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Kent Saari has been named chief operating officer of Capital Markets Cooperative, a provider of expertise and economies of scale in the secondary mortgage market based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.CMC also named two senior vice presidents: Mike Cook as SVP of national accounts and Tim Hood as SVP and national sales manager. Mr. Saari, who has more than 20 years of mortgage banking experience, specializes in mortgage interest rate risk management, delivery optimization, mortgage pipeline management, and warehouse management, CMC said. He most recently managed capital markets for Waterfield Mortgage. Mr. Cook has held senior positions at Washington Mutual Bank, Tuttle & Co., American Savings Bank, and Fannie Mae, and Mr. Hood has held management posts at ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, FNBA, and General Electric Mortgage Insurance Co. CMC can be found online at http://www.capmkts.org.

Icon Residential Capital LLC, Newport Beach, Calif., has announced the formation of a wholesale mortgage lending division to be headed by Kathleen Lipps as national production manager.Icon said it plans to redefine wholesale lending by concentrating on building long-term relationships with brokers. "These relationships will, in turn, allow brokers to better serve their customers and respond to their individual needs," the company said. Ms. Lipps has over 16 years of experience in mortgage lending, having held senior positions with several national mortgage lenders in nearly every aspect of retail and wholesale loan production, Icon said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.iconrescap.com.

C.D. Davies has been named chief executive officer of LendingTree LLC, Charlotte, N.C., and Bob Harris has been named president and chief operating officer of the company.Mr. Davies was most recently president and CEO of Wachovia Mortgage Corp., where he was employed for 18 years, according to LendingTree's parent company, IAC. Mr. Harris joined LendingTree in 2000 as vice president of marketing and was named chief marketing officer in 2004. He previously held various positions at The Coca-Cola Co. and McCormick & Co. LendingTree, an online lending exchange, is an operating company of IAC, which describes itself as "an interactive conglomerate." The two companies can be found online at http://www.lendingtree.com and http://www.iac.com.

Mortgage-backed securities researcher Art Frank has left Barclays Capital.A spokeswoman would not provide any additional information about the departure, and Mr. Frank could not be reached for comment. Mr. Frank had been an agency MBS researcher for Nomura Securities International Inc. before joining Barclays.

Mark L. Korell has been named chief marketing officer of Root Markets Inc., which operates a New York-based commodities exchange for trading and monetizing Internet-generated consumer leads.Mr. Korell was most recently a senior managing director at W.J. Bradley Co., a national private equity firm. Before that, he was chairman and an owner of Stonecreek Funding Corp. Previously, he served as president of lender and investment services at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc., where he "oversaw the negotiations, purchase, and successful operational integration of Prudential Home Mortgage, a $3 billion acquisition," Root Markets said. Mr. Korell has also served as president and chief executive officer of GMAC Mortgage Group and of Residential Funding Corp. Root Markets can be found online at http://www.rootmarkets.com.

S. Trezevant Moore Jr. has been promoted to the post of chief executive officer of Luminent Mortgage Capital Inc., succeeding Luminent founder Gail P. Seneca, who will remain as chairman.Mr. Moore joined the company in March 2005 as president and chief operating officer and has served as a director since November 2005. Luminent said Mr. Moore has 30 years of experience in the capital markets, with a focus on mortgages. Before joining Luminent, he headed capital markets operations at a major mortgage insurer and ran three mortgage conduit operations at investment banks, Luminent said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.luminentcapital.com.

The international division of First American Title Insurance Co., Santa Ana, Calif., has established what it says is the first wholly foreign-owned enterprise dealing with real estate guaranty in China.First American has named Jinqiang Shi (Gene Shi) as managing director and president of the new company, First Title (Beijing) Real Estate Guaranty Co., which is a provider of the Chinese version of escrow products and services to banks, real estate professionals, and others. The company said it believes that a Chinese private property law that goes into effect in October, combined with Chinese government policies friendly to foreign enterprises in the financial services sector, will be conducive to the new venture.

After joining the Mortgage Bankers Association and starting the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization over seven years ago, Gabe Minton is stepping down to assume the role of chief strategy officer at Mortgage Cadence, a Denver-based enterprise lending solution company.A source close to the situation confirmed that Harry Gardner will assume Mr. Minton's responsibilities at the MBA and that Dan Szparaga, who runs the commercial portion of MISMO, will now oversee the residential portion as well. Both appointments are interim, but are expected to become permanent. Mr. Minton told MortgageWire that he will miss the MBA and running MISMO, but looks forward to moving on to Mortgage Cadence and continuing to participate in MISMO as a member. "I honestly couldn't think of a better fit for me than Mortgage Cadence," he said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.mortgagecadence.com.

David L. Adams has been named executive vice president of Pacific Coast National Bank, San Clemente, Calif., and will head its Real Estate Industries Group.The group will offer acquisition, redevelopment, construction, and permanent financing for a variety of property types, the bank said. Mr. Adams was most recently income property group manager at the former Vineyard Bank in Irvine, Calif. Pacific Coast National Bank can be found on the Web at http://www.pacificcoastnationalbank.com.

Arthur Sterbcow, president of New Orleans-based Latter & Blum Realtors Inc., has been elected chairman of the Real Estate Services Providers Council, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association.Other newly elected RESPRO officers are: vice chairman, Ronald Peltier, president and chief executive officer of HomeServices of America Inc., Minneapolis; president, Susan E. Johnson, RESPRO executive director; secretary, Stephen D. Morrison, vice president of Wells Fargo Mortgage Corp., Des Moines, Iowa; and treasurer, George Eastment III, president of Long & Foster Financial Services Inc., Fairfax, Va. The organization can be found on the Web at http://www.respro.org.