Three members of Fannie Mae’s board of directors will depart the government-sponsored enterprise next month.
Chair Sheila Bair announced Friday that she will resign from the mortgage company’s board effective May 1. Chief Executive Hugh Frater and board member Antony Jenkins also said they will be departing the firm.
Bair, who joined Fannie Mae in 2019 and became the first woman to helm its board of directors in 2020, will be replaced by Michael Hied, a former executive in Wells Fargo’s home loan division.
Frater, who became CEO in 2019, said he had fulfilled his commitment to lead the company for three years. Fannie Mae President David Benson will be promoted to CEO and board member on an interim basis while the enterprise conducts a national search for a permanent replacement.
Jenkins, a former CEO of Barclays and founder of the fintech company 10x Future Technologies, joined the Fannie Mae board in 2018.
Bair, a Republican who led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from 2006 to 2011 and served brief stints as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial institutions and acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, cited scheduling conflicts from her various other executive board positions for her decision to leave Fannie Mae.
“Unfortunately, I have found it difficult to meet the substantial time demands of this position while fulfilling my other board and advisory responsibilities,” she said in a statement issued Friday. “I am very proud of this organization’s many innovations to promote sustainable homeownership, including streamlined refinancings for low-income households, use of rental data in underwriting, and a more progressive fee structure.”
Corporate boards of which Bair is a part include the agribusiness company Bunge Ltd., the Canadian electric vehicle maker Lion Electric, Spanish financial services firm Santander Group and the blockchain company Paxos. She also holds advisory and leadership roles for several nonprofits, including former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker’s Volcker Alliance, the Center for Financial Stability and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
Her successor, Heid, was an executive vice president at Wells Fargo from 1997 to 2016, departing the $1.9 trillion-asset bank shortly before it became embroiled in string of scandals, including problems in its home loan business that resulted in
In a statement, Heid said he was “honored” to be selected to chair the enterprise’s board. He also noted this was a “pivotal” time for Fannie Mae.
Frater did not give a reason for his departure but said in a statement, “Given the strides we have made on so many fronts, this is the right time to transition to a new CEO,” he said in a statement.
As president, Benson oversees Fannie Mae’s strategic plan and leads its single- and multifamily businesses. He will continue to serve in all three capacities during his time as interim CEO, the company noted in a press release. He previously served as Fannie Mae’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.
