People

James Furash, chief executive of a depository owned by Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., has left the company, according to combined news reports.At deadline time, Countrywide spokesman Rick Simon had not returned a telephone call about the matter. Countrywide's federally insured bank had $84 billion in assets at the end of March. Countrywide is the nation's largest residential funder, according to the Quarterly Data Report. Its bank holds deposits of consumers in the form of certificates of deposit and mortgage escrow accounts. The parent company places home equity loans and ARMs on the balance sheet of the bank. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Charles A. Bowsher, a former comptroller general of the United States, has been named the private-citizen director on the board of directors of the Office of Finance, and as such, he will be chairman of the board.Mr. Bowsher was appointed to a three-year term. In addition to serving as comptroller general for 15 years after his appointment to that post in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Bowsher has served on several corporate boards and is currently on the advisory board of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Office of Finance said. The Office of Finance is the debt issuance facility of the Federal Home Loan Banks. It can be found online at http://www.fhlb-of.com.

Mitch Heffernan, the former president and chief executive of the defunct Mortgage Lenders Network, recently sought an injunction in bankruptcy court to stop the Connecticut Department of Labor from pursuing criminal charges against him, according to an article published in the Hartford Courant.The office of a Connecticut state's attorney blocked the injunction and defended the department's right to seek the warrant. The department applied for an arrest warrant for Mr. Heffernan that would charge him with 61 counts of failing to pay wages to employees at MLN, which filed for bankruptcy in March. The arrest warrant for Mr. Heffernan is still pending at the state's attorney's office, said Nancy Stefans, a representative of the department. MLN was a top-20-ranked subprime lender.

Super MergerSub Inc., an affiliate of Australian property investment manager Central Properties Group, has announced the designation of five members of the New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc. board of directors.The new board members, whose appointments were made pursuant to a previously announced merger agreement, are Andrew Scott, John Hutchinson, Graham Terry, Romano Nenna, and Anthony Torney, all of whom are members of Centro's executive committee. New Plan directors William Newman, Glenn J. Rufrano, Raymond H. Bottorf, Norman Gold, Matthew Goldstein, Nina Matis, Melvin Newman, and Gregory White have all resigned from the board, Centro reported. New Plan directors Irwin Engelman, H. Carl McCall, and George Puskar will continue to serve on the eight-member board. Centro and New Plan, a New York-based real estate investment trust, can be found online at http://www.centro.com.au and http://www.newplan.com.

CitiMortgage has renewed its partnership with America's Community Bankers' for-profit subsidiary to continue providing ACB members with secondary-market execution and services."This agreement rewards our members for delivering high-quality loans, giving them a competitive edge in the marketplace," said William Kroll, ACB Business Partners president and chief executive. In other news, ACB has appointed Barbara L. Shyoff to be senior vice president/ legislative counsel and run the trade group's lobbying shop. She was previously special counsel in the Office of Thrift Supervision's regulation and legislation division.

Joe Cartellone has been named president and chief operating officer of Cleveland-based National City Corp., the parent company of National City Mortgage, Miamisburg, Ohio.Mr. Cartellone replaces Rick Smalldon, who has decided to step down from his current post to relocate to Arizona, the company said. Mr. Cartellone was most recently senior vice president and national sales manager of National City Home Equity. Before joining National City in 2000, he held various positions at Chase Manhattan Mortgage. National City can be found on the Web at http://www.nationalcity.com.

Stephen F. Bollenbach, co-chairman and chief executive officer of Hilton Hotels Corp., has been elected non-executive chairman of the board of Los Angeles-based KB Home.Before joining Hilton in 1996, Mr. Bollenbach was senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Walt Disney Co. KB Home said its board created the position of independent non-executive chairman in November 2006 to "enhance KB Home's corporate governance." Also in November, Bruce Karatz retired as chairman, director, and CEO of KB Home following an independent investigation into the company's stock-option granting practices, which concluded that the company used incorrect measurement dates for stock option grants from 1998 to 2005. In addition, the board at that time terminated the employment of Gary A. Ray, the company's head of human resources, and Richard B. Hirst resigned as executive vice president and chief legal officer. KB Home can be found online at http://www.kbhome.com.

American Brokers Conduit, the wholesale division of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., has named Carl Cody branch manager in Dallas.In his new role as branch manager, Mr. Cody is responsible for overseeing and directing all branch activities for the Dallas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri markets. Prior to joining ABC, he was vice president, regional sales manager with LoanCity.

The CFO of Residential Capital, a subsidiary of GMAC Financial Services, has resigned.James Giertz will leave the company on April 13. ResCap said that parent GMAC's chief financial officer, Sanjiv Khattri, will assume interim responsibility as CFO of ResCap until a permanent successor is named.

Bob Dart has been named chairman of LendingForms.com, a provider of printed and electronic mortgage forms and related services based in Southfield, Mich.Before joining the company, Mr. Dart served as president and chief executive officer of VMP Mortgage Forms, where he worked for 17 years. LendingForms.com can be found online at http://www.lendingforms.com.