Career moves

Frank J. Curry, president of nonconforming lender Acoustic Home Loans, Orange, Calif., has left the company, industry sources have told MortgageWire.An official at Acoustic confirmed Mr. Curry's departure but declined to say anything more about the situation. The wholesale lender was launched in the summer of 2003 by Mr. Curry, a former executive of Long Beach Mortgage. The privately held AHL ranks 40th among all nonprime lenders in the United States, according to the Quarterly Data Report, an MW affiliate.

Robert Bostrom has been named executive vice president and general counsel of Freddie Mac.Mr. Bostrom will be a member of the executive leadership team and have management responsibility for all legal and regulatory strategies, services, and resources, the government-sponsored enterprise said. Mr. Bostrom, whose legal career spans more than 25 years, was most recently managing partner of the New York office of Winston & Strawn LLP, a member of the firm's executive committee, and head of its financial institutions practice. From 1992 to 1996, he served as executive vice president of legal, regulatory and compliance and general counsel of National Westminster Bancorp.

The White House is considering former investment banker James B. Lockhart III, deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, to head the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, MortgageWire has learned.Mr. Lockhart has served as deputy commissioner of Social Security since January 2002. Washington sources said that former Treasury Department official Edward DeMarco, a one-time candidate for the OFHEO job, is no longer believed to in the running. "DeMarco still might play some role in regard to OFHEO," said one observer. Mr. Lockhart was co-founder and managing director of NetRisk, a risk management software firm, before joining SSA. During his career he was a senior vice president at National Re (1993-95) and a managing director at Smith Barney (1993-95).

Robert E. Story Jr. has been named president of Seattle Financial Group, a family-owned mortgage banker that comprises Seattle Mortgage, Seattle Savings Bank, Reverse Mortgage of America, and other brands.Mr. Story began his career in 1980 as a construction manager and has served in "all functions of residential production," the company said. He serves on the board of directors of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Seattle Financial said former company president Randy Weber has accepted the position of vice chairman. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.seattlefinancialgroup.com.

Kristina K. Williams has been named to succeed Eric J. Marx as chief financial officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.Ms. Williams was most recently the FHLBank's chief accounting officer. She was previously employed by PNC Bank for 12 years, including as CFO of its Corporate and Institutional Banking business segment. Mr. Marx has indicated his intention to resign, but will stay through the end of the quarter, the FHLBank said. The bank also announced the promotion of Robert J. Snyder from financial controls manager to controller. The FHLBank can be found on the Web at http://www.fhlb-pgh.com.

Patrick Sinks has been named president and chief operating officer of MGIC Investment Corp., the Milwaukee-based mortgage insurer. Curt Culver will remain as chairman and chief executive officer. MGIC said Mr. Sinks was most recently executive vice president of field operations at MGIC's principal subsidiary, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. He was previously senior vice president and chief accounting officer. Mr. Sinks has been with the company since 1978, when he joined a subsidiary, MGIC said. The company can be found online at http://www.mgic.com.

Philip Martin has been hired as a managing director of real estate equity research at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., a New York-based global provider of financial services to the institutional equity and fixed-income markets.Mr. Martin will be headquartered in Chicago. Before joining Cantor Fitzgerald, Mr. Martin was a senior vice president at Stifel Nicolaus, and he was previously the principal partner of Creative Health Partners LLC, a real estate and health care advisory firm. Cantor Fitzgerald can be found on the Web at http://www.cantor.com.

Spencer Carlsen has been named president of First California Mortgage Co., a wholesale and retail mortgage banking company based in Petaluma, Calif.Mr. Carlsen was most recently head of national retail and wholesale loan production at Irwin Home Equity. He was previously employed as manager of treasury operations at Providian Bancorp and a manager of branch operations for Bank of America, First California said.

Todd Luhtanen, vice president and chief technology officer at origination vendor Dynatek, Livonia, Mich., has been promoted to president and chief technology officer.In his new role, Todd Luhtanen will have responsibility for overseeing all sales, marketing, and support functions, as well as the company's general business operations, Dynatek said. Jack Luhtanen will continue in his role as Dynatek's chief executive officer and maintain his daily involvement in company operations, directing all aspects of its policies, objectives, and initiatives. Jack Luhtanen and Todd Luhtanen, together with Linda Luhtanen, established Dynatek in 1986. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.dynatek.com.

Patricia Ann Milon has left Fannie Mae to become chief legal officer and senior vice president for regulatory affairs at America's Community Bankers.Ms. Milon worked at Fannie Mae for seven years as vice president and deputy general counsel for regulatory, legislative, and charter compliance issues. "Patty is recognized as a top-notch lawyer with great expertise in the banking field and a thorough understanding of the issues that matter to our members," said ACB president Diane Casey-Landry. "She will be an extraordinary addition to the ACB senior management team." Ms. Milon also worked at the U.S. Treasury Department as senior counsel for financial institutions.

