Fannie Mae names Daniel H. Mudd as president/CEO

St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian, Jun 10, 2005 by St. Louis Daily Record Staff

Fannie Mae announced that its board of directors has named Daniel H. Mudd as president and chief executive officer of the company, effective immediately. Mudd has been serving as Fannie Mae's interim CEO since the board named him to the position on Dec. 21, 2004. The company also announced that Stephen B. Ashley would continue in his role as chairman of the board.

I am pleased to announce that the board of directors has unanimously selected Dan Mudd to lead Fannie Mae as the company's next chief executive officer, said Stephen B. Ashley in a news announcement.

Dan Mudd has a strong, successful background in business, especially financial services. Over the past six months, he has demonstrated an ability to lead a large financial institution through a major and challenging transition, including the ability to reach out and rebuild confidence with our regulators, Congress, customers, housing partners, shareholders and many stakeholders. After an extensive, nationwide search, and careful and deliberate consideration, the board recognized that the CEO we wanted was the interim CEO we had. We believed that the person most qualified to transform Fannie Mae for the future was the individual who had been leading the transformation and change over the past six months, Ashley said. Dan demonstrated his capacity for the job by doing the job.

Ashley said that in considering Mudd, the board recognized his leadership as interim CEO in immediately setting clear, critical priorities for Fannie Mae and achieving notable progress in a relatively short period of time. The board noted that under Mudd's guidance, Fannie Mae has made progress in rebuilding relationships with its regulators, Congress and customers; restoring the company to capital adequacy; reorganizing and rebuilding the company's finance, audit compliance and risk management functions with new personnel, governance and controls; and strengthening the corporate culture to be more open, responsive and accountable.

Ashley added: The board wanted to see a transformation at Fannie Mae. Over the past six months, Dan Mudd has begun to put Fannie Mae on the right track, and we are confident that Dan will continue to lead the company in this new direction.

Ashley also noted that the board conducted its review, consideration and selection of Mudd as CEO in consultation with the company's safety and soundness regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

Prior to joining Fannie Mae, Mudd was president and chief executive officer of GE Capital in Japan. He began his career at GE Capital in 1991, was managing director for international financing from 1993 to 1995 and became president and CEO for European fleet services in 1995. He was president of GE Capital Asia-Pacific from 1996 until 1999 and managed the operation through the Asian financial crisis. Prior to GE, Mudd held positions in consulting and financial services.

The past six months is just a beginning. We look forward to continuing to work with the board, Congress and our regulators to transform Fannie Mae for the future, Mudd said in a statement. We have a lot of work ahead of us and much progress still to make. As we strengthen Fannie Mae's service to America's housing finance system, we will continue putting our house in order, complete the restatement and reaudit of earnings, achieve our capital restoration plan and strengthen confidence in Fannie Mae with our regulators, investors, customers and affordable housing partners.

As Fannie Mae's chief operating officer, Mudd oversaw the company's single-family, multifamily, credit, housing and community development, e-Business, technology, corporate marketing and administrative divisions.

Mudd graduated with a bachelor's degree in American history from the University of Virginia. He was an officer in the U.S. Marines and was decorated for combat service in Beirut, Lebanon. He left the service after a tour in the Office of the Secretary of Defense to obtain his master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. In 1989, he was awarded a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship to work with the German government during the reunification of East and West Germany.

Mudd currently is on the boards of Ryder System Inc., the Local Initiatives Support Corp., the National Building Museum, Hampton University, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the University of Virginia board of managers and the Center for the Study of the Presidency. He is a member of the Business Roundtable, the Council on Foreign Relations and former advisor to the Asia Pacific Economic Council.

In 1980, Mudd was a finalist in the Olympic rowing trials. He resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Maura, and their four children.