Career moves

Alina Garcia has been named chief operating officer of the retail lending division of Wachovia Mortgage Corp., Charlotte, N.C., and David Overcast has been named chief administrative officer of the division.Ms. Garcia has held various executive posts with Wachovia and Countrywide Home Loans, and in nearly 18 years of mortgage industry experience has been responsible for loan origination, affordable housing, strategic planning, and other activities, the company said. Mr. Overcast was most recently the operational risk executive for Bank of America's mortgage division. He has worked in the financial services industry for 16 years, during which he has managed incentive compensation plans, operational risk reporting and mitigation, and other operations, according to Wachovia. Wachovia Mortgage can be found on the Web at http://www.wachovia.com.

John W. Stewart, a co-founder of Metrocities Mortgage LLC, Sherman Oaks, Calif., and former executive at Countrywide Home Loans, has been rehired by Metrocities as president of strategic initiatives.Mr. Stewart will work in collaboration with Metrocities' retail divisional presidents and senior executives in managing the company's national strategic business development plan, Metrocities said. Most recently a managing director of strategic business development at Countrywide, Mr. Stewart co-founded Metrocities in 1989 and helped form the company's Affiliated Business Arrangement joint venture program, Metrocities said.

Fannie Mae has announced the hiring of S. Jean Hinrichs, who will join the mortgage giant in July as its chief internal auditor.Ms. Hinrichs, whose title will be senior vice president for internal audit, will be charged with conducting a risk assessment and then developing and executing a comprehensive audit program, Fannie Mae said. She will also be responsible for dealing with the outside auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and the company's safety-and-soundness regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. "A sound and effective internal audit function will ensure that internal audit activity is compliant with all professional and ethical standards as the company moves through the reaudit and restatement process," said Fannie Mae chairman Stephen B. Ashley. Ms. Hinrichs established a global internal audit function at Barclays Global Investors, San Francisco, where she was employed from 1997 to 2004, Fannie Mae said. She was previously vice president and general auditor of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Robert G. Partlow has resigned his position as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Fieldstone Investment Corp., a residential mortgage banking company based in Columbia, Md., according to Fieldstone.The company said Mr. Partlow resigned for personal and family reasons. He will remain with Fieldstone until Aug. 5. The company said it has launched a search for a new CFO. Fieldstone can be found online at http://www.fieldstoneinvestment.com.

Michael W. Carrie, former chief financial officer of Flagstar Bancorp Inc., a major mortgage lender based in Troy, Mich., has resigned from Flagstar's board of directors and entered into a consulting agreement with the company.Flagstar said Mr. Carrie also resigned from the board of directors of its wholly owned subsidiary, Flagstar Bank FSB, and that he will consult with Flagstar through March 2006 to assist in the transition of the successor CFO. In addition, the company announced the appointment of Brian Tauber as an independent member of both Flagstar boards to fill the vacancies resulting from Mr. Carrie's resignation. Mr. Tauber is president and chief executive officer of Carolina Precision Plastics. Flagstar, which operates home loan centers in 27 states, can be found on the Web at http://www.flagstar.com.

Mary Salinas Durón has been named executive vice president of the national multicultural sales group of Countrywide Home Loans Inc.Ms. Durón will oversee Countrywide's House America branches and national counseling center, which provides home loan counseling and homebuyer education. The multicultural sales group provides business development and sales support for the company's various business channels, focusing on affordable loan products, sales force diversity, consumer education, and relationship building among community, faith-based, and industry organizations, Countrywide said. Ms. Durón was previously senior vice president and director of Countrywide's national emerging markets group and its House America and fair-lending efforts. She has more than 20 years of experience in community reinvestment and fair-lending programs. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

George L. Houghton Jr. has been promoted to national independent title agency director at Stewart Title Guaranty Co., a new post the company said is designed to promote a smooth delivery system for its independent agency network.Mr. Houghton, a 30-year veteran of the title industry, came to Stewart Title of Houston in 1998 as senior vice president and downtown commercial office manager. In 2000, he became vice president and district agency manager for South and West Texas. Before joining Stewart, he was president, chief executive officer, and majority owner of Fort Bend Title Co., and later worked as assistant to the president of another underwriter, Stewart said. Stewart Title's parent company, Stewart Information Services Corp., can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

Marc Connelly has been named executive vice president for sales at LandAmerica OneStop, an online subsidiary of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Richmond, Va.Mr. Connelly, who is based in Alpharetta, Ga., was most recently senior vice president for sales at LandAmerica OneStop. LandAmerica Financial is a provider of real estate transaction services for mortgage lenders nationwide. It can be found online at http://www.landam.com.

Nomura Securities International Inc. has hired Jack A. Leventhal as a managing director and the head of U.S. financial institutions in NSI's investment banking division.Mr. Leventhal's responsibilities will include the expansion of NSI's financial advisory business to multinational financial institutions based in the United States and the creation of a middle-market investment banking business to U.S. financial institutions. He is based in New York. Tomoko Iino, managing director and head of investment banking at NSI, said Mr. Leventhal's "extensive background in cross-border transactions and experience in the U.S. make him a major asset to our firm as we expand our cross-border business as well as business in the U.S." Mr. Leventhal was chief executive officer and global head of financial institutions for Deloitte & Touche corporate finance in 2004 and 2005, and he also served at UBS, beginning in 1995. He was responsible for the creation and implementation of structured nonperforming loan transactions and led UBS's distressed portfolio principal investment activity in China and Japan.

