Let us all acknowledge the moxie of former Bank of America executive Timothy Mayopoulos, who became the CEO of Fannie Mae on Monday. Along with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae provides most of the funds for U.S. home mortgages and has been in a state of relative financial spiral since the mortgage crisis in 2008.
Mayopoulos is taking over for Michael Williams, who has had a tough job. Fannie's losses in grew from $14 billion in 2010 to $16.9 billion in 2011. It has borrowed a total of about $116 billion from the U.S. government, and has asked for more money from Treasury every quarter through the end of 2011.
There's some evidence that things are changing. The company said that it wouldn't need government loans in the first quarter of 2012, it said last month. And U.S. housing prices, having hit bottom, might finally stabilize.
Mayopoulos is one of several Fortune 500 CEOs to emerge on the scene in what has been a series of leadership fiascos at companies that took bailouts. Here's a look at four other CEOs at bailed out companies.
Editor's note: We have clarified this slide to reflect that while Fannie Mae reported that it did not need to seek government financial assistance for the first quarter of 2012, that doesn't rule out the fact that it may need assistance in the future.
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