Freddie's CFO Resigns

Freddie Mac chief financial officer Martin Baumann has resigned from the congressionally chartered mortgage company but says he will stay on as a special adviser through the end of May.Freddie Mac president and chief operating officer Eugene McQuade has already assumed the CFO responsibilities. The company is now conducting a search for Mr. Baumann's successor. A spokeswoman for the company said that when Mr. Baumann joined the company in March 2003 he planned to stay for just two years, but then extended his contract for another year. In a statement, Freddie chairman and chief executive Richard Syron call Mr. Baumann a "key contributor" to the company's turnaround. After the government-sponsored enterprise suffered a $5 billion earnings restatement scandal, Mr. Baumann, a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was brought on board to fix the GSE's accounting systems and policies.