Eugene M. McQuade, the former FleetBoston Financial Corp. president and chief operating officer who quit after a brief tenure as president of Bank of America, has been tapped for Freddie Mac’s No. 2 job, effective Sept. 1, the mortgage company said Thursday.
McQuade, 55, of East Greenwich, will serve as Freddie Mac’s president and COO, reporting to chairman and CEO Richard F. Syron. He is also to be nominated to the board of directors at Freddie Mac’s annual meeting in November. His hiring is the latest in a series of management changes; Paul T. Peterson, the previous COO, will stay on as a senior adviser to help with the transition, then plans to retire.
At FleetBoston, McQuade was one of the architects of the bank’s merger with Bank of America, completed April 1. McQuade became the North Carolina-based company’s second-ranked officer, but quit shortly after, saying he missed the “leadership challenge” he’d had at Fleet. Upon his resignation, effective June 30, McQuade was to receive $25 million in cash and stock, per his agreements with Fleet and Bank of America.
Syron said McQuade would help Freddie Mac better fulfill its housing mission by improving the company’s operations.
“I have asked Gene – an experienced executive with a 30-year track record of success, demonstrated expertise in financial services and the capital markets, superb leadership skills and a strong belief in our mission – to bring operational excellence to everything we do,” Syron said. “Gene has demonstrated extraordinary breadth over many years of management, not only leading key business functions but also operating as chief financial officer of a major financial services company. I look forward to having him join our team.”
Since Syron joined Freddie Mac in January, he has brought on a new executive vice president, investments, a new general counsel, a new chief of staff and a new general auditor, along, now, with McQuade.
A native of New York City, McQuade joined Fleet Financial Group in 1992 and became chief financial officer in 1993. He was elevated to vice chairman in 1997 and became president and chief operating officer in 2002. Before Fleet, he had been the executive vice president and controller at Manufacturers Hanover Corp., a predecessor of J.P. Morgan Chase. McQuade began his career at KPMG Peat Marwick in New York.
Freddie Mac said it has entered into a three-year contract with McQuade, subject to automatic one-year extensions unless either party gives notice otherwise. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has reviewed the terms of this agreement and has approved the termination benefits it provides.
Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to create a continuous flow of funds to mortgage lenders in support of homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases mortgages from lenders and packages them into securities that are sold to investors.
