Alumnus and acting chief financial officer of the troubled mortgage company Freddie Mac, David Kellermann, was found dead early Wednesday morning in his Virginia home.
Though no autopsy report has been released, several major news outlets reported that the 41-year-old Kellermann, who is survived by his wife and young child, committed suicide by hanging himself.
“We’re not confirming if he hanged himself,” said Officer Tawny Wright, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department. “We’re calling it an unattended death.”
Police responded to a call from Kellermann’s home at 4:48 a.m. and found his body in the basement, said Officer Shelley Broderick, spokeswoman for the FCPD. Police are not identifying the caller, but said they found no signs of foul play.
Kellermann earned a master’s degree in finance from the GW School of Business in 2000.
“He certainly had progressed very well professionally and I feel most badly for his family,” said William Handorf, a professor in the School of Business.
It was during his 16-year tenure at Freddie Mac that Kellermann enrolled at GW to brush up on financial skills, said professor George M. Jabbour, the director of the finance master’s program.
“He was a very bright student. He was always cheerful, always smiling and friends with everyone,” Jabbour said. “I was shocked when I read the news. It doesn’t seem like something he would do. We will miss him.”
Kellermann started at Freddie Mac in 1992 as a financial analyst and auditor, according to the company’s Web site. He was named acting chief financial officer in September when the federal government took control of the company.
Freddie Mac and sister company Fannie Mae drew fire this month for plans to dole out $210 million in retention bonuses to top executives after posting a fourth-quarter loss of $24.9 billion. Kellermann reportedly received $800,000 as an incentive to stay with the company through the next year, according to The New York Times, who reported the family hired a private security firm after news of the bonus surfaced.
