMBS desk, while Mr. Lee is a veteran trader who was most recently a CMBS secondary trader with CSFB. Both will hold the titled of managing director and co-head of CMBS secondary trading. They will report to Chris McCormack, the head of CMBS trading for RBS Greenwich Capital. The company can be found online at http://www.rbsgc.com.

Doug Lee has been named head of correspondent lending at Macquarie Mortgages USA, Memphis.Mr. Lee was most recently head of broker sales for Macquarie Mortgages Australia, which received the top ranking in the 2005 Brokers on Banks Survey by Mortgage Professional Australia magazine, Macquarie reported. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.macquariemortgages.com.

D. Keith Johnson, formerly president and chief executive officer of Long Beach Mortgage, has been named president and chief operating officer of Clayton Holdings Inc., a Shelton, Conn.-based information and analytics company serving lenders, servicers, and the debt markets.Mr. Johnson was president and CEO of Long Beach, a subprime lending subsidiary of Washington Mutual Inc., from 2003 until March of this year, Clayton said. He was previously executive vice president and COO of WaMu's commercial group and chief financial officer of Bank United's mortgage division. Clayton CEO Frank Filipps said Mr. Johnson brings "a deep understanding of the dynamics of both origination and securitization, and the skills and track record to improve the efficiency of our clients' operations and our own." The company can be found online at http://www.clayton.com.

Jerry Schiano, president and chief executive officer of Wilmington Finance, Plymouth Meeting, Pa., has left the company, industry sources have confirmed to MortgageWire.Neither Mr. Schiano nor Wilmington Finance could be reached for comment by deadline time. A subprime lender, Wilmington Finance is a subsidiary of insurance giant American International Group. A receptionist at Wilmington Finance had no information on Mr. Schiano, but said the new CEO is George Roach.

Tony Meola, the production chief for Washington Mutual Inc., Seattle, has resigned from the company, accepting a position with competitor New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif.A spokeswoman for WaMu, the nation's third-largest residential lender, confirmed his departure to MortgageWire on Friday. Mr. Meola, who served as executive vice president of WaMu's home loan production unit, will hold a similar title at New Century, the nation's second-largest subprime funder. New Century released a statement on Monday saying it had hired Mr. Meola. The executive will be charged with expanding the company's national production franchise and broadening its product menu. "He's known as a problem solver," said one executive familiar with his career.

Alexander Gordon Jardin has been named chief executive officer of Franklin Credit Management Corp., a New York-based company that specializes in buying, managing, and selling subprime residential mortgage assets.Mr. Jardin, a member of the company's board, was most recently a consultant to start-up life and health reinsurance companies, Franklin said. From 2000 to 2004, he was president and chief operating officer of General USA Life Reassurance Co. and senior vice president for reinsurance at Business Men's Assurance Co., both wholly owned subsidiaries of Assicurazioni SpA, a global insurer based in Italy. Franklin can be found online at http://www.franklincredit.com.

President Bush is expected to appoint James B. Lockhart III as acting director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which supervises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to sources.Mr. Lockhart is currently the second-ranking official at the Social Security Administration, and the White House wants him to take over OFHEO immediately and replace acting director Steven Blumenthal. The timing may be important because OFHEO is expected to release its long-awaited report on Fannie's $10.8 billion accounting scandal soon. Recent news reports indicate that OFHEO may release a report in a few weeks, but an OFHEO spokeswoman declined to specify a timeframe when asked by MortgageWire. Mr. Lockhart was a co-founder and managing director of NetRisk, a risk management software firm, before joining the SSA. During his career, he was a senior vice president at Nation Re (1996) and a managing director at Smith Barney (1993-95).

Russell E. Johnson has been hired as senior vice president for loss management at Radian Guaranty Inc., a Philadelphia-based provider of mortgage insurance.Radian said Mr. Johnson was most recently senior vice president and director of servicing operations for American Residential Equities Inc. He was previously vice president and national servicing manager at Washington Mutual Bank, Radian said. Mr. Johnson also spent nine years at Wells Fargo, where he created and directed a subprime mortgage servicing platform. Radian, a subsidiary of global credit risk management company Radian Group Inc., can be found online at http://www.radian.biz.

ING Real Estate has appointed Michiel Rang as senior managing director for international real estate finance and a member of the management board of ING Real Estate Finance.Mr. Rang was previously managing director for international property finance and was responsible for business in continental Europe. When he assumes his new title on May 1, he will be responsible for ING Real Estate Finance's business outside the Netherlands.

Mortgage industry veteran Ed Abufaris has been named national sales director for correspondent lending at CitiMortgage, St. Louis.CitiMortgage said Mr. Abufaris has nearly three decades of experience in the mortgage business, including 13 with CitiMortgage. He will oversee the sales organization, which has been reorganized into three geographical divisions from four, the company said. Mr. Abufaris was most recently division manager for CitiMortgage's Southeast Division. He began his career with Fidelity Federal Savings and Loan in Florida. He later managed secondary marketing for First Atlanta Mortgage, followed by 10 years as capital markets manager with MGIC.

Gareth Davies has been named senior vice president for enterprise operational risk at Freddie Mac, effective April 24.Mr. Davies was most recently vice president and chief risk officer for GE Asset Management, and has spent nearly 20 years with General Electric, Freddie Mac said. At GE Asset Management, Mr. Davies developed a risk framework and an operational risk structure, as well as an in-house system to automate operational risk reporting, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage industry veteran John Gibbons has been named head of capital markets for the residential lending businesses of Wells Fargo & Co.'s Home and Consumer Finance Group.Mr. Gibbons' responsibilities will include all loan sale, securitization, and hedging activities, Wells Fargo said. He will support Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa; Wells Fargo Financial, a Des Moines-based provider of consumer and commercial credit products; and Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Group, a San Francisco-based provider of home equity and personal credit accounts. Mr. Gibbons was most recently a senior consultant with Hollister LLC and vice chairman of Overture Corp. During his 20-plus years in the mortgage industry, he has been employed by Federal Home Loan Banks, insurance companies, banks, and investment management firms, and he was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Freddie Mac from 1996 to 2000, Wells Fargo said. The company can be found online at http://www.wellsfargo.com.

