RTC Official Named to Head Agency’s Costa Mesa Office

Fred Douglas, an official with the Washington office of the Resolution Trust Corp., has been hired as acting director of the federal agency’s coastal consolidated office.

Douglas becomes the fourth person in 16 months to head the Costa Mesa office of the RTC, the agency that manages and liquidates failed thrifts. He started work Monday.

He was also appointed to one of the two deputy director slots and will hold that position once a permanent director is named later this year, said Sherwin Koopmans, director of the RTC’s regional office in Denver.

Koopmans said Douglas has a mandate to “control assets, sell assets and be responsive to the public.” There are nearly $30 billion in loans, real estate and other assets at the coastal office and at failed thrifts in California that the agency is still operating. The West Coast office covers failed thrifts in California, Hawaii and Guam.

Douglas replaces J. Michael Berry, who had remained for a transition period after learning two months ago that he would be replaced. Koopmans said Berry will soon receive a “major assignment” elsewhere. Berry is now involved in preliminary planning for that job, Koopmans said.