Ocwen CEO and president Glen Messina also appointed chair

Glen Messina, Ocwen Financial's president and CEO, is adding the board chair title effective immediately, the company announced.

Former Treasury official Phyllis Caldwell, who served as Ocwen's non-executive chair since February 2016, plans to remain on the board and seek reelection as an independent director at the next annual meeting.

"My decision to step down as chair follows ongoing discussion with the board focused on balancing the needs of maintaining continuity and succession planning," Caldwell said in a press release. "Glen has developed a tremendous track record at Ocwen and our decision to have him assume the role of Chair reflects the confidence and trust we have in him, as well as the entire executive leadership team."

Messina joined Ocwen as president and CEO following its October 2018 acquisition of PHH, a transaction to help the West Palm Beach, Fla.-based company comply with a series of regulatory settlements that required it to change its mortgage servicing platform to Black Knight's MSP. The related case with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was filed in 2017, was remanded by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals back to a lower court last April.

At that time of the merger, Messina was no longer PHH's president and CEO, having resigned in June 2017.

As a result of Messina taking the chair position, Ocwen's board appointed Kevin Stein as lead independent director. He currently is an independent consultant, but among his past positions were stints as a managing director in the Financial Institutions Group of Barclays; a partner and group head of depository investment banking at FBR & Co.; and as a member of the leadership team of GreenPoint Financial (a New York thrift that several mergers later is now part of Capital One).

"Kevin's track record as a board member and his extensive background in mortgage and investment banking make him the ideal person to serve in this role," Caldwell said.