ECC Capital Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Irvine, Calif., has announced that four senior executives have offered to take significant reductions in compensation to help the mortgage finance REIT cut costs.ECC said co-founders Steven Holder, chairman and co-chief executive officer, and Shabi Asghar, president and co-CEO, have volunteered to work without salary or bonus for the next 12 months, effective April 1. In addition, Roque Santi, the REIT's executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Larry Moretti, its EVP and chief administrative officer, have agreed to 20% reductions in their base salaries, from $250,000 to $200,000, effective April 15. Mr. Santi and Mr. Moretti have also agreed, along with chief production officer Tony Gotschall, to return some previously granted common stock options, the company said. "In light of present conditions facing our industry and company, we are continuing to move ahead with our restructuring efforts, which we believe will not only reduce costs but improve quality and productivity," Mr. Holder said. The REIT can be found online at http://www.encorecredit.com.

RBC Capital Markets, New York, has announced the hiring of four analysts from Cleveland-based KeyBanc as equity research analysts in the real estate investment trust sector.Rich Moore, a past winner of the Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" All-Star Analyst Award, has been named a managing director of the RBC REIT research team. He headed a six-member group of REIT researchers at KeyBanc. Mike Salinski and Sri Nagarajan have been named vice presidents, and David Rodgers has been named a director. Mr. Moore will oversee coverage of retail and mortgage REITs, Mr. Rodgers will cover the residential segment, Mr. Nagarajan will handle office and industrial REITs, and Mr. Salinski will cover the hotel, health care, triple-net-lease, and storage segments, the company said. Mr. Nagarajan will be based in New York, and the other three analysts will be located in Cleveland. RBC Capital, the corporate and investment banking arm of RBC Financial Group, can be found online at http://www.rbccm.com.

Kenneth W. Jones has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer of Triad Guaranty Insurance Corp., a mortgage insurer based in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Stephen J. Haferman has been named senior vice president of risk management and technology services.Mr. Jones will also hold similar titles at Triad Guaranty Inc., the mortgage insurer's parent company. He replaces Eric B. Dana, who resigned to "pursue other interests," Triad Guaranty said. Mr. Jones was most recently SVP and CFO at RBC Liberty Insurance Corp., and he was previously vice president, controller, and acting CFO at The Liberty Corp. Mr. Haferman was most recently senior vice president and chief operating officer at Cheryl and Co., and he was previously employed by American Electric Power and Bank One Corp. Triad can be found online at http://www.triadguaranty.com.

Doral Financial Corp., San Juan, P.R., the largest mortgage lender on the island, has named Lidio Soriano as its chief financial officer.Since August 2005, he had been occupying the post on an interim basis. The company is in the process of wrapping up the restatement of its earnings from between 2000 and 2004 because of issues with the accounting of mortgage loan sales. John A. Ward III, chairman and chief executive, said, "We are pleased with Mr. Soriano's outstanding contribution during the restatement process. His financial and accounting experience, and his familiarity with the residential mortgage market make him an ideal fit for Doral as we continue to rebuild our senior management team. Among his previous positions includes being president of Doral Money, a New York-based commercial and construction mortgage lender. In addition, Doral said that Arturo Tous has been promoted to chief accounting officer.

Carlos Winston Wilkinson, who had headed up the retail mortgage division of Wachovia Mortgage Corp., Charlotte, N.C., has joined Cincinnati's Fifth Third Bank as executive vice president and head of its consumer bank.His new duties include overseeing all Fifth Third products directed at consumers, including the mortgage, retail, indirect and business banking divisions. Part of his accomplishments at Wachovia was the integration of SouthTrust's retail mortgage business into Wachovia.

Nigel Drummond has been named executive vice president for operations of Home Capital Inc., an Atlanta-based mortgage lender.Mr. Drummond was most recently senior vice president of operations with responsibility for building processes and procedures, as well as staffing the processing, underwriting, and closing departments, Home Capital said. He is currently focused on increasing the staff at the company's Atlanta headquarters and its new Phoenix Operations Center. Before joining Home Capital, Mr. Drummond served as vice president of operations at U.S. Bank. In other personnel news, Home Capital announced the hiring of Mike Cozzocrea as senior vice president of secondary marketing. Mr. Cozzocrea was most recently senior vice president of secondary marketing/operations at Homeowners Loan Corp., Atlanta. The company can be found online at http://www.homecapitalinc.com.

EMC Mortgage Corporation, a subsidiary of The Bear Stearns Companies, has hired John Vella as president and chief operating officer.Mr. Vella most recently served as president and COO for Aames Investment Corporation. Prior to that he was chief sales officer and chief administrative officer for Option One mortgage corporation. He has also held senior positions at Household International, GMAC/RFC, Freddie Mac, Fleet National Bank and the FDIC/FSLIC. EMC also added two new members to its executive management team. They are Robert N. Pruett and William Glasgow, both of whom have more than 30 years experience in the industry. EMC's mortgage servicing portfolio has grown from $4.2 billion in 2000 to $63.8 billion today. Also, Clayton Baker has joined Bear Stearns as senior managing director. He is leading several strategic initiatives designed to facilitate EMC's growth, the company said.