Deloitte Executive Tapped To Lead Freddie Mac
The White House tapped into the consulting world to find a new corporate leader for Freddie Mac.
Kenny Smith was named CEO of Freddie Mac, effective Wednesday, and will join the board of directors. Smith came to the agency after a 25-year career at Deloitte, where he was most recently the head of the government and public services customer practice.
Mike Hutchins, president and the former interim CEO of Freddie Mac, said in a statement that Smith’s “background and decades of experience in financial services” would be an asset to the agency.
Smith grew up in Texas and started at Deloitte as a project manager based in Montana before climbing the corporate ladder to oversee the government customer portfolio since last August, according to his LinkedIn profile. In that Atlanta-based role, he oversaw complex technology projects, systems integration and innovation in social services, a profile on Deloitte’s website says.
Smith said in a statement that he was “honored and excited” to join Freddie Mac and work to expand homeownership and rental access to Americans. His LinkedIn profile still says he is employed at Deloitte.
Hutchins is staying at Freddie Mac as president. He took over the top spot in March after then-CEO Diana Reid was fired by Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the mortgage industry behemoth.
Her ouster came as Pulte consolidated control through staffing changes across Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the federally backed secondary mortgage market makers that underpin America’s housing market.
Reid was one of several executives in human relations and operations at Freddie Mac and the FHFA to be ousted as part of the staffing shake-up. Eight Fannie Mae board members also left and were replaced with four new appointees, including Pulte himself as chairman.
Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar also abruptly resigned in late October and was replaced by Chief Operating Officer Peter Akwaboah on an interim basis.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have drawn outsized attention from financial circles in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, in part because of a widespread expectation that the White House will release them from some amount of government oversight and sell shares of the firms on the public market.
Pulte has also drawn scrutiny for his aggressive efforts to make his mark at the government-backed agencies, including floating a 50-year mortgage plan that was widely panned across the political spectrum.
The outspoken ally of the president is also facing a probe from the Government Accountability Office examining a series of mortgage fraud allegations he lobbed against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Pulte’s weeklong campaign against Cook crescendoed with Trump attempting to fire her in August. Cook called Trump’s move illegal and refused to step aside. The issue is before the Supreme Court, with a hearing scheduled for Jan. 21.
