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The president and chief executive of Republic Mortgage Insurance Co., Christopher S. Nard, will become president and chief operating officer of parent company Old Republic International Corp., Chicago. He will keep his current titles at RMIC as well as add the title of chairman. William Simpson, RMIC's most recent chairman, and Jimmy Dew, who was vice chairman, will continue as consultants to ORI's senior management and remain on the boards of ORI and RMIC. Ronald W. Buck will become chief administrative officer at the mortgage insurance subsidiary. In addition, Mark A. Bilbrey was appointed president of Old Republic's title companies. Rande K. Yeager will remain as chairman and chief executive. Being added to the title insurance segment's office of the chief executive are Cheryl A. Jones, executive vice president - human resources and communications, and Charles J. Kovaleski, executive vice president of Old Republic National Title Insurance Co. and president of the Attorneys Title division. This is part of a realignment of reporting responsibilities at ORI, said its chairman and CEO Aldo Zucaro. Most of the changes go into effect on July 1, 2010, he added, although he was unable to supply further specifics.

Mark Hammond, the former president and chief executive of Flagstar Bancorp Inc., Troy, Mich., has cut all of his ties with the company by resigning as vice chairman and as a member of the board of directors of both the holding company and its thrift subsidiary. "I believe that the time is right to focus all of my attention on my future endeavors," said Mr. Hammond in a statement issued by Flagstar. On Oct. 1, Mr. Hammond resigned his president and CEO posts. Joseph P. Campanelli replaced him. Mr. Campanelli later added the chairman's title after the resignation of Thomas Hammond, Mark Hammond's father. Flagstar was the 12th largest residential originator in the third quarter.

ViewPoint Bank, Plano, Texas, has hired former Chase Mortgage executive Ed Bratton to lead its mortgage subsidiary, ViewPoint Bankers Mortgage. Mr. Bratton, who has more than 25 years of mortgage banking experience, will carry the official title of president and CEO. He worked for Chase Mortgage for the past 20 years, recently serving as regional vice president for Texas and other western states. He is also a past president of the Dallas Mortgage Bankers Association. ViewPoint Bankers Mortgage operates 16 loan production offices throughout Texas.

Willie Newman, the former executive vice president of ABN Amro Mortgage Group, has been hired to head up the newly created residential mortgage origination unit at Cole Taylor Bank, Rosemont, Ill. The new affiliate will have offices in several states and source loans from established relationships with mortgage brokers, remote retail origination sites and the bank's retail branches. Cole Taylor Bank said it does not plan to hold the originations in its portfolio but will sell them in the secondary market. "We expect that the addition of this new line of business will be an important new source of fee income for our organization and will provide additional earnings diversification," said Bruce W. Taylor, chairman of Taylor Capital Group Inc., the bank's parent company. "We believe that this is a significant opportunity for us, and we are fortunate to be able to attract an industry leader like Willie Newman for this new line of business." The company expects to start originating mortgage loans in the first quarter of 2010. During his time at AAMG, Mr. Newman also had the title of president of InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending. At Cole Taylor, he will report to Randy Conte, Taylor Capital's chief financial and chief operating officer. Mr. Conte at one time was COO at AAMG.

NetMore America, Walla Walla, Wash., has hired John Cassell as senior vice president of retail production, a newly created position. In his new role, Mr. Cassell is responsible with managing and growing NetMore's Professional Branch System, which it currently has 18 of and that are generating approximately 40% of production. Most recently, he was vice president, division operations manager, wholesale mortgage channel at Wells Fargo & Co. Previously, he worked for Central Pacific Mortgage Co. For the 12-month period ended on Sept. 30, 2009, NetMore's production exceeded $1 billion.

The American Securitization Forum will be looking for a new executive director in the wake of current executive director George Miller's decision to resign next month. The ASF said deputy executive director Tom Deutsch will temporarily become acting executive director when Mr. Miller steps down on Dec. 16 and also will be considered as a candidate for the permanent executive director post, among others. Mr. Miller said he is leaving to pursue other interests. He plans to remain connected to the securitization industry, but not in an industry association capacity. The group said it will have a new permanent executive director in place by the time its annual meeting takes place Jan. 31-Feb. 3 next year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is in the midst of reshaping its government affairs duties, and plans to hire a new senior vice president to oversee what it calls "advocacy." The new title has yet to be cast in stone, but MBA has hired the search firm of Lochlin Partners, Washington, to assist it in finding someone with legislative and policy experience. Steve O'Connor, who currently serves as senior vice president of government affairs, will take over as SVP of public policy and industry relations. A spokesman for the trade group said Mr. O'Connor and the new hire will have duties that overlap to a certain degree. Over the next two years Congress likely will decide the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a decision that will have a major impact on residential lenders. During his career, Mr. O'Connor has worked in government affairs for the National Association of Realtors and Freddie Mac.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research has hired Chris Flanagan -co-head of securitized products at JPMorgan Chase - to head its U.S. mortgage and structured finance group. Mr. Flanagan will be responsible for analytics and modeling across all of the company's mortgage and structured finance groups. In addition to serving as co-head of securitized products research at JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Flanagan also was in charge of research on asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations and commercial mortgage-backed securities there, duties he has held since 2000.

Cary Sternberg has been appointed president of the newly formed asset management company Excellen REO, a subsidiary of Titanium Holdings Inc. He plans to gear up this month by hiring asset managers to start servicing assets by January 2010. Mr. Sternberg, a former senior vice president in American Home Loan Servicing Inc.'s real estate-owned department, has over 40 years of experience in asset preservation, management and liquidation. According to Titanium, Mr. Sternberg will manage the strategic direction of the company, overseeing day-to-day operations, creating policies and procedures and establishing the internal growth of the company. The company plans to develop a base network of real estate agents nationally that could grow as large as 1,200 agents. Many of those agents are slated to come from Titanium Solutions' housing retention consultants with past REO experience. All brokers and agents will be required to have passed the REO practices and advanced valuation courses and will be using the RES.NET software system, according to the company.

Michael Brennan, co-founder and former president and CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust, has formed Brennan Investment Group LLC, a new Chicago-based industrial real estate investment firm. BIG will opportunistically acquire, develop and operate industrial properties in select major metropolitan markets throughout the United States. The firm's managing principals will co-invest with private and institutional capital, pursuing single asset and portfolio acquisitions, including acquisitions of debt. "We established Brennan Investment Group at one of the most opportune periods the industrial real estate market has ever seen," said Mr. Brennan, who will serve as chairman and managing principal of BIG. "The industrial real estate sector is a large, stable and diversified investment class offering a compelling opportunity for both current income and appreciation."