John Flavell has resigned as chief executive officer of Mortgage Choice Limited, effective 3 April 2018, three years after being lured away from NAB for the top job.The company has appointed current chief financial officer Susan Mitchell as his replacement, noting that Mitchell's "extensive experience and existing senior role within the company" meant she was very well-placed to step into the CEO position.The appointment of Mitchell is a surprise in that, at the end of February, Mortgage Choice announced she would be resigning from the company. That announcement was quickly followed on March 1 by another from AUB Group reporting it had appointed her as their CFO.Yesterday's Mortgage Choice statement noted that Flavell had been "very effective in strengthening and growing the business over the past three years. "He has always conducted himself and led the business in a professional and exemplary manner," the company said.The sudden loss of Favell and the equally sudden reversal of previously announced departure plans of Mitchell, in these early stages of the Royal Commission into banking misconduct, seem to have been unexpected.It does, however, bookend a tumultuous month at Mortgage choice.When Mortgage Choice advised shareholders that CFO Mitchell was leaving "to take up another role" after nine years in with the company it said she was expected to continue as CFO "over the coming months whilst the process of identifying her successor is undertaken". Those plans have been put to one side in a short space of time.Then, three weeks later, the company advised that two additional well credentialled non-executive board members had been appointed: Sarah Brennan and Andrew Gale.  Brennan was described as "an entrepreneur with over 25 years' experience in the financial services industry."  She held senior roles with Citibank, MLC, and Deutsche Bank before founding Comparator, a provider of benchmarking to the Australian financial services market, which she eventually sold to CoreLogic. Andrew Gale is a qualified actuary with over 35 years' experience in the financial services industry - including senior executive roles with MLC and AMP, executive director with Chase Corporate Advisory, CEO and managing director for Count Financial Ltd, and managing partner for Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants. In addition, Deborah Ralston has retired as a director of the company, effective from the same date as the new appointments: 21 March. She joined the Mortgage Choice Board in May 2004 and the company said she "has been instrumental in guiding the company's transition to a full financial services business".