Knutson Mortgage Corp. has hired a top secondary-marketing executive away from GE Capital Mortgage Services Inc. He is Lawrence Spera, who becomes senior vice president for secondary marketing at Knutson.
At GE, Mr. Spera was said to have played a key role in helping the company become the top private-label issuer of Remic securities last year, when GE did $12 billion.
"As a well-respected innovator in the secondary market, Spera will be instrumental in helping Knutson offer creative, competitively priced products," said Ray Warren Sims, president.
Mr. Sims, also a GE alumnus, joined Knutson in April. He is said to have left because GE was losing interest in retail business.
Mr. Spera's responsibilities will include wholesale and retail pricing, hedging and trading, product and program development, securitization, and commitment negotiations.
In addition to its retail offices, Knutson has a national wholesale office and a division that serves credit unions and fraternal organizations.
The company, based in Minneapolis, has a servicing portfolio of about $10 billion. It ranked 60th nationally at the end of last year. Knutson put itself up for sale last year but has been unable to find a buyer. Its owners include Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, and an investment firm, Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison Inc.
In a separate announcement, Alliance Mortgage Corp. of Jacksonville, Fla., said it had named Michael C. Koster executive vice president of loan administration.
He joins Alliance from BancBoston Mortgage Corp., where he was most recently senior vice president and director of customer services.
