Freddie Mac announced that executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer Martin F. Baumann has resigned.
The embattled mortgage lender, which gave no reason for the abrupt departure, added that president and chief operating officer Eugene McQuade will assume Baumann’s responsibilities while the company searches for his successor.
Earlier this month the company disclosed that it would delay the release of its quarterly and 2005 annual financials by two months, until May, to enable management to implement “a significant improvement in its method for determining the estimated fair values of its guarantee assets and guarantee obligations.”
Baumann’s resignation is not expected to affect the release of the results, the company stated.
In a statement, chairman and chief executive officer Richard Syron credited Baumann as “a key contributor” to the turnaround at the troubled company: “Since joining the company in 2003, Marty has helped Freddie Mac complete its earnings restatement, release its 2003 and 2004 financial results on an improving timeline, develop a talented and dedicated accounting policy team, resolve an extraordinary number of accounting policy issues, and improve the transparency of the financial data we provide to investors.”
In a statement, Baumann said, “This was challenging work, and we accomplished a great deal.”
Before joining Freddie Mac, Baumann had a 30-year-career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he served as partner, deputy chairman of the World Financial Services Practice, and as global banking leader.