Career moves

Freddie Mac is losing its treasurer, Louise Herrle, to General Motors Acceptance Corp., which is in the throes of forming a new holding company for its mortgage division.Ms. Herrle is expected to play a key role in the new holding company -- which does not yet have a name -- tapping the capital markets. Her title at the GMAC holding company will be managing director, corporate finance group/treasurer. Her last day at Freddie Mac is Sept. 15. (See the Sept. 13 issue of National Mortgage News for more information on GMAC's plans for the holding company.) Freddie Mac can be found on the Web at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest residential lender, has named former San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank president Robert T. Parry to its board.Mr. Parry, who served as president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco Fed for 18 years, was also a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the target for the overnight federal funds rate. Meanwhile, Countrywide's stock split two-for-one before the market opened on Tuesday.

David Bowers has been named director of the Washington, D.C., office of The Enterprise Foundation, which promotes affordable housing for low-income families.Mr. Bowers was most recently employed by the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust, where he was responsible for a single-family mortgage program in Washington and New York City. He was previously a financial and program adviser for the Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. The Enterprise Foundation can be found on the Web at http://www.enterprisefoundation.org.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago has named investment banker Mike Thomas as its new president and chief executive officer.He replaces Mortgage Partnership Finance program founder Alex Pollock, who retired this past summer. For almost 21 years Mr. Thomas, 53, worked for First Chicago Corp., a money center bank. When he left First Chicago in 1994 he was chief financial officer. He joined investment banker Lazard Freres & Co. in 1995 as a managing director. (Early in his career, Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines also worked at Lazard.) Since 2001 Mr. Thomas has been a consultant. The Secura Group aided the FHLBank in its search. The MPF program competes directly against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mortgage banking veteran Richard F. Sommer has been named chief executive officer of HomeGain Inc., an Emeryville, Calif.-based provider of customized services to online buyers and sellers of homes.Mr. Sommer was previously senior vice president of business development for the mortgage banking unit of IndyMac Bank Inc. and president of international real estate operations for HomeStore Inc., the parent of Homestore.com. HomeGain, a privately held company, can be found online at http://www.homegain.com.

Michael D. Youngblood has been named chief of asset-backed securities research at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Arlington, Va.Dr. Youngblood was most recently head of mortgage research at GMAC-Residential Funding Corp. "He is widely respected for developing the first mortgage-backed securities conduit, the first option-adjusted spread analytics, and the first total-rate-of-return index for commercial MBS," said Martin S. Friedman, FBR's director of research. The company can be found online at http://www.fbr.com.

Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., has announced three new appointments in the company's Consumer Markets Division.Dan Hanson, an executive vice president at Countrywide, has been named managing director of distributed retail, while senior vice president James Hecht has been promoted to EVP of national operations, and senior vice president and regional manager Mike Querrey has been named SVP of sales development. A 26-year real estate veteran, Mr. Hanson will be responsible for managing the production for Countrywide's distributed retail divisions, overseeing the company's network of 600 sales offices nationwide, Countrywide said. Mr. Hecht will serve as the Consumer Markets Division's primary liaison to the chief operating officer and oversee operations-related policy and procedures. Mr. Querrey will be responsible for increasing purchase market share and for recruiting sales resources in each of the CMD's business units. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Fannie Mae has announced that its chief credit officer, Adolfo Marzol, will assume the post of senior vice president of strategy and competitive analysis on Sept. 1.Mr. Marzol, who has held the post of chief credit officer since 1998, said he had expressed a desire to move to a new position and that Fannie Mae had accommodated him. "I am pleased to be able to make this change at a time when our credit portfolio is in exceptionally good shape and our credit outlook for 2004 is very favorable," he said. Timothy Howard, Fannie Mae's vice chairman and chief financial officer, said the company will move ahead with a plan to shift responsibility for transactional risk management to its business units while strengthening the integration of its financial risk assessment capabilities at the corporate level. "As part of these changes, Marzol's responsibilities will be divided among the enhanced credit teams within each business unit, the Risk Policy Committee chaired by Howard, and a newly created finance department called Credit Finance," Fannie Mae said. The government-sponsored enterprise can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Downey Financial Corp. president and chief executive Marangal Domingo resigned from the California-based thrift late Thursday after just seven months on the job.The company said in a statement that Mr. Domingo "has decided to pursue other interests." Company chief financial officer Tom Prince said Mr. Domingo's last official day on the job is Aug. 31, but noted that the CEO is currently on vacation. Mr. Prince declined further comment. Daniel D. Rosenthal, who served as Downey's president and CEO from late 1998 until Mr. Domingo became CEO in February of this year, was immediately reinstated in his old job. Since February Mr. Rosenthal has served as a director of Downey and managed its real estate investment business. According to the Quarterly Data Report, Downey is the nation's 42nd-largest residential funder.

J. C. Lowenberg III has been hired as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Prime Income Asset Management LLC, Dallas, and two Dallas-based real estate investment firms for which Prime manages real estate.The other companies are American Realty Investors Inc. and Transcontinental Realty Investors Inc. Mr. Lowenberg was most recently CFO at RealLinx Inc., a provider of application and high-speed broadband services. The three real estate companies also announced that Scott Lewis has been hired as vice president and chief accounting officer. The companies can be found online at http://www.primeasset.com, http://www.amrealtytrust.com, and http://www.transconrealty-invest.com.

