Career moves

Former Mortgage Bankers Association president Herbert B. Tasker has joined the board of directors of American Residential Investment Trust Inc., San Diego.He is currently vice chairman and managing director of AIG Centre Capital Group Inc. Previously he was the chairman and chief executive of Mason McDuffie Mortgage Co. and All Pacific Mortgage Co. Both companies were sold to larger firms, Mason McDuffie to Weyerhaeuser Mortgage Co., and All Pacific to Inland Mortgage. Mr. Tasker currently serves on the board of First American Title Co. ARIT chief executive John M. Robbins said, "Herb's extensive contracts in both the residential and commercial aspects of the business will be invaluable as we optimize the opportunities that lie ahead."

Credit Suisse Asset Management, a division of Credit Suisse First Boston, has named Kevin Barry head of U.S. mortgage-backed and government securities.As managing director and head of the group, Mr. Barry joins Jo Ann Corkran and Mike Buchanan, rounding out Credit Suisse Asset Management's senior team that will have responsibility for managing the firm's U.S. fixed income operations. Mr. Barry joins the firm from TimesSquare Capital Management, where he was a managing director in global fixed income.

Bobby Mehta and Sandy Derickson have been named vice chairmen of Household International Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill.HSBC North America Holdings, the holding company for Household and other U.S. and Canadian businesses, said Mr. Mehta's responsibilities will include Household's consumer lending and mortgage services businesses, HSBC Bank USA's first-mortgage operations, and the strategic planning and corporate marketing for HSBC North America. Ms. Derickson's responsibilities will include Household's retail and insurance services, refund lending, and HFC Bank UK. The holding company also announced other personnel changes, most of which take effect May 1. Household managing directors Patrick Cozza, J. C. Faulkner, Adrian Hill, and Walter Menezes have all been promoted to group executive at Household, and James Kauffman, Household senior vice president for policy and compliance, has been named executive vice president for policy and compliance at HSBC North America. In addition, Seamus McMahon will join Household as an EVP; Household controller Kay Nelson has been promoted to SVP and chief accounting officer; and Jeanne Ebersole, Household's VP for human resources, will move to HSBC Bank USA in New York as EVP for human resources. The companies can be found online at http://www.household.com and http://www.us.hsbc.com.

E*Trade Bank, New York, has hired industry veteran Terry Rowland to head its correspondent lending division.According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News, E*Trade is the nation's 15th-largest correspondent funder and ranks 31st overall. A company spokeswoman said E*Trade does not yet have a presence in wholesale lending, but that could change under Mr. Rowland, who joins the online financial service provider from RBC Mortgage in Raleigh, N.C. Prior to that he worked for Pedestal Inc., Washington, a business-to-business mortgage platform that eventually folded. He is widely known in the mortgage industry. During his career he has also worked for First Nationwide Mortgage, which last year was bought by Citigroup. His official title at E*Trade will be national correspondent lending manager.

Alex Shuford has been named regional president of Beaufort County for South Carolina Bank and Trust, Columbia, S.C., and will head the bank's retail and commercial banking and mortgage lending efforts in the county.He will also be responsible for the bank's Information Services and Human Resources divisions. Mr. Shuford has more than 25 years of banking experience, and was president of FirstBank before joining South Carolina Bank and Trust in 1999, the company said. The bank can be found on the Web at http://www.scbandt.com.

Wescom Credit Union, Pasadena, Calif., is entering the commercial real estate lending market and has hired Dean Lambertson as vice president for its new commercial real estate division.The division will provide the CU's 215,000 members with financing of up to $5 million for the purchase of multifamily properties of five or more units, as well as industrial, retail, and office properties, the company said. Darren Williams, Wescom's president and chief executive officer, said the addition of commercial real estate financing to the CU's offerings "significantly increases our presence as a major lender in the Southern California market." Mr. Lambertson was previously a vice president at First Regional Bank, Glendale, Calif.

