Freddie Mac named Anthony Piszel finance chief and executive vice president. On Nov. 13, he will take over the duties held by president and chief operating officer Eugene McQuade, who has been serving as interim CFO since Martin Baumann left in March.
At the time, Freddie Mac gave no reason for Baumann’s abrupt departure. But Baumann, previously installed to help the mortgage packager emerge from its financial scandal, resurfaced in September when he was named deputy director of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Office of Research.
Last month, Freddie told reporters it thinks that the Justice Department is no longer investigating the company and the issues related to its massive accounting scandal.
Piszel will have broad responsibility for the company’s financial controls and reporting, tax, capital oversight, and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. He will also oversee the company’s yearly budgeting and financial planning processes.
While serving in a prior post as a finance executive at Prudential Financial, Piszel was credited with playing a major role in transforming the insurer from a private company to a public issuer. “Buddy Piszel brings deep financial and accounting experience to Freddie Mac,” McQuade stated. “His broad experience, particularly in financial remediation, will be a tremendous asset to Freddie Mac as we continue our ongoing efforts to enhance our internal financial reporting infrastructure and return to timely, GAAP-compliant financial reporting.”
Piszel was previously with Health Net, where he served as CFO and executive vice president since August 2004. While at the managed health care company, he was responsible for all of the organization’s finance functions, including accounting, risk management, treasury and financial planning.
Before joining Health Net, Piszel served for more than a decade in senior financial positions at Prudential Financial, most recently as senior vice president and corporate controller from 1998 to 2004.
Before joining Prudential, Piszel was an audit partner with Deloitte & Touche and served for two years as a practice fellow with the Financial Accounting Standards Board.