Fannie Mae Multifamily Promotes Two Leaders
The agency tapped Michele Evans to head the multifamily business while creating a new, ESG-focused role for former division leader Jeffery Hayward.
Jeffery Hayward. Image courtesy of Fannie Mae
The GSE has reshuffled its Multifamily leadership team, announcing two promotions and a new role in a bid to sharpen its focus on housing affordability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The agency has promoted Jeffery Hayward, formerly head of the Multifamily business, to the newly created role of executive vice president & chief administrative officer. Michele Evans, former Multifamily COO, takes Hayward’s place as executive vice president & head of Multifamily, reporting to the president.
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Both appointments are effective immediately. In the new position, Hayward will head up Fannie Mae’s Affordable Housing, ESG, Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion and Enterprise Workplace teams. Hayward “understands both the moral urgency and competitive value of diversity and inclusion to our own organization and to the broader housing industry,” Fannie Mae President David C. Benson said in a prepared statement.
Hayward, who joined Fannie Mae in 1987, has served as executive vice president & head of Multifamily since 2012, in which he was responsible for all of the division’s business functions. Prior to that, he worked as senior vice president of National Servicing Organization.
Evans joined the giant U.S. government-sponsored enterprise in 1992. As senior vice president & Multifamily COO for Fannie Mae, she oversaw day-to-day operations of the division and helped lead its digital transformation, the automation of its pricing and underwriting and the launch of its credit risk transfer business.
Focusing on affordability
In a statement, Evans said she looked forward to working with Fannie Mae’s Delegated Underwriting and Services lenders and borrowers to bring affordable and sustainable rental housing to more families across the U.S.
Fannie Mae’s Multifamily division provides liquidity to the rental housing market by purchasing and guaranteeing multifamily loans. The agency, the largest mortgage guarantor in the U.S., provided $34 billion in multifamily financing in the first half of 2020, encompassing 373 rental units, the vast majority of them affordable or workforce housing.
A new report by sister organization Freddie Mac suggests that fewer than 10 percent of rental stock across U.S. metros is affordable to low-income renters.
