People

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, has promoted John G. Stumpf to the position of president and chief executive officer.The former CEO, Dick Kovacevich, continues as chairman but plans to retire no later than the end of next year, when he will be 65. Mr. Stumpf joined Norwest Corp. in 1982 in the loan administration department of Norwest Bank Minneapolis NA. Norwest and Wells merged in 1998. In August 2005, he was named president and chief operating officer. Mr. Kovacevich lauded Mr. Stumpf's promotion, citing "his quarter century of experience with our company, his broad and deep understanding of our unique culture, his personal commitment to people as a competitive advantage, and his passion for our vision, values, and business model." Wells has what it calls a decentralized structure, with four executives overseeing different groups that answer to Mr. Stumpf, including Mark Oman, the senior executive vice president of the Home and Consumer Finance Group.

Three former executives of Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., pleaded guilty June 26 to insider trading in a scheme that generated more than $100,000 in profits.The three former executives (all vice presidents) are: Alan Cao and Quan Zhu, who worked in Countrywide's Calabasas, Calif. headquarters; and Jun Shi, who worked in the Thousand Oaks office of CFC's bank affiliate. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, the three traded on information relating to profits for the third quarter of 2004. The three obtained confidential information revealing that Countrywide would not meet analysts' expectations for that quarter and traded on it. Each man pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. According to the Quarterly Data Report, Countrywide is the nation's largest residential lender. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Robert Couch has been sworn in as the new general counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and has given up his post as president of Ginnie Mae.HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson tapped Mr. Couch to be his general counsel in February after Keith Gottfried suddenly resigned. The former Mortgage Bankers Association chairman was the president and chief executive of New South Federal Savings Bank, Birmingham, Ala., and managing director of a mortgage banking company before his appointment to Ginnie Mae. Meanwhile, Ginnie executive vice president Michael Frenz will have day-to-day responsibility for running Ginnie Mae.

National City Home Equity, Cleveland, has announced a new organizational structure that creates two U.S. divisional sales territories: the Eastern Division, headed by Mike Kelly, and the Western Division, headed by Terry McChrystal.Mr. Kelly joined National City as the credit and business risk manager in 2000, the company said. He was previously head of operational risk management at Chase Manhattan Mortgage and held management post in Chase's consumer products division. National City said Mr. McChrystal joined the company in 2002 as retail sales manager and later managed sales support for National City Mortgage. He previously worked with Record Data Inc., TRW Real Estate Loan Services, Strategic Mortgage Services, and Mortgage Information Services. National City can be found online at http://www.nationalcity.com.

Dave Fauth has been named president and chief executive officer of Stewart Title of Minnesota and will serve as the Minnesota state manager for its underwriter, Stewart Title Guaranty Co.Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston. Mr. Fauth was most recently co-owner and president of Alliance Title Co., a Stewart Title agency based in Hutchison, Minn. He held various positions with Stewart Title of Minnesota from 1994 to 2000, including president, the company said. Stewart can be found on the Web at http://www.stewart.com.

Nectar Kalajian has been named executive vice president for the West Coast region of Power Express Mortgage Bankers, a direct lender of jumbo home loans headquartered in Lake Success, N.Y.A 30-year veteran of the industry, Ms. Kalajian will be based at Power Express's Pasadena, Calif. office, the company said. She was most recently president of the retail division of Ownit Mortgage Solutions Inc., a California-based home lender that was partly owned by Merrill Lynch & Co. before it dissolved in late 2006. Before that, Ms. Kalajian was the founder and owner of Security Pacific Home Loans, a California-based direct lender that was acquired by Ownit. She previously held various executive posts at Countrywide Home Loans, rising to executive vice president.

Mark Sofyanos has been named national sales manager of Cleveland-based KeyBank Mortgage, a division of KeyBank NA's Community Bank.Before joining Key, Mr. Sofyanos served as a senior vice president and regional manager for Countrywide Home Loans in Chicago. He has also held national management positions with ABN Amro Mortgage and PNC Mortgage Corp. of America, both in Chicago, and with National City Bank in Columbus, Ohio, KeyBank said. KeyCorp, the parent company of KeyBank, can be found on the Web at http://www.key.com.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta has named Richard Dorfman, a former investment banker and mortgage market consultant, to be its new president and chief executive, effective June 20."Dorfman's extensive experience and knowledge in the financial services sector, including more than 25 years managing mortgage-related products, will be a tremendous asset to the bank," said board chairman Scott Harvard. The new FHLBank president was managing director and head of a mortgage division at ABN Amro from 1997 to 2005 and previously worked at Lehman Brothers. William Ott has served as interim president and CEO of the Atlanta FHLBank since Raymond Christman resigned. The bank can be found online at http://www.fhlbatl.com.

Paul Rodriguez has been named executive vice president of Sage Credit Co., a mortgage banking company headquartered in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Rodriquez was most recently managing director of Quick Loan Funding Inc. and chief executive officer of Wall St. Funding Inc. Sage said Mr. Rodriquez has two decades of mortgage experience. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.sagecreditcompany.com.

GMAC-ResCap associate counsel Julianne Linder has been elected to a new term as co-chair of the American Securitization Forum's residential mortgage-backed securities issuer subforum. Ms. Linder's term expires mid-year 2009. The other co-chair of the RMBS issuer subforum is Bill Felts, CitiMortgage senior vice president, director of mortgage finance. Mr. Felts is serving a term that ends mid-year 2008.