Career moves

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.

James R. Follain has been named senior vice president for mortgage valuation at Fidelity National Information Services' Hansen Quality, a provider of automated valuation, collateral risk, and appraisal review products based in Jacksonville, Fla.Mr. Follain will be responsible for building statistical models that assess the probability of mortgage default and estimate how much money the lender or investor would lose if the loan were to default, the company said. Mr. Follain, who has nearly 30 years of experience in mortgage finance and analytics, was most recently senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board, where he analyzed mortgage provisions of the Basel II Accord. Before that, he served as senior director of capital management and policy, single family capital development at Freddie Mac.

Lisa A. Payne, chief financial officer of Taubman Centers, has been named to the additional post of vice chairman of the real estate investment trust, and William S. Taubman has been named its chief operating officer.Taubman said Ms. Payne has been its CFO since she joined the REIT in 1997. Before that, she was vice president of Goldman Sachs' investment banking division. Mr. Taubman has been executive vice president of the REIT since 1994. He was previously employed by Oppenheimer & Co. Both executives are members of Taubman's board of directors. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.taubman.com.

C-BASS, a firm that specializes in servicing and securitizing credit-sensitive residential mortgages, has hired Peter Cerwin as a managing director in the capital markets group.Mr. Cerwin's responsibilities at C-BASS include working on new business opportunities and executing transactions from a capital markets perspective. He will report to John Draghi, chief investment officer. Mr. Cerwin joins C-BASS after four years as a director in the securitized products group at Deutsche Bank Securities.

Robert Lewis, currently senior vice president of institutional lending sales, has assumed a new leadership role in wholesale lending as division manager for the Central Region at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.Wells also has confirmed that it has hired David Stevens, previously a senior vice president at Freddie Mac, to lead the sales, institutional lending branch operations and client support functions in its wholesale business line. MortgageWire had learned on May 23 that Mr. Stevens had left Freddie for the post at Wells. Prior to joining Freddie Mac in 1998, Mr. Stevens was a group senior vice president and national loan manager at World Savings of Oakland, Calif. He is based at Wells Fargo's McLean, Va., wholesale office. Institutional lending works with mortgage brokers, bankers and mortgage companies to buy and close their mortgage loans.

Geoffrey G. Jervis has been named chief financial officer, treasurer, and secretary of Capital Trust Inc., a New York City-based investment management company that focuses on the subordinate debt markets of U.S. commercial real estate.Mr. Jervis, 34, was most recently director of capital markets and has held various posts with Capital Trust since 1999. In his new position, he will retain his capital markets responsibilities as well as assume responsibility for the company's finance department, Capital Trust said.

Thomas M. Herzog has been named to succeed Paul J. McAuliffe, who will step down as chief financial officer of Apartment Investment and Management Co. in the first quarter of next year.Mr. McAuliffe joined AIMCO, a Denver-based real estate investment trust, in 1999 as an executive vice president and assumed the role of chief financial officer in October of that year, the company said. He has said he plans to return with his family to his native New Jersey, and he will serve AIMCO as an EVP in various capital market activities. Mr. Herzog is currently AIMCO's chief accounting officer, and the REIT said it will undertake an executive search for a replacement. Mr. Herzog was previously chief accounting officer and global controller at GE Real Estate.

Barry Botruff has been named to the newly created position of chief operating officer of TransUnion Settlement Solutions, a Chicago-based provider of real estate services.Mr. Botruff was most recently executive vice president of the U.S. Information Services group of TransUnion, the parent company of TransUnion Settlement Solutions. The subsidiary can be found on the Web at http://www.transunionssi.com.

Citing its plan for "an orderly board transition," Freddie Mac has announced that longtime director John B. McCoy will not stand for re-election to its board of directors at the July 15 stockholders' meeting.The plan is being carried out with the approval of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the company's regulator, which has adopted corporate governance regulations relating to director term limits, Freddie Mac said. "John has been a stalwart of the Freddie Mac board since 1990," said Richard F. Syron, chairman and chief executive officer of the government-sponsored enterprise. "He has provided wise counsel through thick and thin, and has been a key figure in the organization's turnaround."

William R. Flatt has been named executive vice president, chief financial officer, and secretary of Parkway Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Jackson, Miss.Mr. Flatt was most recently vice president and asset manager for the office REIT's Chicago and Phoenix markets. Before that, he was vice president of investor relations. Parkway Properties can be found on the Web at http://www.pky.com.

Mark Hughes has been named president of the Bohan Group, a San Francisco-based provider of risk analysis for the mortgage industry.Mr. Hughes, who will retain his title of chief operating officer, has been an executive vice president of Bohan for four years. Before joining the company, Mr. Hughes spent 12 years in the mortgage department of Solomon Smith Barney (now Citigroup). Bohan provides due diligence, and it recently expanded its services to include regulatory compliance reviews and software as well as a Southern California mortgage fulfillment center. Paul Bohan, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said Mr. Hughes "will be key in the expansion of our fulfillment center in Southern California, as well as forging new partnerships with other service providers." The company can be found online at http://www.bohangroup.com.