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Jay H. Shah has been named chief executive officer of Hersha Hospitality Trust, Philadelphia, replacing the retiring Hasu P. Shah, who will remain chairman of the real estate investment trust.Jay Shah, currently the REIT's president and chief operating officer, was also elected to its board of trustees and will be replaced as president and COO by Neil H. Shah, the company reported. Hersha can be found on the Web at http://www.hersha.com.

Susan L. Grant has been named senior vice president of mortgage banking at The Washington Savings Bank FSB, Bowie, Md.Ms. Grant will be responsible for creating a wholesale lending operation for the bank, as well as for overseeing the retail mortgage banking operation. She has had retail and wholesale lending experience with institutions such as Royal Bank of Canada, nBank NA, and New American Financial Inc., according to Washington Savings. The bank can be found on the Web at http://www.twsb.com.

John K. Darr, chief executive officer and managing director of the Federal Home Loan Bank System's Office of Finance, has been named to the board of directors of MortgageIT Holdings Inc., a New York-based real estate investment trust.The appointment brings the board's membership to nine, eight of whom are independent of management, MortgageIT said. Mr. Darr, who will also serve as a member of MortgageIT board's audit committee, has held the FHLBank System post since 1992. He was previously a manager of mortgage finance at a Wall Street investment bank, chief financial officer of major financial institutions on both coasts, and treasurer of the FHLBank of San Francisco. MortgageIT can be found online at http://www.mortgageitholdings.com.

New Century Financial Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Irvine, Calif., has announced that Patrick J. Flanagan, executive vice president of the REIT and president of New Century Mortgage Corp., will take a personal leave of up to six months and then serve as a consultant to the company.Brad A. Morrice, vice chairman, president, and chief operating officer of New Century Financial and chief executive officer of New Century Mortgage, will assume Mr. Flanagan's responsibilities, the REIT reported. Mr. Flanagan joined New Century Mortgage in 1996 as regional vice president of Midwest wholesale and retail operations. The company can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Gloria Aviotti, a group managing director at Fitch Ratings, has been named to head the rating agency's U.S. Structured Finance group.Ms. Aviotti will assume management responsibilities for all U.S.-based structured finance rating groups. She will also lead a longer-term initiative to improve analytical models across all securitization products, Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

Saiyid T. Naqvi, chief executive officer of online home equity lender DeepGreen Financial, has been elected to the board of directors of Genworth Financial Inc., a mortgage insurer based in Richmond, Va.Before joining DeepGreen early this year, Mr. Naqvi held CEO positions at PNC Mortgage and Setara Corp. Before that, he was chief operating officer of Sears Mortgage Securities Corp., which was acquired by PNC in 1993. Michael D. Fraizer, Genworth's chairman and CEO, termed Mr. Naqvi "a mortgage industry visionary," citing his expertise in business and technology. Genworth Financial can be found online at http://www.genworth.com.

Jeff Walker has been named managing director of the Correspondent Lending division of St. Louis-based CitiMortgage.Mr. Walker has more than 15 years of mortgage banking experience, most recently at Wells Fargo, where he had significant roles in correspondent sales and revenue strategies, CitiMortgage said. Before that, he spent 12 years at Freddie Mac in various capacities, including regional sales director. CitiMortgage can be found on the Web at http://www.citimortgage.com.

Steven Lessack has been named the new chief executive officer of Stewart Title Ltd., the European underwriting subsidiary of Stewart Title Guaranty Co.Stewart promoted Mr. Lessack to the post from his previous position of executive vice president and director of international title operations, according to a company spokesman. In addition to serving as Stewart Title Ltd.'s CEO, Mr. Lessack will also continue to serve as president of the Canadian division of Stewart Title Guaranty, the spokesman said. Stewart can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

Nolan Willis has been named director of technology at Stewart Default Solutions, Houston.Mr. Willis joins SDS from REIData Inc., where he was a senior project manager for its real estate information portal. Both companies are subsidiaries of Stewart Mortgage Information, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp. Before joining REIData, Mr. Willis held various planning and development posts in the financial services, health care, and transportation industries, SDS said. The company can be found online at http://www.stewartdefaultsolutions.com

Stephen J. Benedetti has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Dynex Capital Inc., a real estate investment trust based in Glen Allen, Va.Mr. Benedetti was formerly the REIT's EVP/chief financial officer. Dynex said Jeffrey L. Childress, the controller, will assume the role of principal accounting officer. The REIT can be found on the Web at http://www.dynexcapital.com.