Fannie Mae appoints David Johnson – its third CFO in 12 months

Johnson joined Fannie in November 2008 following his departure from Hartford Financial Services, where he served as CFO. Prior to Hartford, Johnson was CFO for Cendant.

Johnson replaced David Hisey who has been made Johnson’s deputy CFO. Hisey was only made CFO last August when his predecessor Stephen Swad left after just a year in the job; Swad served as CFO-designate for just under a year prior to that.

Hisey will continue to look after Fannie’s financial planning and analysis functions, its business unit finance, accounting, financial controls, financial reporting and income tax departments – freeing up Johnson to oversee the vast reorganisation of group assets following its $100m conservatorship.

Johnson’s appointment to Fannie Mae as its conduct is under question raised some eyebrows. He was CFO of Hartford in 2006 when the company made a settlement on charges of making concealed payments to brokers selling its annuities products.

He was months into his role with Cendant when, in 1998 – the year after it was formed from the merger of CUC International and HFS – CUC executives were accused by the SEC of massive accounting fraud.

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