In a scramble just minutes ago to track down information about struggling IndyMac's local operations, I phoned Gold River mortgage broker Jim Paterson who is always plugged in. He turned out to be an old pal of IndyMac's embattled Chairman and CEO Michael W. Perry. (See today's previous post about a tailspin at IndyMac).
What luck. I stumbled onto a story behind the big story.
Paterson, partner at Mortgage Consultants Group, said Perry was born and raised in Rancho Cordova. He believes that Perry's parents still live in the suburban Sacramento city.
Perry, he said, won early respect as chief financial officer for the now-defunct Commerce Security Bank, which once had offices in Sacramento and Grass Valley.
Eventually, the bank put Perry in charge of its mortgage division, where he supervised all its residential lending operations.
Apparently, he was some rising star.
Paterson said Perry built the bank's wholesale mortgage lending division into one of the biggest in Sacramento, and possibly California. Paterson was a little hazy on that one.
But his success caught the eye of Countrywide Financial chief Angelo Mozilo. Mozilo in the 1990s recruited Perry to Southern California where the two started IndyMac. (Indeed, in his letter to shareholders today, Perry recalls building up IndyMac from four employees in 1993).
Paterson described Perry as an "intelligent guy, very well respected in mortgage banking circles."
Now you know, as old Paul Harvey used to say on the radio, the rest of the story.
Perry photo credit: Los Angeles Times
@Nyx.CommentBody@