CALIFORNIA
CALABASAS
Bill Berliner, the principal of Berliner Consulting & Research, has joined Manhattan Capital Markets as an executive vice president and the head of its advisory services unit.
Before forming Berliner Consulting in 2008, he spent 12 years at Countrywide Securities Corp., and eventually was the head of the trade strategies group in the fixed-income research department.
CONNECTICUT
GREENWICH
Starwood Property Trust named Andrew Sossen to the position of chief operating officer and appointed Michael Berry to the position of chief accounting officer.
Sossen has been general counsel at Starwood Property Trust since January 2010, a role he will be retaining.
Prior to this, from 2006 through 2009, he represented Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as general counsel at KKR Asset Management and its affiliated public and private funds.
Berry has over 20 years of experience in accounting and public company reporting, the majority of which has been with real estate related companies.
He held various positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1990 to 2010 prior to joining Starwood Property Trust in January 2011.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
WASHINGTON
Brideen Gallagher was named vice president, business development with The Collingwood Group in May.
Gallagher brings to the organization more than 20 years of experience in origination, operations, capital markets and third-party correspondent business.
Prior to joining The Collingwood Group, Gallagher held senior-level account management positions with companies including American Home Mortgage, GE Capital, E*Trade and Chase.
WASHINGTON
The American Land Title Association appointed Michelle Korsmo as chief executive officer.
Korsmo has been serving as chief operating officer for ALTA, and joined ALTA in 2008 when she was named senior vice president, marketing and member programs.
Prior to joining ALTA, Korsmo was the executive vice president of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Before that, she served three years as deputy chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, where she managed nonpolitical agency heads, served as a member of the budget committee, exercised approval authority on all departmental action to be published in the Federal Register, and developed an outreach program to the nonprofit community.
NEW YORK
NEW YORK
The Local Initiatives Support Corp. has named Tina Brooks, undersecretary for housing and community development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as its new executive vice president for programs.
Brooks has been one of the longest serving members of Gov. Deval Patrick's Administration, leading the state's housing agenda since 2007.
In her new position, she will oversee the ongoing implementation of LISC's Building Sustainable Communities strategy through the organization's 30 urban sites, its national rural program, and its 10 national programs that provide specialized resources in such areas as education, community safety and youth recreation.
OHIO
VALLEY VIEW
Safeguard Properties appointed Scott Wilson to vice president, property preservation, Amitha Rao to director of enterprise information management, Dennis Hoye to corporate controller and Adam Szczesniak to director of infrastructure services.
Wilson was appointed to this newly created executive position to lead all aspects of Safeguard's property preservation service line (preforeclosure defaulted properties).
Prior to joining Safeguard, he was instrumental in building consulting practices with both WBC Group and Integrated Data Solutions.
Rao directs all aspects of data management, data modeling, metadata management, data quality and governance, data warehouse, ETL (extract, transform and load) and business intelligence (reporting/analytics) solutions.
Hoye leads the corporate accounting and tax functions.
Prior to joining Safeguard, he held financial leadership positions at GOJO Industries and Cole National.
Szczesniak is responsible for IT infrastructure at Safeguard Properties.
He has held positions in various IT functions at Eaton Corp., CompuCom Systems and KeyCorp.
PENNSYLVANIA
HORSHAM
Berkadia said that Randy Jenson has joined the company as president and chief financial officer.
He will be overseeing the finance and accounting, treasury, process improvement and risk divisions, as well as playing an important role in the company’s M&A activities.
Prior to joining Berkadia, Jenson spent nine years with Ranch Capital in the role of co-founder and president.
He also worked at Hawaiian Holdings Inc. as the chief financial officer and currently serves on the board of directors for Hawaiian Holdings and Hawaiian Airlines.
PHILADELPHIA
Radian Guaranty Inc., the mortgage insurance subsidiary of Radian Group Inc., said that Shelley Duffy, Patrick Harrigan and Andrew Cooper have joined the company’s sales team.
Duffy, who has a decade of experience in the mortgage banking industry, joins Radian as vice president, managing director, national new business development West.
Prior to joining Radian, she served as an account executive in correspondent lending for JPMorgan Chase, where she was responsible for maintaining and growing a customer base and managing revenue.
Harrigan joins Radian as divisional vice president for the company’s Western region.
With more than 20 years of mortgage banking experience, he served most recently with Franklin American Mortgage Co., where he was responsible for correspondent sales throughout Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
In his role as vice president, national account manager, Cooper will manage relationships with some of Radian’s largest lending partners.
TEXAS
HOUSTON
Stewart Title Guaranty Co. appointed Gary Bernier as vice president, New Hampshire and Maine agency services manager.
In this capacity, Bernier will manage Stewart’s independent agency network in both states, and continue as the New Hampshire and Maine underwriting counsel.
Prior to joining Stewart in 2004, he was a partner in a Londonderry, N.H., law firm and previously served as a special assistant U.S. attorney.
