Fannie Mae CEO Resigns In Latest Agency Lender Shake-Up
Priscilla Almodovar suddenly left her post as Fannie Mae president and CEO Wednesday evening and was replaced by three new leaders as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to privatize the government-sponsored enterprise.
Fannie Mae Chairman Bill Pulte named Chief Operating Officer Peter Akwaboah as its acting CEO while the board seeks a permanent replacement. Fannie also named John Roscoe and Brandon Hamara as co-presidents, all effective immediately, according to a release.
“We now have a deep bench of three experienced leaders at the very top of Fannie Mae,” Pulte, who is director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and also chairman of Freddie Mac, said in a statement. “This means a safer, sounder Fannie Mae, all while growing our great Fortune 25 Company.”
Almodovar was named Fannie CEO in 2022 with 30 years of experience in finance, real estate and banking. She worked previously as CEO of Enterprise Community Partners after stints at JPMorgan Chase, New York State Housing Finance and the State of New York Mortgage Agency, according to her LinkedIn.
“This is the right time for me to depart Fannie Mae after three incredible years,” Almodovar wrote in a memo obtained by Bisnow that was sent to Fannie Mae employees minutes before her departure was made public. “Serving as President and CEO of Fannie Mae has been the privilege of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. Together, we have made Fannie Mae stronger than ever.”
Akwaboah joined Fannie Mae last year after working in leadership positions at Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, KPMG and IBM.
Hamara, the new co-president, was a vice president at homebuilder Tri Pointe Homes until this year. Pulte named him to the board of directors at Freddie Mac in March, and he chairs the Risk Committee and is a member of the Audit and Executive committees. Hamara was appointed to Fannie's board Oct. 9 in a term that was set to start next month.
Roscoe is principal and CEO of North Star Navigators. He worked as chief of staff at FHFA and served as special assistant to the president in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel during Trump's first term.
When Pulte stepped into his role as FHFA director in March, he appointed himself as chairman of both Freddie and Fannie and began replacing several members of the boards. Pulte fired Freddie’s CEO, Diana Reid, and appointed Mike Hutchins to temporarily work in the role.
Almodovar is at least the fifth woman to leave a senior role at Fannie Mae since January, according to a Bisnow analysis, which also found three women were forced off the board at the agency.
The changing leadership comes as the Trump administration is considering merging Fannie and Freddie Mac and listing the lenders on a major stock index. The government has been the companies' sponsor and majority shareholder since the Great Recession, when the lenders — which purchase a combined tens of billions in mortgages a year — were taken into conservatorship to avoid a deeper housing crisis.
Pulte posted on his personal X social media account this week that the White House is looking into taking the mortgage giants public by the end of the year.
Jon Banister contributed to this story.
