Alberto Musalem, a former executive at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has been elected to the Freddie Mac board of directors, the government-controlled company said Wednesday.
Musalem is chief executive officer, co-chief investment officer, and a founder of Evince Asset Management LP, a company developing portfolio technologies for investors and managing a quantitative global fund.
“[Musalem] brings significant finance, capital markets, economics, and public policy expertise to our Board,” said Sara Mathew, non-executive chair of Freddie Mac’s board of directors. “We welcome him as a highly qualified new member whose decades of experience position him to play an important role on our risk committee and our compensation and human capital committee.”
Before founding Evince Asset Management, Musalem served as executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2014 to 2016, as head of the Integrated Policy Analysis Group and of the Emerging Markets and International Affairs Group. Prior to that, he held various positions at Tudor Investment Corporation from 2000 to 2013, including managing director, partner and global head of research. He previously served as an economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1996 to 2000.
In other personnel moves, Michael DeVito, who spent more than two decades at Wells Fargo before retiring last year, assumed the role of Freddie Mac CEO on June 1. DeVito was head of home lending at Wells Fargo at the time he stepped down from the depository bank, and served as the head of mortgage production and ran mortgage servicing operations.
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In February, Freddie Mac, with an equity market capitalization around $7.2 billion, appointed Pamela Perry as vice president of single-family equitable housing, and Amanda Nunnink as vice president of equity in multifamily housing.
Its other directors are Mark Bloom, Kathleen Casey, Lance Drummond, Aleem Gillani, Mark Grier, Christopher Herbert, Grace Huebscher, Allan Merrill, Saiyid Naqvi.
Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a request for input to determine if the current compensation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae executives is not “reasonable” or “comparable.” In a statement, FHFA Director Mark Calabria said the information the FHFA gathers will help to ensure transparent and appropriate executive compensation policies.
What happens next though is unclear. Following the Supreme Court’s opinion that the FHFA’s structure was unconstitutional, Joe Biden’s administration moved to remove Calabria from his position. Hours later, he resigned. It’s not immediately clear who will replace him.