Mortgage banking veteran Steven F. Stein has been hired to head the Home Loans Retail Production sales channel of Washington Mutual Inc., Seattle.Mr. Stein, 52, has more than 25 years of mortgage industry experience. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of wholesale lending for St. Louis-based CitiMortgage Inc. and, before that, as EVP of retail lending, according to WaMu. Mr. Stein previously served as vice president and national sales manager at Prudential Home Mortgage, where he managed sales and marketing for the company's Home Mortgage Connection Division. He was also responsible for creating and developing a wholesale origination channel that provided processing and marketing support to mortgage brokers, WaMu said. WaMu can be found on the Web at http://www.wamu.com.

Industry veteran Bob Lewis has been named senior vice president and director of the residential mortgage wholesale channel at Fifth Third Bancorp, Cincinnati, as part of an effort to boost Fifth Third's wholesale market share.The company said Mr. Lewis will be responsible for the growth of sales and fulfillment of mortgage loan origination from broker relationships throughout the East. Mr. Lewis joins Fifth Third from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, where he served as wholesale national sales manager in the institutional lending division and previously managed its correspondent banking business. In connection with the planned expansion of wholesale operations, Fifth Third said Mr. Lewis has appointed Scott Enders vice president and national operations manager and the following as vice presidents and regional division managers: Chris Shrader for the West region; Jim Hensley for the Southeast; and Christopher Knox for the Northeast.

Scott Carstens has been named chief financial officer of eLynx Ltd., a Cincinnati-based provider of secure document delivery and business process management Web services for the financial services industry.The company also announced the appointment of Alexander Pozin as the director of product marketing. The appointments will "help further solidify" the company's position in the mortgage finance market and position it to move into additional markets such as general financial services, auto finance, consumer lending, and insurance, eLynx said. Mr. Carstens previously held various posts in finance, accounting, mergers and acquisitions, planning, treasury, and sales at NCR Corp, Convergys Corp., OfficeMax Inc., TRW Inc., Oracle Corp., and Siebel Systems. Before joining eLynx, Mr. Pozin worked for Waterloo, Ontario-based Open Text Corp. as a product marketing manager, with Washington Mutual in strategic sourcing, and with Deloitte & Touche in consulting, eLynx said. The company can be found online at http://www.elynx.com.

Al Tappe, an executive at Countrywide Home Loans, has been named chief operations officer of Citigroup's Citi Real Estate Lending, St. Louis, effective Feb. 1.Mr. Tappe will be responsible for supporting all real estate origination operations, including dedicated channel support for unique customer or product needs, and a business center that provides cross-channel support for common functions, the company said. He held senior positions at Countrywide as chief technology officer and chief operations officer in the company's Consumer Markets Division. Mr. Tappe also held positions in the mortgage operations of Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America.

Joseph F. Eckroth has been named executive vice president of New Century Financial Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Irvine, Calif., and chief operating officer of its subsidiary, New Century Mortgage Corp.Mr. Eckroth was most recently senior vice president and chief information officer of the parent company. He was previously CIO of Mattel Inc. and two divisions of General Electric Co. New Century said Mr. Eckroth will lead its mortgage subsidiary as it seeks to become one of the industry's lowest-cost producers. The parent company can be found on the Web at http://www.ncen.com.

Joel Furst has been named president of First Continental Mortgage and Investment Corp., a chiefly nonprime wholesaler based in Fairfield, N.J.Mr. Furst was previously a vice president at First Continental. The company also announced the promotions of Dan Bucci and Ray Salerno Jr. from vice presidents to executive vice presidents. In addition to its nonprime wholesale operations, First Continental operates several branches in the Northeast that handle retail and wholesale prime and nonprime business.

E. Ashley Smith has been named executive vice president, general counsel, and chief legal officer of Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston, and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Stewart Title Guaranty Co. and Stewart Title Co.Mr. Smith was most recently vice chancellor for governmental relations and policy for the University of Texas System, Stewart said. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for 14 years. Stewart can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

Rob Katz has been named executive vice president of sales and marketing at Del Mar Database, a San Diego-based Fiserv subsidiary that specializes in providing technology to small and medium-size lenders.Before joining Del Mar in 2001, Mr. Katz was chief information officer at Monument Mortgage. Del Mar also announced the promotion of Rob Pommier to the position of vice president of national sales. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.delmardb.com.

ECC Capital Corp., Irvine, Calif., says its executive vice president and chief operating officer Steven Szpytek has resigned to take a production job at a subsidiary.Mr. Szpytek will be based in Downers Grove, Ill., and will serve as director of production in the Midwest for Encore Credit Corp. The nonconforming wholesale lender is also losing its spokesman, Rob Asghar, who is departing to take a position at the University of Southern California. Recently, ECC/Encore, a real estate investment trust, trimmed 440 full-timers, or 27% of its work force.

Jeffrey Johnson has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Franklin Credit Management Corp., a New York-based finance company specializing in residential mortgage loans, according to Franklin Credit.Mr. Johnson, who also resigned from the company's board of directors, left to pursue other business interests, the company reported. Thomas Axon, the chairman and founder of the company, has been appointed president and CEO. Mr. Axon has been chairman since 1994 and was president and CEO from December 1994 through June 2000. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.franklincredit.com.