Countrywide Financial Corp.

Company: Countrywide Financial Corporation, Calabasas, CA
Company Description: Countrywide Financial Corporation is a leading provider of consumer and business-to-business financial services providing mortgage banking and loan closing services through its subsidiaries: Countrywide Home Loans and LandSafe, Inc. and its family of companies. Other diversified businesses in the Countrywide family include Insurance, Capital Markets, Banking and Global Operations.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Finance Executive

Nomination Title: Eric Sieracki, CFO

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Eric Sieracki is an outstanding CFO due to the unrivaled combination of
experience, integrity, intellect, technical knowledge and stature within the
financial community he brings each day to Countrywide Financial Corporation
(“CFC”). In a challenging market that included a rising interest rate and
inverted yield curve environment, slowing home price appreciation and negative
media attention focused on the mortgage industry as a whole, Eric’s
accomplishments over the past year helped to strongly position CFC to thrive
and grow in increasingly difficult conditions.

His accomplishments in the accounting and reporting aspects of the Company
include:

• Successfully implementing new accounting standards such as SFAS 155, FIN 48 and SFAS 157.

• Improving CFC’s 10-Q and 10-K disclosures, significantly enhancing the
Company’s risk disclosures as well as the Bank’s portfolio credit quality.

While regulatory demands require that Eric be hands-on and focused on the
smallest details of financial reporting and accounting, he is also extremely
adept at managing the big picture – embracing the strategic aspect of his role
as Chief Financial Officer by helping CFC’s CEO enhance the overall value of
the Company. He did this by:

• Improving CFC’s liquidity and lowering its cost of funds by overseeing the
commencement of the integration of CFC’s Mortgage Banking division with
Countrywide Bank, an endeavor which ultimately reduces the Company’s use and
dependence on debt capital markets financing and increases CFC’s use of
deposits for funding.

• Optimizing CFC’s capital by successfully implementing the Company’s first
share repurchase, in which CFC repurchased 38.6 million shares that were
subsequently retired. The share repurchase program was financed largely
through the issuance of $1.5 billion in high equity content debt securities,
and had a net positive effect of $0.02 per diluted share for the year.

• Achieving in excess of $500 million of annualized savings through an expense management campaign that reduced CFC’s headcount as well as discretionary and operating expenses.

• Implementing EVA and RAROC throughout CFC’s key management processes, from strategy formulation to evaluation and incentive compensation.

While accomplishing much within the Company, Eric also maintained strong
relationships with all of CFC’s constituents, including the rating agencies,
the Federal Reserve and OCC and CFC’s own creditors and investors. He is
highly regarded by the financial community and was recently named Best CFO in
Mortgage Finance by Institutional Investor Magazine – an amazing accomplishment
for someone who has been the Company’s top financial executive for only two
years.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

Institutional Investor Magazine, February 2006, "The Toughest Job in Corporate
America," article naming Eric Sieracki Top Performing CFO in Mortgage Finance,
available in hard-copy.

Website
http://about.countrywide.com/Relation/Relation.aspx

Investor Presentations
http://about.countrywide.com/Presentations/all.aspx

Press Releases
http://about.countrywide.com/PressRelease/PressReleases.aspx?ir=yes

Annual Report
http://about.countrywide.com/AnnualReports/AnnualReports.aspx?ir=yes

Stock Information
http://about.countrywide.com/StockInformation/StockInformation.aspx

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Eric Sieracki serves as Executive Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer
for Countrywide Financial Corporation. Sieracki is responsible for oversight of
the company's major financial departments, including corporate accounting,
treasury, financial planning, strategic planning and taxation. He also serves
as the company’s senior manager in the areas of investor relations, corporate
development and equity capital activities.

Prior to joining Countrywide in 1988, Sieracki was a Manager at Grant Thornton,
a national accounting firm. Sieracki is a graduate of the Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.