Sheila C. Bair

Author, Corporate Director & Former Chair, FDIC

Sheila Bair has had a long and distinguished career in government, academia, and finance.  Twice named by Forbes Magazine as the second most powerful woman in the world, she is perhaps best known as Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 2006 to 2011, when she steered the agency through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  For her efforts to protect bank depositors and homeowners during the crisis, she received the Kennedy Library's Profiles In Courage Award, and was named the "little guy's protector in chief" by Time Magazine. 

A former finance professor and college president, Ms. Bair has been nationally recognized for her innovative initiatives to make college more accessible and affordable.  She is a frequent commentator and op-ed contributor on financial regulation and the student debt crisis, as well as author of the NY Times Best Seller, Bull by the Horns, her 2012 memoir of the financial crisis.  She is also author of Albert Whitman’s Money Tales series for young people.  https://www.amazon.com/author/sheilabair

Ms. Bair currently serves on the board of Bunge Ltd, as Deputy Chair and Chair of the Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee, and Lion Electric, as Chair of the Nominations and Governance Committee.  She is also a member of the International Advisory Board to the Santander Group.  Her past corporate boards include Fannie Mae, where she served as the first woman Chair; Thomson Reuters, where she chaired the Risk Committee; and Host Hotels.  She is a founding director of the Volcker Alliance, established by former Federal Reserve Board Chair Paul Volcker to build trust in government.  She continues her work on financial regulation and stability as the founding chair of the Systemic Risk Council, and as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Financial Stability.  She serves as Senior Advisor to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation on its Student Debt Smarter initiative to promote transparency in the student debt system.  She is also a trustee of the prestigious Economists for Peace and Security.