Career moves

Dave Mercer has been named executive vice president for sales and marketing at MortgageBrokers.com Inc., a subsidiary of MortgageBrokers.com Holdings Inc.Before joining the company, Mr. Mercer was president of Lending Source Canada Inc., and he spent four years as a regional manager for The Mortgage Alliance Co. of Canada. He has 23 years of experience in the real estate and mortgage industries, MortgageBrokers.com said. The company said Mr. Mercer will promote its Broker Channel Acquisition Program, through which MortgageBrokers.com will offer mortgage brokers equity ownership in a public company in exchange for their origination volume. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.mortgagebrokers.com.

GMAC Mortgage, Horsham, Pa., has announced the recent appointment of two chief operating officers and a chief financial officer.Ralph Hall has been named chief operating officer for business operations, and will oversee GMAC Bank, business lending, capital markets, and information technology, the company said. Jim Hillman has been named COO for consumer operations, overseeing consumer lending, national loan administration, and servicing assets. The new CFO is Dave Bricker. GMAC Mortgage also announced the appointment of Jim Whitlinger as senior vice president and chief accounting officer, and Scott Griffith as vice president and managing director of servicing valuation and analytics. The company can be found online at http://www.gmacmortgage.com.

Jack Praschnik has been named senior vice president and head of the global structured products group at Radian Asset Assurance Inc., a Philadelphia-based provider of asset-backed securities and financial guaranty services.In addition to group management responsibilities, Mr. Praschnik will evaluate strategies for the growth of the structured finance business. He has been senior vice president and head of global strategies at Radian since 2003. Mr. Praschnik's previous experience includes over 14 years in risk management, strategic planning, and economic risk analysis, Radian said. He spent several years at MBIA Insurance Corp. as managing director for portfolio risk management. Radian Asset Assurance is a financial guaranty subsidiary of Radian Group Inc., a global credit enhancement company. The parent company can be found on the Web at www.radian.biz.

MortgageBrokers.com Holdings Inc., a company that does business in the United States and Canada, has appointed Matthew Laverty as executive vice president for sales of its MortgageBrokers.com Inc. subsidiary in New York.Prior to joining MortgageBrokers.com, Mr. Laverty was the regional sales director for GMAC subsidiary Mortgage Intelligence Inc. In his new position, Mr. Laverty will be responsible for executing MortgageBrokers.com's "Broker Channel Acquisition Program," through which the company will be offering brokers equity ownership in exchange for their origination volume.

Agora Holdings Inc., formerly of Glastonbury, Conn., has announced its relocation to New York City and the naming of Kevin Kading as president.The real estate funding and holding company said it has secured financing commitments for $120 million that will be used for the funding or acquisition of real estate projects in connection with the acquisition or funding of "early-stage, high-potential" companies and technologies. The terms of the funding were not disclosed.

Sal Mirran, a Bank of America real estate executive, has been named senior vice president of single-family business and strategy development at Fannie Mae.The government-sponsored enterprise also announced that Eric Schuppenhauer, a Credit Suisse First Boston executive, has been named Fannie's senior vice president of accounting policy and that Scott Lesmes has been promoted to senior vice president and deputy general counsel. In addition, executive vice president and general counsel Ann Kappler will leave Fannie Mae at the end of the year to join the Collier Shannon Scott law firm. Mr. Mirran, the new SVP for single-family business, was most recently senior vice president and head of capital markets at BoA's Consumer Real Estate Division, Fannie Mae reported. Before that, he was a managing director and head of residential mortgage finance at First Union Securities Inc. Fannie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Antonio F. Faria, a former commissioner of financial institutions in Puerto Rico, has been named chief executive officer of Doral Bank, a subsidiary of residential mortgage lender Doral Financial Corp., San Juan, Puerto Rico, which recently announced a management shake-up.Mr. Faria joined Doral in June as president of Doral Money Inc., a New York-based subsidiary of Doral Bank, Doral said. He was previously president of the Government Development Bank and president of the Economic Development Bank, as well as Puerto Rico's commissioner of financial institutions. Doral Financial recently announced the termination of its chief financial officer and the resignation of several senior executives in connection with the company's financial restatement process. Zoila Levis, the company's president, chief operating officer, and recently named vice chairman, said Doral Financial has "significant plans" for Doral Bank, citing "outstanding cross-selling opportunities" with its mortgage lending subsidiaries, among other things.

