Only 24 hours after a sweeping move to transform the governing boards at the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a board member with links to Elon Musk’s business empire and the U.S. DOGE Service who was appointed just the day before has left the board at Fannie Mae.
Christopher Stanley, a cybersecurity engineer who has ties to Musk’s SpaceX, was one of the people appointed to Fannie Mae’s board following a move by new Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte to dismiss multiple board members and install himself as chair. Stanley also reportedly has ties to DOGE, the government cost-cutting group led by Musk and housed within the White House.
But according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Wednesday, Stanley submitted his resignation to the board on Tuesday, only one day after he was appointed to the board as part of the move that elevates Pulte to the role of chair. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.
“On March 18, 2025, Christopher Stanley notified us of his resignation from Fannie’s Mae Board of Directors, effective as of that date,” the filing read, which is signed by Thomas Klein, Fannie Mae’s enterprise deputy general counsel and vice president.
Stanley, Fannie Mae and FHFA declined Bloomberg’s request to comment on the matter. Stanley was reportedly appointed to the government as a temporary “expert” by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). A spokesperson for the office told Bloomberg on Monday that Stanley had “returned to the private sector last month” without offering any additional details.
According to reporting from the The New York Times, Stanley assisted with the installation of Starlink satellite-based internet service on the White House campus. Administration officials said this move is designed to improve overall connectivity across the complex.
Stanley was reportedly involved in a February incident that tripped a security alarm on the roof of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building as he aimed to assess an optimal installation location for the Starlink hardware.
The alarm caused the Secret Service to descend on the scene, despite Stanley reportedly having been told he was permitted to view the roof of the building situated “directly opposite an entrance to the White House,” the Times reported. A Secret Service official told the outlet that the occurrence was not classified as a security incident.
