Since August, Haldeman has been working to accomplish his initial objectives, Hollis McLoughlin, senior vice president for external relations at Freddie Mac, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Haldeman rounded out the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.'s senior leadership team, appointing Bruce Witherell as chief operating officer and Ross Kari as chief financial officer.
Haldeman is mainly focused on gathering support for President Barack Obama's "Making Home Affordable program," which aims to modify as many family mortgages as possible to lower the foreclosure rate, McLoughlin said. Improving the alignment of employees behind this major goal is also a priority, McLoughlin said. "Our great employees are really committed to the mission of home ownership and making sure that Americans have quality shelter," Haldeman said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Our efforts have been really successful, and the commitment of our people has been really successful."
Haldeman pointed to the mortgage servicing industry's achievement in meeting the Obama Administration's objective of modifying 500,000 families' mortgages 30 days before a Nov. 1 deadline.
Despite early successes, many homeowners have been rejected for loan modifications even though they appear to qualify, ProPublica, a nonprofit focused on investigative journalism, has reported.
Some of these concerns were also raised in a report released by the inspector general of the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program.
"The report was written very early in the program," Tuck School of Business professor John Vogel, who specializes in real estate and nonprofit management, said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Scaling up to do a program this size takes time. I am very confident that Mr. Haldeman will straighten them out, and they will do a good job."
Freddie Mac is resolving issues with the "Making Home Affordable" program: The company developed the "Second Look" program to review applications that have been denied.
Freddie Mac has also initiated an outreach program to increase the number of loan modifications, McLoughlin said.
The outreach program is designed to raise borrowers' awareness of the "Making Home Affordable" program and to help homeowners complete the documentation needed.
"By the end of the year, all of this will have improved significantly the operation of the program," non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac John Koskinen said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Vogel, however, expressed concerns about the reach of the "Making Homes Affordable" initiative.
"What I'm concerned about is not whether [Freddie Mac] will do a good job or not, but whether "Making Home Affordable" will stop foreclosures, whether it's the right program and whether it's big enough," Vogel said. "The bad news is that we are still foreclosing on a record number of houses. We haven't stopped or significantly slowed down the rate of foreclosures."
Vogel suggested that the government instead rely on a program in which borrowers can force banks to modify their loans if they meet certain criteria. In the "Making Home Affordable" initiative, the lender decides whether to modify the loan.
In addition to improving the "Making Home Affordable" program, Haldeman faces the challenge of maintaining employee morale, Koskinen said.
"We are in conservatorship, and because of that, there is a little bit of uncertainty over the business model after conservatorship," Haldeman said. "For some employees, that uncertainty is troubling, and I have been doing my best to make them feel comfortable with the future and secure about the future."
Vogel said that transitioning Freddie Mac from a conservatorship into a new business model will prove challenging. In several years, the government could transform Freddie Mac into a government agency, a private company, a quasi-public company or a non-profit, Vogel said.
"Our general position and goal is to be a reliable and trusted provider of analysis about the implications of the effects of the various models or options that people are considering," Koskinen said. "Our concern is that whatever structure is selected needs to be designed in such a way that it operates effectively."
Haldeman said he must also work to improve the public perception of Freddie Mac in the wake of the mortgage crisis.
"We are attempting to do that by our good work this year, and we are anxious for people to be aware of the work that we have done this year," he said. "There has been an improvement in the perception of the company relative to where it was at the time the conservatorship was announced back in October of 2008."
Vogel said that Haldeman likely draws from his knowledge of financial markets to be an effective leader.
Before being named CEO at Freddie Mac, Haldeman served as the president and CEO of Putnam Investments, where he was credited with successfully responding to a major regulatory scandal at the company in 2003.
"[The position] is an opportunity for him to make a major contribution in this country," Vogel said. "He can help save the homes of millions of people and save our economy at the same time. Haldeman is a terrific person and the challenge he is undertaking is the biggest of his career. He's absolutely the right person in the right place, and if anyone can succeed, it will be him."
Haldeman joined Dartmouth's Board of Trustees in 2004 and was elected chairman in 2007.
A major contributor to the College, Haldeman and his wife gave $10 million in 2004 to support the construction of the Haldeman Center, which houses the Dickey Center for International Understanding, the Leslie Center for the Humanities and the Ethics Institute.
During his time at Dartmouth, Haldeman majored in economics, graduating summa cum laude before attending both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.
Two of his three children, Catherine Haldeman '08 and Charlotte Haldeman '03, also attended the College.