Arthur Fleming has joined the National Community Capital Association, a national network of more than 160 private-sector community development financial institutions, as executive vice president and chief lending and investment officer.Mr. Fleming, who was most recently senior director for the Southeast region of the Fannie Mae Foundation, will lead the NCCA's new strategy to increase the volume of financing available in emerging domestic markets, the association said. At GMAC Mortgage, Mr. Fleming was senior vice president and managing director of the Housing Initiatives Group. Before joining GMAC, Mr. Fleming was the founder and executive director (from 1990 to 1999) of the Community Financing Consortium in South Florida. The NCCA, can be found online at http://www.communitycapital.org.

R&G Financial Corp., San Juan, Puerto Rico, has announced that Joseph R. Sandoval, its executive vice president and chief financial officer, has been removed from those positions and placed on an indefinite leave of absence by the company's board of directors.R&G Financial, the holding company for two banks and R&G Mortgage Corp., also reported that Vicente Gregorio has been named senior vice president and CFO. The company said it had recently notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would be unable to file its second-quarter 10-Q form on a timely basis because of its efforts to restate audited consolidated financial statements for 2002, 2003, and 2004. As a result, R&G Financial was notified by the NASDAQ Stock Market that this represented an additional delinquency with respect to the company's four classes of preferred securities listed on the market. The company's new CFO, Mr. Gregorio, was most recently chairman of VRC Business Services Inc., a collection company he founded in 2002. R&G Financial can be found online at http://www.rgonline.com.

Randy Conte has been named to the newly created post of chief operations officer of ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc., a mortgage lender based in Ann Arbor, Mich.AAMG said Mr. Conte will be charged with creating an integrated operating environment across all company locations and addressing key strategic initiatives, including increased organizational efficiency and support of the company's commitment to sustainable growth. Mr. Conte was most recently executive vice president and corporate controller for AAMG's parent company, LaSalle Bank Corp. He was previously director of information technology and global head of business management for SBC Warburg, as well as senior manager with Arthur Andersen's consulting practice. The company can be found online at http://www.mortgage.com.

Industry veteran Ron Litt has been named president of Advantage Credit International Inc., a provider of Web-based mortgage credit reporting based in Pensacola, Fla.,Mr. Litt brings more than 40 years of experience in the information and mortgage industries to Advantage Credit, the company said. He was previously employed as senior vice president of retail operations at MortgageIt and senior vice president and chief technology officer at Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. At Allied, Mr. Litt was responsible for innovations such as a proprietary vendor management platform, an integrated imaging system for originators, and the adoption of the first point-of-sale fraud prevention system, Advantage Credit said. Before entering the mortgage industry, he worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a consultant on the Space Shuttle and the early Mercury program, the company said. Advantage Credit can be found online at http://www.advantagecredit.com.

Edward L. Hurley, managing director and head of agency lending for Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Securities, has been named chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Board of Governors for 2006.Mr. Hurley, who has 24 years of commercial banking and real estate finance experience, replaces Kieran Quinn, president and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Column Financial. An MBA spokeswoman told MortgageWire that Mr. Quinn resigned as COMBOG chair because he is also vice chair-elect of the MBA's board of directors. As previously reported, Edward Padilla, chief executive officer of Minnesota-based NorthMarq Capital, will be a vice chair for 2006. The other vice chair will be Stacey M. Berger, executive vice president of Midland Loan Services/PNC Real Estate Finance, Overland Park, Kan. The new leadership becomes effective in October. The 30-member COMBOG, representing the commercial/multifamily real estate finance industry, works on the strategic development of commercial/multifamily policy, industry technology, and best practices and standards. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

The chief financial officer of mortgage lender Doral Financial Corp. has been terminated, several senior executives have resigned, and several others have been appointed in connection with the company's financial restatement process.Ricardo Melendez has been terminated as chief financial officer and Lidio Soriano has been named to replace him on an interim basis, according to the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based residential lender. Salomon Levis is resigning as chief executive officer and a director of Doral effective Sept. 15, and he will be replaced on an interim basis by John Ward. Also resigning are David Levis, as director emeritus, and Mario S. Levis, as treasurer. Doral said Zoila Levis, the company's president and chief operating officer, has been named vice chairman of the board, and Julio Micheo has been named treasurer. The company said its board plans to undertake searches for a permanent CEO and CFO. "After receiving a report from Latham & Watkins LLP, independent counsel for the outside directors of the board, the board determined that these management changes are in the best interest of the company as it proceeds to resolve the issues raised by the need to restate its financial statements as announced on April 19, 2005," Doral said.

