Mortgage specialist Firstfolio has appointed former Commonwealth Bank institutional banking executive David Hancock to head the company.Hancock takes over from Mark Forsyth, who was shown the door last month by the chairman Eric Dodd, who joined the company in April. Under Forsyth's leadership the company went on an aggressive acquisition program. It doubled its asset size over about three years by buying a string of boutique finance companies, brokers and mortgage managers.But the company had trouble coping with all the merger activity. In 2010/11 it reported a 39 per cent blowout in expenses, which cut pre-tax profit from the $4.5 million reported in 2009/10 to $3.4 million.Its profit for the December half-year fell to $393,000. Hancock worked as head of institutional equities and debt capital markets at Commonwealth Bank from 2007 to early this year. He has also held senior positions at Shinsei Bank in Tokyo, JP Morgan and Citigroup Salomon Smith Barney.Hancock said in a statement: "Firstfolio has acquired several assets in recent years and my focus will be to execute on a growth plan that leverages off those assets."