Fannie Mae has promoted executive vice president and chief operating officer Michael J. Williams to the company’s top position—but he won’t be getting a bigger paycheck out of it. The Journal reports that Williams, who will be made president as well as chief executive of the government-backed home mortgage provider, will receive no raise under Uncle Sam’s watch.
When Fannie Mae entered government conservatorship last year, its management abdicated control over most major decisions, including pricing, compensation, and the hiring and firing of top brass. Williams’s salary, therefore, will remain at its base level of $676,000/year.
Williams did, however, received a retention bonus of $260,000 last year, and is slated to get another $1.04 million by early 2010.
Williams succeeds former Fannie Mae CEO Herb Allison, who left the top job at Fannie to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) on behalf of the federal government. Williams is an 18-year veteran of the home mortgage provider, and had worked at KPMG and DuPont prior to 1991.