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MCLEAN, VA-Freddie Mac has just lost one of its leaders with the resignation--effective immediately--of executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer Martin F. Baumann. The news of his departure comes almost exactly three years after his arrival at Freddie Mac. It comes on the heels of an announcement less than two weeks ago that the company will not release its quarterly and full-year 2005 financial results until May, after having previously announced that it would divulge those numbers in March. While the hunt for Baumann's replacement is on, company president and chief operating officer Eugene McQuade will take on duties falling under the head of CFO. Baumann joined Freddie Mac in March 2003 as executive vice president-finance, coming from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and he was appointed chief financial officer just three months later. His arrival coincided with the period when Freddie Mac was reeling from the beginning of its $5-billion earnings restatement and accounting scandal.

"Marty Baumann has been a key contributor to the turnaround currently under way at Freddie Mac," says Freddie Mac chairman and chief executive officer Richard Syron. "Marty has helped Freddie Mac complete its earnings restatement, release its 2003 and 2004 financial results on an improving timeline, develop a talented and dedicated accounting policy team, resolve an extraordinary number of accounting policy issues, and improve the transparency of the financial data we provide to investors." Baumann's departure, Freddie Mac officials say, will not affect the scheduled earnings release.