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MBA's Courson to Leave in June

Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO John A. Courson will be leaving the association effective June 1.

He will be replaced in May by David Stevens, assistant secretary for housing and commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Stevens had announced earlier that he would be resigning from his position at the HUD and will leave the agency on March 31.

Courson intends to stay active in the real estate finance industry and will be staying at MBA long enough to facilitate a smooth transition.

Stevens comes to MBA after close to two years leading the FHA through a tumultuous period. During his tenure, Stevens implemented different changes to improve FHA's risk management for the programs' future viability and to help FHA with increased losses. At FHA, he has had direct responsibility for oversight and administration of the agency's insurance portfolio, which includes multifamily housing, insured health care facilities and well over 20% of mortgages in the domestic single-family market.

Before being confirmed at the HUD, Stevens had been president and COO of Long and Foster Cos., which the largest, privately-held real estate firm in the U.S. He began his professional career with a 16-year tenure at the World Savings Bank, where he started as a loan officer. He later served briefly as executive vice president at Wells Fargo, and spent seven years as senior vice president in Freddie Mac, where he created and ran the small lender channel.

Meanwhile, Courson came to MBA as COO in August 2008 and became its president and CEO in January 2009. Before the MBA, he spent over 40 years in the mortgage banking industry which he spent as an active MBA member and served as the trade group's chairman in 2003.

"John Courson has led MBA through the most turbulent times that this industry, and the association, has ever seen," said MBA's Chairman Michael Berman, CMB. "John inherited an association facing serious financial challenges precipitated by the meltdown in the mortgage market and MBA's decision to purchase its own headquarters building in the year leading up to the Great Recession. He was compelled from the outset to make difficult financial decisions, both to bring MBA's budget under control and to extricate MBA from the building, but he leaves MBA with a budget in the black and having executed the sale of the building while maintaining MBA's commitment to it members."

"David Stevens is uniquely qualified to lead the association in its next chapter," Berman said. "Most recently he has had a tremendous impact at FHA, as that program faced its own unprecedented challenges. He also brings a wealth of industry experience in mortgage lending that will help him further build MBA's position as the industry's leading voice in advocacy, communications, education and research."

 

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