President Bush has designated Alicia R. Castaneda to be the new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, which oversees the Federal Home Loan Banks.Ms. Castaneda, who was sworn in on Jan. 12, is the newest member of the Finance Board. She replaces former Chairman John Korsmo, who had announced that he would step down, effective April 13. The new chairman previously worked at Bank of America's International Private Bank as a senior vice president. The two Democratic members of the Finance Board, who had a stormy relationship with Chairman Korsmo, welcomed the news. "Ms. Castaneda brings significant finance and banking experience to the Finance Board, and we look forward to working closely and collaboratively with her in this new role," Franz Leichter and Allan Mendelowitz said in a joint statement. In other news, the Finance Board has announced that Mark J. Tenhundfeld will be the agency's new general counsel, replacing Arnold Intrater, who retired on January. Mr. Tenhundfeld is currently assistant director for regulatory and legislative affairs at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He starts his new job in May.

David A. Priestley has been named chief financial officer of Centex Title & Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Dallas-based Centex Corp.Mr. Priestley joined Centex Title in February 2001 as vice president of finance after serving as an internal audit manager for the parent company. Centex Title can be found on the Web at http://www.centextitle.com.

Bob Waun has been named vice president for private mortgage lending at Paramount Bank, Farmington Hills, Mich.Mr. Waun will be responsible for private mortgage banking and vacation home lending, Paramount said. A 16-year veteran of the mortgage industry, Mr. Waun ranked first in a seven-state region during his tenure with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the bank said.

Timothy F. Gilker has been named senior vice president and manager of the residential mortgage loan department of Arizona Bank & Trust, Mesa, Ariz.The bank said Mr. Gilker has more than 15 years of experience in mortgage banking, including the retail, wholesale, and correspondent channels and the secondary market.

Equity Office Properties Trust, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust, has reported changes to its board of trustees that will reduce the board's size to nine members.John S. Moody is resigning from the EOPT board and Warren E. Spieker Jr. has decided not to stand for re-election to the board because both want to pursue other commercial real estate ventures, the office REIT said. Jerry M. Reinsdorf and William Wilson III have decided not to stand for re-election at EOPT's annual shareholder meeting in May, citing a desire to reduce their commitments and to "pursue other interests," the REIT reported. Mr. Reinsdorf said he believes that his future business investments could create "the perception of conflict" with his EOPT role. EOPT chairman Sam Zell said that "in today's environment, particularly, a smaller board is more manageable and efficient." The company can be found online at http://www.equityoffice.com.

John Korsmo, chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, is resigning as head of the agency, the White House confirmed late Friday afternoon.As of MortgageWire's deadline, no further details were available. Mr. Korsmo and his chief spokesman, Carter Wood, could not be reached for comment. In late February, Dow Jones reported that Mr. Korsmo was the subject of a criminal probe regarding possible obstruction-of-justice charges. For several months, FHFB Inspector General Edward Kelley investigated whether Mr. Korsmo violated any laws by lending his name to a political fund-raiser for fellow North Dakotan Rick Clayburgh. Dow Jones reported that the IG investigation had turned into a criminal probe by the Department of Justice. In months past, Mr. Korsmo has maintained that he did nothing wrong in regard to the fundraiser.

Washington Mutual, Seattle, has made some personnel changes to enhance its capital markets efforts. In one change, David Beck, chief investment officer, has been named executive vice president of WaMu's capital markets group. The group's activities include the marketing, trading and structuring of loans held for sale. Mr. Beck, who joined WaMu in April 2003, will continue to report to Tom Casey, WaMu's CFO, the company reports. Mr. Beck said, "As we continue to build our capabilities to reflect the growth and size of our organization, we have a great opportunity to leverage our scale in our capital markets organization." As well, Richard Fisher has been promoted to executive vice president of WaMu's commercial capital markets group. Working with Mr. Beck, Mr. Fisher will lead a team that is responsible for commercial loan product pricing and development, secondary marketing, securitization, syndication and portfolio management. Mr. Fisher was previously WaMu's manager of commercial secondary marketing.