Southwest Securities Bank, Arlington, Texas, has hired Arthur Ochoa to start a single-family mortgage banking operation."We believe the single-family mortgage business will further diversify the bank while adding an important new source of revenues," said Dick Driscoll, chief executive of Southwest Securities Bank. Mr. Ochoa started as a loan officer at Bankers Life Mortgage before opening his own mortgage company in 1987, Southwest said. After seven years he sold the company and returned to Bankers Life, which was soon renamed Principal Residential Mortgage. Mr. Ochoa then opened a number of markets across the state for Principal. In his new role, Mr. Ochoa will open offices for Southwest Securities Bank in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs of Arlington and Hurst, as well as in Granbury, approximately 50 miles away. There are plans for further expansion, the company said.

Mark E. Yale has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer of Glimcher Realty Trust, a retail real estate investment trust based in Columbus, Ohio.The appointment of Mr. Yale, 39, will take effect Aug. 30. Mr. Yale was most recently manager of finance and CFO of Storage USA, a division of GE Real Estate, Memphis. Glimcher can be found on the Web at http://www.glimcher.com.

Freddie Mac has announced that a FleetBoston executive will be the mortgage giant's new chief operating officer and that 15-year veteran Paul Peterson is stepping down.Eugene M. McQuade will replace Mr. Peterson as president and COO. He will also serve on the board of directors, if approved by shareholders at the company's annual meeting in November. Mr. McQuade, 55, joined FleetBoston Financial Corp. in 1992 and became chief financial officer in 1993. He was promoted to president and COO in 2002. Bank of America completed its acquisition of FleetBoston in April. Mr. Peterson said he is preparing to move on to other interests, and he will serve as a senior consultant to help with Mr. McQuade's transition. Freddie Mac is recovering from a $5 billion accounting scandal and management shake-up. The company is desperately trying to repair and update its financial reporting and accounting systems so that it can file timely financial reports again. Freddie Mac chairman and chief executive Richard Syron said Mr. McQuade has a demonstrated expertise in financial services and "superb leadership skills." Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Eric S. Burgoon has been named president of mortgage banking at Republic Bank, Farmington Hills, Mich., according to the bank's holding company, Republic Bancorp Inc.Mr. Burgoon will be charged with expanding the bank's mortgage business in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio by adding experienced loan officers and using other business incentives, the parent company said. Mr. Burgoon has more than 15 years of experience in the banking and mortgage industry. The company can be found online at http://www.republicbancorp.com.

Thomas E. Thompson has been promoted to president of Real Estate Partners Inc., a real estate investment and management services company based in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Thompson, who was previously executive vice president and broker of record for the firm, replaces Dawson Davenport, who will remain with the company as chairman and chief executive officer. The company said it is involved in negotiations to add over $200 million in property to its holdings, most of it multifamily property. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.realestatepartnersinc.com.

Nicolas V. Chater has been named chief financial officer of HomeBanc Mortgage Corp., a subsidiary of HomeBanc Corp., an Atlanta-based real estate investment trust.Mr. Chater was most recently CFO for eight years with several business units of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, a management and information technology consulting group. He will succeed Steve McClellan, who will move to the parent company to help build its organizational structure as a public REIT, the company said. HomeBanc recently completed its initial public offering.

David C. Ward has been hired as executive vice president and Southwest regional investment director for Post Properties Inc., an Atlanta-based real estate investment trust.Before joining Post Properties, Mr. Ward was a founding partner of San Gabriel Residential Inc., a Dallas-based multifamily development and investment company. He was also a divisional president and managing partner at JPI Partners Inc., where he was responsible for multifamily development, construction, and management for three regional offices in Texas and Florida. Post Properties, which specializes in developing and operating upscale multifamily communities, can be found online at http://www.postproperties.com.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris says he is stepping down on Aug. 15 now that President Bush has signaled his intention to appoint Deborah P. Majoras to be the new chairman.By announcing his intention to make a recess appointment, the president "ensures the FTC's ability to continue its strong record of competition and consumer protection," Mr. Muris said. During Mr. Muris' tenure, the FTC successfully pursued several predatory lending cases that resulted in large settlements, including a $215 million settlement involving Associates First Capital Corp, Irvine, Texas. Earlier this year, Chairman Muris announced his intention to step down in August, but a Democratic senator has held up Ms. Majoras' confirmation by the Senate. By making a recess appointment, the president can bypass the Senate, which is on recess until Sept. 7. Ms. Majoras has worked in the Justice Department's antitrust division. The president also announced his intention to appoint Democrat Jon Leibowitz to an FTC panel.

David C. Imig has been named president of LandAmerica Tax and Flood Services Inc., Richmond, Va., where he will succeed the retiring Dale Quarto on Oct. 1.Mr. Imig joined the company (formerly known as Lereta Corp.) in January 2003 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He has more than 30 years of experience in the lending industry, including stints as senior officer and loan service manager at Washington Mutual Bank, GE Capital Mortgage, Citicorp Mortgage, and Travelers Mortgage, LandAmerica said. LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., the parent company of LandAmerica Tax and Flood Services, can be found on the Web at http://www.landam.com.

Erik Anderson has been appointed president of Merit Financial, a mortgage and real estate company based in Kirkland, Wash.A past president of the Seattle Mortgage Bankers Association, Mr. Anderson joined Merit in January as vice president of mortgage banking. Since then, Merit has doubled its lending volume, the company said. Merit was founded three years ago and has grown more than 400% since that time, according to the company. Mr. Anderson's appointment will allow Scott Greenlaw, the company's founder and chief executive officer, to concentrate on strategic planning and relationship building, Merit said.