Two senior managers for Fannie Mae have departed the mortgage giant to start their own mortgage real estate investment trust.Departing the company are Andrew McCormick, senior vice president of portfolio management, and Andrew Thompson, who was serving as interim head of credit finance. A spokeswoman for Fannie Mae confirmed the departures but had no information on what type of mortgage REIT the two men were launching. Mr. McCormick managed Fannie's $800 billion mortgage portfolio, reporting directly to company executive vice president Peter Niculescu. Fannie Mae named Andrew Bon Salle and Ramon De Castro to take over Mr. McCormick's duties. Each will serve as vice president of portfolio management.

The investment firm R.W. Pressprich & Co. Inc. plans to expand its collateralized debt obligation business into the primary market and has hired new staff members with mortgage-related experience to further that effort.The New York firm has hired Patrick Gallaway, who was previously head of U.S. agency CDO origination and structuring for Barclays Capital, to lead the expansion of its CDO business from the secondary market into the primary market. Pressprich has also hired as part of its new CDO effort: Gerard O'Connor, who was previously a member of the agency CDO Group at Barclays Capital, with responsibility for CDO execution; and Arturo Cifuentes, who was previously head of worldwide operations for CDO Research at Wachovia Securities.

Michael Maher has been named executive vice president of ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc., a loan originator and servicer based in Ann Arbor, Mich.The company said Mr. Maher will assume responsibility for AAMG's quality assurance and "employee engagement" initiatives. He will also continue to manage the company's group center functions. Mr. Maher was most recently group senior vice president for group centers at AAMG. Before joining the company, he was group senior vice president and chief financial officer at Standard Federal Bank, and he specialized in financial services accounting with Deloitte & Touche in Detroit and Miami. AAMG, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based ABN Amro NV, can be found on the Web at http://www.abnamro.com.

New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., has announced the promotion of two senior executives in connection with "integration efforts" for company ventures.Daniel P. Sussman was named senior executive vice president of New Century Mortgage Corp., and he will oversee all "strategic implementation" projects, starting with the expected integration of certain business assets being acquired from RBC Mortgage Co., New Century said. Mr. Sussman has over 20 years of experience in the financial services and mortgage banking industries, most recently as executive vice president and chief operating officer of New Century Mortgage. The other promotion went to Robin C. Auerbach, who was named senior vice president and COO of New Century Mortgage and will assume many of Mr. Sussman's previous duties. Ms. Auerbach has 21 years of experience in the mortgage industry, most recently as senior vice president of NC Capital Corp., a subsidiary of New Century Mortgage. New Century can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Donna Burge has been named executive vice president of operations at DeepGreen Financial, a Cleveland-based online home equity lender.Ms. Burge was most recently chief operating officer of Key Mortgage Services Inc., Des Plaines, Ill. She was previously a principal of Managements' Solutions LLC, which she formed after spending 10 years at PNC Mortgage, DeepGreen said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.deepgreenfinancial.com.

William C. Morris has been named to the newly created position of executive vice president for mergers and acquisitions at Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., Newport Beach, Calif.Mr. Morris was most recently EVP and chief financial officer of Media Arts Group, and he headed Citigroup's Middle Market Group in New York before that. Impac, a mortgage real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.impaccompanies.com.

David Feldman has been named executive vice president of operations at eAppraiseIT LLC, Poway, Calif., and Mark Cassidy has been named chief appraiser and director of the company's appraiser support division.Mr. Feldman, previously senior vice president of operations at the company's Danvers, Mass., operations center, will oversee all of eAppraiseIT's internal operations. Mr. Cassidy owned his own appraisal company for more than 20 years. He will oversee more than 10,000 appraisers, promoting professional development and working to ensure appraisal independence and integrity, eAppraiseIT said. The company can be found on the Internet at http://www.eappraiseit.com.