After becoming Freddie Mac's president and COO in September, Eugene McQuade spent the better part of two months getting educated, huddling with employees and meeting with lenders and investors. The lesson? "We enjoy a tremendous amount of goodwill from our customers," says McQuade, 55, who served as COO at FleetBoston Financial Corp. from 2002 until its April merger with Bank of America and then stayed on through June as BofA's president. "But we had become difficult to deal with. Now we're putting a premium on customer service. We can't forget that if lenders don't sell us their mortgages, we won't be in business very long."

McQuade's ability to identify and attack problems is what drew Freddie CEO Richard Syron to tap him as his No. 2. Syron, a former American Stock Exchange and Boston Federal Reserve chief who joined the troubled Washington-based mortgage financing agency a year ago, introduced McQuade at the November 4 shareholders' meeting as "an all-star who brings a wealth of operating and financial reporting experience." Cleaning up after a wrenching series of accounting and regulatory problems, Syron reached a key turnaround milestone in June when he released 2003 earnings (they fell 52 percent, to $4.9 billion); part of McQuade's job is to ensure a return to timely reporting in 2005.

McQuade believes his lack of previous contact with Freddie has been a plus. "I bring a fresh perspective," he says. "But I'm not sure everyone here agrees that that's a good thing. I ask a lot of questions, a lot of 'whys' and 'why do we do thats.'"