Dr. Michael Lea is the Executive Vice-President for Global Market Development of Countrywide Home Loans, providing comprehensive consulting services in housing finance system and instrument development worldwide. Before he joined Countrywide, he was the President of Cardiff Consulting Services, specializing in the analysis of and research in domestic and international financial institutions and markets. Dr. Lea has provided services for a number of large financial institutions and government agencies in the United States. His products include financial planning and forecasting models, comparative studies of European and North American systems of property finance, analyses of the primary and secondary mortgage markets, an assessment of the operations and organization of the major secondary mortgage market institutions, and an analysis of the market for higher education finance. He also has been a principal advisor on privatization for a major government-sponsored enterprise.

Dr. Lea also serves as the Director of Research for the International Union for Housing Finance. He has over 15 years of international experience in over 20 countries spanning 5 continents. Dr Lea has provided advice on the creation of market–based housing finance institutions and systems as a consultant to the Commonwealth Development Corporation, the Inter–American Development Bank, the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Dr. Lea has previously served as Senior Vice President for Finance and Capital Markets at Imperial Savings Association, Chief Economist at Freddie Mac and as Brookings Economic Policy Fellow at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. Lea is a nationally known authority on housing and mortgage finance. He has published over 60 articles and book chapters, organized several conferences, and made numerous presentations to government agencies, multi–lateral institutions, trade groups and academic and professional organizations. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and has served on the faculties of Cornell University and the University of California - San Diego.