One of the new arrivals on the Fannie Mae board has already made a quick exit.
Christopher Stanley, the cybersecurity engineer who has worked for two Elon Musk companies, resigned from the Fannie Mae board of directors on Wednesday, according to a regulatory filing.
That was just a day after Stanley was appointed to the position. No reason was listed for the departure.
Stanley was part of a mass upheaval this week of both boards for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte booted 14 members from the boards of the government-sponsored enterprises.
Pulte, who had won confirmation from the U.S. Senate for his FHFA job just a week ago, then named himself as chairman of both boards and appointed several others to some of the vacated positions including Stanley and FHFA general counsel Clinton Jones.
Stanley has been the head of cybersecurity engineering at X, according to his resume. He has listed that he was the principal cybersecurity engineer at SpaceX. He’s also been involved with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Musk-led effort to reshape the federal government.
Stanley was singled out as an unusual pick for the Fannie Mae position. Marty Green, a principal with the law firm Polunsky Beitel Green LLP’s, pointed to Stanley’s youth and relative lack of experience in the housing and mortgage markets.
“He may bring a great, fresh perspective,” Green said in an interview with Scotsman Guide. “There’s certainly cybersecurity issues when you look at the mortgage data and other things that Fannie and Freddie have that are still going to be important.”
FHFA is the federal regulator that oversees Fannie and Freddie. The government-sponsored enterprises play a crucial role in the housing market in the U.S. by purchasing loans for lenders and bundling those loans in mortgage-backed securities, which are sold to investors.