People

The Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly promoted Keith Pedigo and appointed his former deputy Judy Caden to be the new director of the VA home loan program.Mr. Pedigo served as director of the VA Loan Guarantee Service for 20 years, and he said in an interview that he appreciated the industry's support for his efforts to improve the VA loan program. In his new position as associate deputy under secretary for policy and program management, Mr. Pedigo is responsible for coordinating the activities of VA benefit programs, including the home loan program. Ms. Caden was deputy director of the home loan program until she left in 2000 to be the director of education benefits and later the director of vocational rehabilitation and employment services. "When the opportunity to return to loan guarantee came up, I grabbed it," she said.

The American Land Title Association has reported that its top executive, James Maher, is retiring after 23 years of service to the title industry."It has been my privilege to serve as executive vice president, and I look forward to serving in a consulting capacity," Mr. Maher said. He joined ALTA after working as a Department of Housing and Urban Development attorney, and he was a fierce critic of HUD's 2002 proposal to reform the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to allow the bundling of title and other settlement services. HUD later withdrew the proposal. ALTA's board of directors has formed a search committee to find a new EVP. The association can be found on the Web at http://www.alta.org.

The McGraw-Hill Cos. replaced the head of its Standard & Poor's unit on Thursday as criticism continued to mount that S&P (and other rating agencies) did not closely scrutinize the underlying subprime loans in the bonds it rated.Leaving S&P as its president is Kathleen Corbet. She will be replaced by Deven Sharma. A spokesman for McGraw-Hill denied that Ms. Corbet's departure is tied to criticism faced by S&P on its subprime MBS ratings. (When mortgage lenders securitize subprime loans, they pay the rating agencies to review and grade the bonds.) One mortgage insurance executive told MortgageWire that the rating agencies "have a lot to explain for their role in the subprime crisis." He added: "If you were a rating agency and wanted the business of a certain subprime lender, would you give them a bad grade?" S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Donna Burge has been named president of Baird & Warner Financial Services, a Chicago-based mortgage company that bills itself as the oldest residential real estate brokerage in the nation.Ms. Burge, 55, was most recently the company's chief operating officer. She has been a mortgage banker since 1977, the company said. Baird & Warner can be found on the Web at http://www.bairdwarner.com.

GMAC Financial Services has named Alvaro G. de Molina to the newly created position of chief operating officer.Mr. Molina will be responsible for GMAC’s real estate finance and commercial finance businesses, and for all of GMAC’s global finance and risk functions. Mr. de Molina previously worked for Cerberus Capital Management, the company that led a team of investors to buy 51% of GMAC Financial Services in late 2006. Previous to joining Cerberus in June 2007, Mr. de Molina was chief financial officer at Bank of America.

Monte N. Redman, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Astoria Financial Corp., the Lake Success, N.Y.-based holding company for Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association, has been named president and chief operating officer of the company.Mr. Redman, 56, has been employed by Astoria Federal for more than 30 years. Astoria also announced the promotion of Frank E. Fusco, 44, from senior vice president and treasurer to executive vice president, treasurer, and CFO. George L. Engelke Jr., 68, will yield the title of president to Mr. Redman while retaining his titles as chairman and chief executive officer, Astoria said. The holding company said identical corporate title changes were also made at Astoria Federal. The company also reported that its board of directors has rescinded the mandatory retirement policy for executive officers, which had previously required the retirement of any executive reaching the age of 70. The company can be found online at http://www.astoriafederal.com.

Susan Leone-Pomfret has been named director of the Reverse Mortgage Division of Boston-based Summit Mortgage.Ms. Leone-Pomfret began her career in the mortgage industry with the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp. and began originating reverse mortgages in Rhode Island in 1989, Summit said.

Jan Sternin has been named senior vice president of commercial/multifamily at the Mortgage Bankers Association.Ms. Sternin will manage the association's Commercial/Multifamily Group and will be responsible for the development and implementation of regulatory policy, best practices, and industry standards for the commercial/multifamily sector, the MBA said. Ms. Sternin has over 25 years of experience in banking, finance, real estate, and loan servicing. She previously served as senior vice president of Midland Loan Services Inc. and has worked with numerous governmental agencies in the valuation, restructuring, and liquidation of troubled assets and insolvent institutions, the MBA said. The association can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Mike Perlman has been named executive vice president for operations and technology at Freddie Mac.Mr. Perlman will be responsible for managing the largest segment of Freddie Mac's business operations, including all its mortgage origination and servicing, investment and capital markets operations, and information systems divisions. He was most recently a managing director at Morgan Stanley and developed the operations and technology infrastructure supporting its Fixed Income and Global Operations divisions, Freddie Mac said. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 1997, Mr. Perlman had been a founding partner at AT&T Solutions' Financial Services Group and a partner in the Washington, D.C. and New York offices of Deloitte & Touche.

Bob Chapman has been named chief operating officer of Duke Realty Corp., Indianapolis.Mr. Chapman has been Duke's executive vice president of real estate operations since 2003. He joined the company in 1997 as executive vice president of acquisitions, and became regional executive vice president for Duke's Southeast Region in 1999, the company said. Duke can be found on the Web at http://www.dukerealty.com.