Paul Mullings, a mortgage industry veteran, has been named senior vice president of single-family mortgage sourcing at Freddie Mac.Mr. Mullings joins Freddie Mac from JP Morgan Chase, where he was senior vice president of mortgage finance, and fair lending executive at Chase Home Finance. Before joining Chase Home Finance in 1997, Mr. Mullings was president and chief executive officer of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. "He led MERS during the organization's launch and successful capitalization, and was instrumental in the development of the first set of industry standards that are leading the mortgage market to a paperless process," Freddie Mac said. Before helping to launch MERS, Mr. Mullings was president and CEO of the residential mortgage division of First Interstate Bank, Los Angeles. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., has announced the promotion of Roger Hull, the company's chief information officer, to executive vice president.The company said the promotion came in recognition of "the key role [Mr. Hull] has played in developing and integrating First American's technology and business strategies," specifically the First American Web Services offering that now provides the backbone for delivering First American's products, services, and processes. Before joining First American, Mr. Hull's 25 years of information technology experience included serving as senior technology officer for Coldwell Banker from 1992 to 1998, when he took on that same role for First American Title Insurance Co. Mr. Hull was the subject of a feature interview in the January/February 2005 issue of Mortgage Technology magazine, a MortgageWire affiliate.

David Stern has been named to head the Securitization Syndicate Americas of SG Corporate & Investment Banking, a unit of the Societe Generale Group, a European financial services group.Mr. Stern will be responsible for pricing and underwriting securitizations, including residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations. He was most recently a senior member of the ABS syndicate desk at J.P. Morgan. Mr. Stern will be based in New York.

Troy Gotschall has been named president and chief executive officer of Encore Credit Corp., a taxable subsidiary of ECC Capital Corp., an Irvine, Calif.-based real estate investment trust that originates and invests in residential mortgage loans.Mr. Gotschall was most recently president of Long Beach Mortgage Co., a subsidiary of Washington Mutual that specializes in nonconforming loans. He joined Long Beach Mortgage as a branch manager in 1990. Encore Credit can be found on the Web at http://www.encorecredit.com.

Wayne Lee has resigned as chief executive of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and president of its affiliate Argent Mortgage Co., the Orange, Calif.-based Ameriquest has announced.In a statement issued by the company, Mr. Lee said he is leaving after 15 years "to take on new challenges and explore new opportunities." Ameriquest Capital Corp., the parent company of ACC Capital Holdings, said its president, Aseem Mital, will become chief executive of ACC Capital. In that role, Mr. Mital will be responsible for the activities of Ameriquest Mortgage and Argent Mortgage. Mr. Mital has been president of ACC since 2004 and has a background in financial services, capital markets, and technology, with over 19 years of combined industry experience. Ameriquest previously disclosed that it is negotiating with regulators in 25 states over its retail lending practices.

The Senate Banking Committee has approved by voice vote the nomination of Brian Montgomery to be the new commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration.If confirmed by the full Senate, Mr. Montgomery will get to run a federal mortgage insurance agency that is facing declining single-family loan production and rising loan defaults. He told members of the banking committee during his confirmation hearing that the FHA needs to do a better job of marketing itself as an option for low-income homebuyers. In response to questions about his housing experience, the nominee stressed that he has "proven himself as a very capable manager and a steady leader" in leading the White House's effort to revamp the space program following the space shuttle Columbia disaster and in coordinating federal responses to wildfires in California and hurricanes in Florida. "If confirmed, I hope to bring those same skills to the Office of Housing," Mr. Montgomery testified. Mr. Montgomery currently works in the White House as a deputy assistant to the president.

The American Securitization Forum has announced the newly elected officers of its executive committee.The newly elected officers, announced at the organization's 2005 annual meeting in New York, are: Greg Medcraft, managing director and global head of securitization at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking, chairman; Diane Wold, a managing director at GMAC-RFC, deputy chairman; and Sanjeev Handa, a managing director at TIAA-CREF, secretary. All three will serve three-year terms, while other newly elected executive committee members will serve one-year or two-year terms. The new term begins on July 1. The American Securitization Forum can be found online at http://www.americansecuritization.com.

Paul Aanonsen has been named to head the multifamily loan origination business of Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., Newark, N.J.Mr. Aanonsen, a principal based in Prudential Mortgage's office in McLean, Va., has originated more than $2 billion in loans through Prudential's various capital sources, including Fannie Mae programs, the company said. Prudential Mortgage is the commercial mortgage loan business of Prudential Financial Inc. It can be found on the Web at http://www.prudential.com/mortgagecapital.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has announced the leadership of its 2006 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Board of Governors, which focuses on commercial/multifamily real estate finance policy issues and initiatives.The COMBOG officers are: Kieran Quinn, president and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Column Financial, chair; Ed Hurley, managing director of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Securities, vice chair; and Ed Padilla, CEO of Minnesota-based NorthMarq Capital Inc., vice chair. The MBA also announced the nomination of Mr. Quinn as its vice chair-elect. He will be elected by MBA members at the association's annual convention in October. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Todd Sims has been named chief information officer for the Stewart Real Estate Information region, which includes both Stewart Mortgage Information and REIData Inc. entities.Mr. Sims was one of the founding members of the RealEC real estate electronic commerce exchange, and as senior vice president he also managed technical client relationships with large lenders and service providers, the company said. Mr. Sims formed Quest Technical Services Inc. in 2002, providing contract development services as well as permanent and contract labor technical placement services. SMI can be found online at http://smi.stewart.com.

Antonio F. Faria has been named president of Doral Money Inc., a New York-based subsidiary of Puerto Rico-based Doral Bank that specializes in commercial and construction mortgage lending.Before joining Doral, Mr. Faria was president and chief executive officer of the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico, president and CEO of the Economic Development Bank for Puerto Rico, and Puerto's Rico's commissioner of financial institutions. Before entering the public sector, Mr. Faria had more than 25 years of experience in Puerto Rico's banking industry, Doral said.