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Former Fannie Mae chairman and chief executive Franklin Raines, who was forced into retirement in December, is serving as adviser to Revolution LLC, a new Washington-based venture capital firm founded by ex-America Online chairman Steve Case.According to a report in the Washington Post, Mr. Raines is serving as an unpaid "informal" adviser to Revolution. The former Fannie Mae CEO, who keeps an office at Revolution, did not return a telephone call by MortgageWire's deadline. Mr. Raines, a former AOL director, is a general partner in the Washington Baseball Club, which is trying to purchase the Nationals. The WBC continues to list him as Fannie's chairman and CEO even though he has not worked there in six months. Fannie Mae, meanwhile, is expected to restate earnings by $9 billion to $12 billion, and its accounting practices are under investigation by several federal agencies, including the Justice Department.

Susan Barnes has been named practice leader and head of the Standard & Poor's Structured Finance Residential Mortgage group in North America.Ms. Barnes, previously the senior analytical manager of the residential mortgage group, will manage all of S&P's U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities activities, products, and analysts, the rating agency said. Before joining S&P in 1993, she worked at Citicorp Securities Markets and was previously employed at mortgage companies in both the primary and secondary markets. S&P said Ms. Barnes' activities in recent years included the development of "market-leading RMBS criteria related to anti-predatory-lending laws." S&P Ratings Services can be found on the Web at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Brenda Arnold has been named senior process and project manager at Portellus Inc., Irvine, Calif., where she will manage the installation of the company's mortgage-related technology products for lenders nationwide.Ms. Arnold was most recently employed by Irvine-based Commerce Velocity Inc., where she managed teams of developers, business analysts, and quality assurance specialists on various projects. Portellus, which specializes in the application of service-oriented architecture for the mortgage banking and insurance industries, said she will be responsible for implementing projects involving the company's business rules management system, automated underwriting system, product and pricing eligibility, Web-based mortgage broker portal system, and loan origination system. Portellus can be found online at http://www.portellus.com.

Chase D. Fonteno has been named president and chief executive officer of Hilton Head Properties Inc., a Dallas-based real estate investment firm.Hilton Head said Mr. Fonteno has over 25 years' experience in real estate investment and management, including an "extensive background" in affordable housing initiatives and multifamily project financing and redevelopment. The company, which specializes in the acquisition and owner-financed sale of single-family residential housing and long-term investment in multifamily projects, can be found on the Web at http://www.hiltonheadproperties.net.

Charles K. Barbo, chairman and chief executive officer of Shurgard Storage Centers Inc., a Seattle-based real estate investment trust, has announced that he will step down as CEO at the end of the year but retain his title as chairman.Mr. Barbo, the founder of Shurgard, will be succeeded as CEO by David K. Grant, the REIT's president and chief operating officer. Mr. Grant will hold the titles of president and CEO when he steps into his new role on Jan. 1, 2006. Mr. Grant was Shurgard's European president from 1996 to 2003.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., White Plains, N.Y., has announced that its founder, Barry S. Sternlicht, will resign his post as executive chairman of the company to devote more time to his real estate investment and private equity firm, Starwood Capital.Mr. Sternlicht, who retired as chief executive officer last year after leading a search to identify his successor, will also resign from the Starwood Hotels board and assume the title of founder and chairman emeritus. "Eighteen months ago, I made the decision to reduce my involvement in the company to spend more time with my family and focus on my other business interests," Mr. Sternlicht said. Starwood also announced that Lizanne Galbreath has been elected a director to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Sternlicht's resignation from the board, and that Bruce W. Duncan has been elected chairman of the board. The company can be found online at http://www.starwoodhotels.com.

Jeff Hyde has been named a managing director in the Fixed Income Group of Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP, a New York-based investment banking firm, where he will focus on trading mortgage pass-throughs for the firm's clients.Mr. Hyde, 38, was most recently a managing director at The Advest Group, Sandler O'Neill said. Before that, he spent 12 years at Prudential Securities. Sandler O'Neill can be found on the Web at http://www.sandleroneill.com.

Michael A. Benoit has been named executive vice president and chief legal officer of Mavent Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based provider of automated compliance systems for the financial services industry.The company said Mr. Benoit will lead its contract management efforts and assist in the management of the Mavent Legal Network, a group of more than 40 law firms that assist Mavent in maintaining and interpreting regulatory law. Mr. Benoit formerly worked for Hudson Cook LLP, a financial services law firm based in Linthicum, Md., where he assisted banks, credit unions, mortgage bankers, and others in developing consumer finance programs. Mavent can be found online at http://www.mavent.com.

Gail P. Seneca, chairman and chief executive officer of Luminent Mortgage Capital, has announced that she will leave her position as CEO of Seneca Capital Management by the end of the year to focus exclusively on Luminent."Luminent is evaluating [the possibility of] expanding its mortgage platform beyond the agency-spread arbitrage sector of the mortgage-backed securities market," Ms. Seneca said. "We appointed a highly experienced mortgage finance professional as president in March 2005. Today's announcement continues the momentum at Luminent to expand and improve our business model and results." The company can be found on the Web at http://www.luminentcapital.com.

Maria Fregosi has been promoted to the executive committee of ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Ann Arbor, Mich., where she will assume responsibility for AAMG's pricing strategies and secondary marketing activities.Ms. Fregosi will also continue to oversee AAMG's capital markets division, AMCAP. "The integration of capital markets, secondary markets, and pricing strategies enables AAMG to tightly link its front-end pricing with its investor activities," said company chairman and chief executive officer Thomas M. Goldstein. Ms. Fregosi served most recently as group senior vice president for the AMCAP division and was responsible for the development of its ABN Amro mortgage conduit program, master servicing group, and commercial mortgage securitization program, the company said.