Career moves

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.

Margo Cook, formerly a mortgage-backed securities specialist at BNY Asset Management, has been named executive vice president of the company, the investment management arm of The Bank of New York.Ms. Cook will be responsible for equity and fixed-income strategies for the institutional market, BNY said. Ms. Cook led Institutional Fixed Income Management for the company for the past nine years, and she previously held other positions such as senior portfolio manager and MBS specialist. The company also announced that Patrick K. Byrne has been named to replace Ms. Cook as head of Institutional Fixed Income Management. He was previously a senior portfolio manager specializing in MBS and asset-backed securities. The Bank of New York can be found online at http://www.bankofny.com.

Mike Nazankiewicz has resigned as executive vice president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, ending a six-year run at the helm of the trade group.His resignation was effective March 20. For now, his duties will be taken over by senior vice presidents Roy DeLoach and Cathi Eifert. Mr. Nazankiewicz, who joined the NAMB from the American Heart Association, is leaving for a career in "organizational guidance and leadership development," according to a statement released by the NAMB. A NAMB spokeswoman noted that he has spent a great deal of time working on the state level with broker trade groups, helping some states form their own trade organizations.

Freddie Mac chief financial officer Martin Baumann has resigned from the congressionally chartered mortgage company but says he will stay on as a special adviser through the end of May.Freddie Mac president and chief operating officer Eugene McQuade has already assumed the CFO responsibilities. The company is now conducting a search for Mr. Baumann's successor. A spokeswoman for the company said that when Mr. Baumann joined the company in March 2003 he planned to stay for just two years, but then extended his contract for another year. In a statement, Freddie chairman and chief executive Richard Syron call Mr. Baumann a "key contributor" to the company's turnaround. After the government-sponsored enterprise suffered a $5 billion earnings restatement scandal, Mr. Baumann, a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was brought on board to fix the GSE's accounting systems and policies.

Dansby White has been named managing director and head of the U.S. Collateralized Debt Obligation Group of Paris-based Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking.Mr. White, who will be based in the firm's New York office, was most recently managing director and senior portfolio manager at Highland Capital Management. He was previously managing director and head of structured finance and CDOs at Merrill Lynch, where his responsibilities included commercial mortgage-backed securities. Societe Generale can be found online at http://www.socgen.com.

Nicholas G. Hahn has been hired as chief financial officer of Vertical Lend Inc., a financial services company based in Melville, N.Y., that boasts several mortgage-related units.Mr. Hahn was most recently CFO at DeepGreen Financial, an Internet-based mortgage bank. He was previously an executive vice president at Countrywide Home Loans. David Peskin, Vertical Lend's chief executive officer, said Mr. Hahn will help the company expand its reverse mortgage, remote loan origination, and lead generation programs. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.verticallend.com.

Marc D. Schnitzler, president of CharterMac, a New York-based multifamily real estate finance company, has been named to the additional post of chief executive officer.Mr. Schnitzler, 45, will replace CharterMac chairman Stephen M. Ross, who has served as interim CEO since November and will remain as chairman, the company said. Mr. Schnitzler joined CharterMac's predecessor in 1986. He is a member of the executive committee of the National Multi Housing Council's board of directors. CharterMac can be found on the Web at http://www.chartermac.com.

John A. Magness has been promoted to executive vice president and Southwest regional leader at LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Richmond, Va.Mr. Magness, based in Dallas, oversees company operations in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. He was most recently senior vice president and Southwest regional leader for LandAmerica's commercial services customer channel, the company said. He has 23 years of industry experience. The company can be found online at http://www.landam.com.

David Drow has been named to head a new-home purchase financing initiative planned by E-Loan, an online consumer-direct lender based in Pleasanton, Calif.Before joining E-Loan, Mr. Drow spent seven years with GMAC Mortgage, where he was responsible for expanding their new-home purchase builder mortgage business, E-Loan said. He was previously production manager for North American Mortgage Co. E-Loan can be found on the Web at http://www.eloan.com.

Linda Knight has been promoted from senior vice president and treasurer of Fannie Mae to executive vice president for capital markets.Ms. Knight joined Fannie Mae in 1982 as senior market analyst and has been SVP and treasurer since 1993, the government-sponsored enterprise said. Fannie Mae said Ms. Knight will be one of two business-unit risk officers in the Capital Markets Group, which was previously known as the Portfolio Division. The GSE also announced the promotion of three executives to positions in the Capital Markets Group: David Benson, to senior vice president and treasurer; Ramon de Castro, to senior vice president for capital markets -- mortgages; and Andrew Bon Salle, to senior vice president for capital markets -- lender channel.

Charlotte I. Catalfo has been named president and chief operating officer of American Mortgage Network, a San Diego-based wholesale mortgage bank and a wholly owned subsidiary of Wachovia Bank NA.Ms. Catalfo has over 30 years of experience in mortgage banking production and operations, AmNet said. Before joining the company, Ms. Catalfo was senior managing director for correspondent lending at CitiMortgage Inc., and she held numerous executive positions with Principal Residential Mortgage Inc., including executive vice president of production and production administration. John M. Robbins, AmNet's chief executive officer, said Ms. Catalfo will be in charge of all major technology initiatives at the company. AmNet can be found online at http://www.amnetmortgage.com.