Brian Montgomery:  

Brian D. Montgomery currently serves as Vice Chairman/Partner of The Collingwood Group LLC (“Collingwood”), a business advisory firm launched in August 2009 designed to serve the needs of corporate and governmental entities seeking new lines of business or strategic counsel on a range of issues within the mortgage, financial, and secondary markets. Co-founded with the Honorable Joe Murin, the former president of Ginnie Mae, Collingwood simultaneously merged with Capital Financial Solutions, a financial consulting firm co-founded by Brian O’Reilly and Tim Rood, both formerly of Fannie Mae and other mortgage related entities. Together, Collingwood offers clients a combined 100+ years of mortgage market experience. As Vice Chairman, Montgomery provides strategic business development and technical advisory counsel to financial services companies seeking increased market share, strategic alliances, and improved profitability. Montgomery and his business partners previously served as key leaders in the areas of business and risk management, regulatory oversight, and product design and business development. Montgomery came to Collingwood from the Federal Housing Administration/U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development where he served as Federal Housing Commissioner-Assistant Secretary for Housing. As Federal Housing Commissioner, Montgomery directed the $600 billion FHA insurance portfolio (as of 2009) as well as HUD’s Office of Housing while administering an $8 billion budget with more than 3,200 employees. Within the Office of Housing are the offices of Single Family and Multi Family Housing, Insured Healthcare Facilities, and Regulatory Affairs which includes Manufactured Housing and oversight of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Previously, Montgomery served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary in the Executive Office of former President George W. Bush. As a member of President Bush’s senior staff, Montgomery directed the office that helped manage President Bush’s relationship with his Cabinet and all Federal agencies in the Executive Branch. Montgomery also held senior level positions in the Administration of former Texas Governor George W. Bush at both the Texas Department of Commerce and Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs between 1995 and 1999. Following Montgomery’s Presidential nomination and Senate confirmation in June 2005, he began the effort to help reform and modernize the FHA which at the time had a historically low market share of only three percent. That effort finally came to fruition with passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act in 2008. Working with the White House Domestic Policy Council, Montgomery helped create the FHASecure program which refinanced more than 500,000 at-risk sub-prime borrowers during a 15-month period. In addition to helping these borrowers avoid foreclosure, FHA also pumped more than $300 billion of much needed mortgage liquidity into the market during this time. Also under his leadership, FHA implemented Business Process Re-engineering/LEAN into the Section 232/242 programs and the Office of Single Family Housing Philadelphia Homeownership Center in 2008. He also began the process to update FHA’s antiquated IT infrastructure concurrent with the initial groundwork to implement strong risk management protocols including the utilization of anti-fraud tools within the Office of Single Family Housing. Another one of Montgomery's priorities while at HUD was the preservation of affordable multifamily rental housing, achieved primarily through mortgage insurance as well as flexible refinancing options. During his tenure, HUD went to great lengths to get legislation passed in the House of Representatives that preserved more than 100,000 units of affordable rental hou...Expand for more