CTX Mortgage Co. has hired Barry Habib as national sales trainer.Mr. Habib previously was national sales trainer for GMAC and is the author of the Mortgage Market Guide, an e-mail report on interest rate strategy for mortgage originators. CTX Mortgage Co. is a subsidiary of Centex Corp.

Freddie Mac has hired Ralph Boyd Jr. to be the mortgage finance company's general counsel.A senior partner at Alston & Bird in Washington, Boyd is experienced in corporate law and litigation. He previously served as head of the Justice Department's civil rights division. "This is a critical time in Freddie Mac' history, and Ralph will play an important role in helping shape the company's future," Freddie chairman and chief executive Richard Syron said. In addition to Freddie's legal operation, Mr. Boyd will oversee regulatory relations and direct the corporation's legislative activities at the federal, state and local levels. Acting general counsel Joan Donoghue will remain at Freddie as the principal deputy general counsel.

Patti M. Dodge and Kevin M. Cloyd have been promoted to executive vice presidents of New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif.Ms. Dodge, 43, will be responsible for strategic planning and all financial functions and will continue in her role as senior vice president and chief financial officer of New Century Mortgage Corp. Mr. Cloyd, 33, will be responsible for whole-loan sales, securitizations, warehouse line management, and pipeline and hedging management. He will also continue as president of NC Capital Corp. New Century can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Stephen Budorick, Paul Layne, and Douglas Winshall have been promoted to executive vice presidents at Trizec Properties Inc., a Chicago-based real estate investment trust.Mr. Budorick, based in Chicago, has held overall management responsibilities since 1998 for Trizec's 15 million-square-foot portfolio of properties in the company's Central Region. Mr. Layne, based in Houston, has overseen the REIT's 16 million-square-foot portfolio in the Western Region, chiefly in Texas and California. Mr. Winshall, based in New York, has exercised responsibility over Trizec's 15 million-square-foot portfolio in the Eastern Region, which includes New York and metropolitan Washington, D.C. The REIT said the trio, previously senior vice presidents, will retain their current regional responsibilities. Trizec can be found on the Web at http://www.trz.com.

Cyrus Brinn has been promoted to chief executive officer of GHR Systems Inc., Wayne, Pa., and David Morrison has been promoted to executive vice president and general manager of GHR's Mortgage Automation Solutions division.Mr. Brinn joined GHR in 1998 as executive vice president and has served as the company's president and chief operating officer since June 1999. He will share the title of CEO with Allan Redstone, a cofounder of GHR. "Since 1984, Brinn has been pioneering the design and development of numerous automated lending systems including mortgage loan origination, secondary marketing, closing, servicing, asset management, investor reporting and securitization," the company said. Mr. Morrison started with GHR in 2000 as senior vice president of client services. GHR Systems, a provider of lending automation technology, can be found on the Web at http://www.ghrsystems.com.

The Bond Market Association has named Marjorie Gross its new senior vice president and regulatory counsel.She previously worked at J.P. Morgan Chase, where she served as the head of the legal group in the company's Debt Capital Markets-Americas unit and was also a managing director and associate general counsel, TBMA said. In her new position, Ms. Gross is slated to "take a leadership role" in several association projects, including ongoing initiatives in two mortgage securities-related areas: fixed-income research and structured finance practices. Ms. Gross replaces John Ramsay, who left the association last year to become deputy general counsel at Citigroup Global Markets. TBMA can be found on the Web at http://www.bondmarkets.com.

Robert Green has been promoted to executive vice president of residential lending at BankUnited FSB, Coral Gables, Fla.Before joining BankUnited, Mr. Green was a vice president and branch manager with Greenpoint Mortgage. He served as president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers in 1998 and 1999. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.buexpress.com.