Divine Intervention: How God Blocked My Path to Fannie Mae CEO and Elevated My Life’s Purpose
Isaac Megbolugbe
August 2026
Looking back at my life at 74 years old, I see things clearly. I realize God stopped me from becoming the CEO of Fannie Mae twice. On both occasions, He did not just block my path. He lifted me up to higher honor and respect among my peers in academics and professional work.
The First Path and Astonishing Accomplishments
During my time at Fannie Mae, I achieved a remarkable row of successes. These wins caught the attention of Chairman Jim Johnson’s office. They placed me under the direct supervision of Vice Chairman Franklin Raines. If I had finished this work, it could have pushed me to the top job of CEO. My major wins included:
The Mortgagee Scorecard and the Secret Meeting
Because of these successes, the Chairman’s office gave me a vital project. I needed to create a Mortgagee Scorecard that could integrate segregated mortgage markets.
Professor Peter Chinloy and I had written an academic paper called Hedonic Mortgages. We argued that a risk-based pricing approach to innovating mortgage products could result in minority and low-income borrowers receiving lower market interest rates.
One day, the President of Fannie Mae at the time, Larry Small, visited my office and closed the door. I thought I was about to be fired. Instead, he started asking deep, technical questions about our paper. I answered every question. He admitted that my answers taught him more about mortgage markets than the questions he asked. I now believe he briefed the Chairman, leading to my assignment on this critical project.
The Divine Blockade
The Chairman’s office designated the Chief Credit Officer as the Business Client and the Chairman’s office as the Policy Client. Yet, the market leadership of Fannie Mae engineered a foundation and exiled me there.
At the time, it felt like a setback. With the wisdom of age and Scripture, I now see it differently. This was my first blockade to becoming CEO of Fannie Mae by the Almighty God. He kept me from the heavy burdens of that executive seat and moved me toward a higher, more lasting calling. God did not want me to be part of the extractive industry that favored market predatory practices rather inclusionary economy that requires inclusion of marginalized submarkets wisely and carefully.
The Corporate Exile and Divine Elevation
When the market leadership at Fannie Mae exiled me to the Foundation, it appeared to human eyes that my career had been sidelined. Yet, God was already orchestrating a grander, global stage for my expertise. He used the loyalty and clarity of my own staff to break the boundaries of the corporate blockade.
Two key members of my research team chose to leave Fannie Mae entirely. They declined the offer to stay with the corporation, and they declined to follow me to the Foundation. Instead, they accepted positions at Price Waterhouse.
The Brain Trust Revealed
At Price Waterhouse, management tasked these former staff members with replicating the highly specialized research competencies we had built at Fannie Mae. They were asked to build a proprietary research unit from scratch. My staff looked at the leadership and gave them a blunt reality check. They informed the managing partner that if they wanted to build this unit successfully, they had to come get me. They told management that I was the true brain trust behind those innovations.
From Local Exclusion to Global Leadership
Price Waterhouse listened. They approached me, bypassed the corporate walls of Fannie Mae, and appointed me as the Practice Leader for the Global Practice in Housing Finance.
Through this single move, God demonstrated His sovereignty:
The Second Path: A Triumphant Return and the Ultimate Submarket Pivot
God’s second blockade occurred after my time at Price Waterhouse, following a major shift in Washington politics. When I initially left the Fannie Mae Foundation, Vice Chairman Franklin Raines—who had been assigned by the Chairman to supervise me—also left the corporation. He joined the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) under the President Bill Clinton Administration.
Raines achieved national celebrity status by successfully balancing the federal budget for the first time in decades. Because of this monumental achievement, dozens of Fortune 20 companies aggressively courted him to serve as their Chairman. Ultimately, Fannie Mae recalled Raines to lead the company as Chairman.
Upon his return, Raines immediately recalled me to Fannie Mae. He handed me a monumental mandate: solve the nation’s affordable housing problem.
Development Banking vs. Extractive Predation
I tackled this assignment by introducing innovative development banking business models. My strategy was designed to systematically uplift marginalized submarkets rather than exploit them:
If Fannie Mae had accepted this approach, it would have propelled me to a deputy leadership role. From that position, I would have broadly integrated the entire U.S. mortgage market using safe, development-focused models. This path would have made me the natural successor for the CEO seat.
Instead, the executive leadership rejected my submarket inclusion strategy. They chose a path of purely extractive corporate behavior:
The Final Blockade and Divine Protection
This fundamental rejection formed God’s second major blockade to my ascent to CEO. In 2002, I was pushed out of the Fannie Mae Foundation. The leadership effectively declared me “unavailable” to the wider industry, ensuring that no competing firm could hire me.
While this forced exile felt like a professional silencing at the time, God’s sovereign wisdom became undeniable just a few years later. By rejecting my development models and embracing predatory subprime lending, Fannie Mae built a house of cards. That extractive business model directly triggered the 2007–2008 Global Financial Crisis, which completely decimated the company’s leadership and reputation.
By blocking my path to the top seat and removing me from the corporate machinery in 2002, God kept my hands clean from the incoming economic catastrophe. He preserved my integrity, protected my professional legacy, and permanently separated my name from the collapse of the American housing market.
The Academic Elevation and the Season of Deep Loss
God’s sovereign logistics immediately manifested a new realm of honor. In 2003, Johns Hopkins University hired me for a distinguished faculty position at the Business School. Concurrently, they appointed me as the Director of a multimillion-dollar program on Senior Housing and Care. I spent over a decade in this highly respected academic environment before finally retiring.
However, life’s journey also brought profound, crushing brokenness. In 2016, I lost my beloved wife, Josephine. Not long after, tragedy struck again with the loss of my middle daughter, Modupe.
The aftermath of these devastating losses rippled deeply into my family. Overwhelmed by grief, my son dropped out of college where he was studying software engineering, and he later had to be hospitalized for drug addiction. Yet, even in the valley of the shadow of death, God’s grace has been sufficient—my son is getting better now, and healing is taking root.
Closing Thoughts: The 10-Book Mandate at 74
Today, at 74 years old, I find myself operating with an enhanced cognitive freedom. God has granted me a tremendous wave of spiritual inspiration and illumination to reflect deeply on the mosaic of my life.
I am now actively engaged in Christian apologetics ministry. God has recently tasked me with a sacred 10-book mandate: to take the raw materials of my 74 years of lived experiences—the corporate triumphs, the systemic blockades, the global elevations, and the deep personal grief—and filter them through the lens of Holy Scripture to disciple modern-day humanity.
What man intended for isolation, God intended for preparation. What corporate leaders engineered as an exile, the Almighty used as a protective sanctuary. I stand today as a witness to the sovereign logistics of God, fully equipped to pour out divine wisdom to a generation searching for truth.
Isaac Megbolugbe, Director of GIVA Ministries International. He is a recipient of Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in business and academia in the United States of America. He is retired professor at Johns Hopkins University and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He is resident in the United States of America.
