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Better Home & Finance Holding Company Appoints Hugh Frater, Former Fannie Mae CEO and BlackRock Founding Partner, to Board of Directors
Veteran investor and housing finance leader brings deep capital markets and mortgage experience to support Better’s next phase of AI-driven growth through
About this update from Better Home & Finance Holding Company
[{"type":"text","content":"\nVeteran investor and housing finance leader brings deep capital markets and mortgage experience to support Better’s next phase of AI-driven growth through Tinman® AI Platform\n\n\n NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nBetter Home & Finance Holding Company (NASDAQ: BETR) (“Better,” the “Company,” “we” or “our”), the leading AI-powered homeownership company, today announced that Hugh Frater, a founding partner and former managing director of BlackRock and former CEO of Fannie Mae, has been appointed to its Board of Directors, effective March 23, 2026. Frater brings decades of experience across capital markets, housing finance, and corporate leadership to help guide Better’s long-term strategy as it scales the Tinman AI Platform.\n\n\n“Hugh has helped shape the modern housing finance system from the ground up. He’s exactly the kind of leader you want in the room when you’re rebuilding housing finance,” said Vishal Garg, CEO and Founder of Better. “From helping build BlackRock as a founding partner to growing Berkadia into a leading agency lending an investment sales platform to leading Fannie Mae through one of the most complex periods in mortgage history, he brings a level of perspective that very few people have. As we use AI to make the mortgage experience, faster, easier, and cheaper for Americans through Better’s AI-native Tinman Platform, Hugh’s experience will be critical at the board level in guiding our long-term strategy.”\n\n\nFrater was a founding partner of BlackRock, where he helped build the global leader in fixed income and mortgage-backed securities into the world's largest asset management company. His early work played a key role in shaping the modern mortgage capital markets ecosystem, connecting institutional investors to US housing finance.\n\n\nHe later served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) from 2018 to 2022, where he guided the organization through one of the most volatile periods in the US mortgage market. Prior to his role at Fannie Mae, he served as CEO and Chairman of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, a leading commercial and agency real estate lending and investment sales platform.\n\n\n“The mortgage banking industry has long been ready for innovation, modern consumers are demanding it and Vishal and Better have consistently pursued that v...