People

Chicago Bancorp, a retail mortgage banking company, has hired Jeffrey Walker as the new president of Chicago Bancorp Direct, its direct-to-consumer lending platform. Most recently he was with CitiMortgage Inc. where he was the managing director/executive vice president of national sales and lending. In his new role, Walker will be responsible for expanding the company's national footprint through Internet lending, call centers, and strategic partner relationships. He will be based in Chicago and assume his new responsibilities with the firm on May 1.

Blenn A. Fujimoto will now work full time as president and chief executive of Central Pacific HomeLoans Inc., the mortgage banking unit of Central Pacific Bank, Honolulu. He resigned the positions of vice chairman of parent company Central Pacific Financial Corp., and vice chairman, Hawaii market at Central Pacific Bank; those jobs have been eliminated as the company moves to a leaner management structure. Fujimoto was responsible for establishing CPHL in August 2005. In 2009, the company had origination volume of $1.9 billion in Hawaii.

The Private National Mortgage Acceptance Co. has named former Bank of America executive Steve Bailey as its chief servicing officer, effective immediately. In his new role, Bailey will oversee all mortgage servicing activities at PennyMac Loan Services, the servicing arm of PNMAC and its publicly traded vulture fund parent, Penny Mac Mortgage Investment Trust, Calabasas, Calif. At B of A he oversaw about $2 trillion in receivables. At Penny Mac he will oversee about $2 billion, a figure the company hopes to grow. However, the company hopes to enter the origination market shortly through a new conduit operation. To date, the firm has said little publicly about its conduit plans.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has appointed a former Federal Home Loan Bank president with extensive mortgage experience as the head of its securitization group. The new SIFMA appointee, Richard A. Dorfman, resigned Friday as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and was named to the SIFMA post on Monday. Jill Spencer, who has been the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta's executive vice president and general counsel, was named interim president and chief executive officer following Dorfman's departure. Prior to joining the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta in 2007, Dorfman was managing director and head of the U.S. agencies and mortgage business at ABN Amro. He also worked in Lehman Brothers' mortgage division as managing director and head of originations in its U.S. government and agencies business. In addition, he has been an attorney for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and held positions at mortgage banking firms.

In a surprise move, Richard Dorfman, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta resigned effective Friday. Sources indicate his contract with the FHLB expires June 30 and the former Wall Street executive will be making an announcement soon about his future job plans. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Dorfman has landed a job with the Securities and Financial Markets Association. The FHLB's executive vice president and general counsel Jill Spencer has been named interim president and chief executive. "Our team successfully executed its mission during an unprecedented credit crisis and economic downturn. These events clearly displayed the value and importance of our institution," Mr. Dorfman said in statement issued by the Atlanta FHLB. He has served at the FHLB since 2007.

GMAC Financial Services has promoted Jeffrey Lemieux, a former executive at Cerberus Capital, to the position of senior vice president of business lending sales in its mortgage division. In his expanded role he will oversee customer relationships in the firm's correspondent channel and warehouse network under the auspices of the business lending/mortgage capital markets unit. Lemieux's promotion comes in the wake of several recent departures of top managers in the servicing department of Residential Capital Corp., GMAC's mortgage banking affiliate. Earlier this week, National Mortgage News broke the news that servicing executive John Vella had left the company to take a position with another firm. Prior to his promotion, Lemieux was senior vice president of fee based servicing and he retains these responsibilities managing the servicing capabilities that GMAC provides to third-party organizations. A few years back Cerberus paid $14 billion for a 51% stake in GMAC. Today, that stake has been reduced to just under 15%, leaving Cerberus with a massive paper loss on its investment. The U.S. Treasury is the largest stakeholder in GMAC with 56.3%. The company has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of ResCap.

A few months after losing his job during a cost-cutting maneuver at GMAC, industry veteran Tony Renzi has landed at Freddie Mac and will be in charge of the GSE's efforts to minimize losses in its portfolio while dealing with its seller/servicers. Industry sources said Renzi also interviewed over at Fannie Mae. Bruce Witherell, Renzi's new boss at Freddie, said he could not comment on where else the former GMAC servicing executive interviewed but said, "We're happy to have him here at Freddie." The GSE created a new position for Renzi, who worked at GMAC for more than 20 years. He will hold the title of executive vice president, single-family portfolio management. Witherell, Freddie's chief operating officer, said Renzi "will be involved in all aspects of our decisions on the credit and default side," including the disposition of Freddie's REO holdings.

Craig Lipsay, the former head of securitized products at Morgan Stanley & Co., has been named managing partner at Loan Value Group LLC. During his 19 years on Wall Street, including a stint at Merrill Lynch, Lipsay worked in both residential and commercial with a focus on structured credit products. In his new role he will work with institutional clients to implement LVG's default deterrent for borrowers with negative equity positions. Lipsay will focus on the firm's Responsible Homeowner Reward program, which allows mortgage holders to make cash payments to select homeowners affected by negative equity that the borrowers will only receive if they remain current on their loans.

John Vella, executive vice president of portfolio servicing strategies for Residential Capital Corp., has resigned from the company, effective immediately, and is on the verge of taking a job with Fannie Mae, industry officials told National Mortgage News. At press time, Fannie Mae had not commented on the matter. According to a memo from GMAC mortgage chairman Tom Marano, Vella's duties will be given over to chief servicing officer Joe Pensabene. Vella joined the nation's sixth largest residential servicer in the fall of 2008. In his memo Marano said, "John provided leadership for our mortgage employees in Dallas, Carlsbad and Costa Mesa during a time of considerable change as we sought to reduce costs, and restructure and refocus our operations." Last month, NMN reported on the departure of about eight servicing managers at ResCap.

John Vella, executive vice president of portfolio servicing strategies for Residential Capital Corp., has resigned from the company, effective immediately, according to a memo provided to National Mortgage News. At press time, the GMAC-owned ResCap could not be reached for comment. According to a memo from GMAC mortgage chairman Tom Marano, Vella's duties will be given over to chief servicing officer Joe Pensabene. Vella joined the nation's sixth largest residential servicer in the fall of 2008. In his memo Marano said, "John provided leadership for our mortgage employees in Dallas, Carlsbad and Costa Mesa during a time of considerable change as we sought to reduce costs, and restructure and refocus our operations." Last month, NMN reported on the departure of about eight servicing managers at ResCap.