Speaker biographies

Congressman Patrick McHenry was elected in 2004 to represent the North Carolina’s Tenth Congressional District. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee, the House Budget Committee, and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He is also deputy Republican whip and vice chairman of finance for the National Republican Congressional Committee’s executive committee. Mr. McHenry previously represented North Carolina House District 109 in the North Carolina House of Representatives. He previously worked on the 1996 campaign staff of Robin Hayes for governor, was involved in two technology companies, and served as coalition director in the Bush for President Campaign in 2000. He was also special assistant to the secretary of the United States Department of Labor, a post he was appointed to by President George W. Bush.

John S. Allison was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to continue the duties of commissioner of the Department of Banking and Consumer Finance effective July 1, 2004, after serving in that capacity since July 1, 2000. Mr. Allison began his career with the department on February 28, 1972, serving in various capacities, including deputy commissioner. He was also acting commissioner from January 29, 1996, to August 11, 1997. He has been an active member of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors since the mid 1980s, serving in numerous leadership positions over the years, including as chairman of the organization in 2005. Mr. Allison was also a member of the State Liaison Committee (SLC) of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) from May 1, 2002, to April 30, 2006. One of his last acts as a member of the SLC was to be a part of a task force made up of individuals representing each agency of the FFIEC. This task force was charged with creating a document to help prepare institutions for a catastrophic event such as Hurricane Katrina.

Christopher Cruise is a trainer of residential mortgage loan originators, processors, and homebuyers, and is one of the country’s most credentialed loan originators. He is the former senior national corporate trainer and curriculum developer for one of the nation’s largest mortgage training companies. Mr. Cruise now trains beginner and advanced originators and processors throughout the nation both for his own residential mortgage loan origination and processing training company and for other national mortgage training companies. Mr. Cruise began his mortgage career in Maine in 1988 and after four years there, moved to North Carolina, where he owned and operated a small, high-quality mortgage brokerage. He is now based in Washington, DC. He has written extensively for mortgage trade publications such as Origination News, National Mortgage Broker, The Mortgage Press, and Internet Originator, has contributed to www.BankRate.com, and has written manuals on the subjects of appraisals and surveys, the secondary market, mortgage-related insurances, credit scoring, reverse mortgages, and the history of mortgages. He is a longtime member of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and serves on the boards of directors of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers and the National Association of Responsible Loan Officers.

Alex J. Pollock has been a resident fellow at AEI since 2004, focusing on financial policy issues, including government-sponsored enterprises, retirement finance, housing finance, corporate governance, accounting standards, and the issues raised by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Previously he spent thirty-five years in banking, including twelve years as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, while also writing numerous articles on financial systems and management. He is a director of Allied Capital Corporation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, the International Union for Housing Finance, and chairman of the board of the Great Books Foundation.

John M. Robbins is chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and co-head and special counsel of Vertice, a division of Wachovia Securities. He was previously chief executive officer of American Mortgage Network, a wholesale mortgage bank he co-founded, which was bought by Wachovia Bank, N.A., in 2005. Mr. Robbins has been active in the mortgage banking industry since 1972. Most notably, he founded American Residential Mortgage Corporation, which grew to become one of the nation’s largest independent mortgage banks prior to its sale to Chase Bank in 1994. He is serving his fifth term on MBA’s board of directors. He has chaired MBA’s president’s committee, legislative committee, and board of directors’ technology steering committee; served on MBA’s investment committee; and served two terms as chairman of MBA’s membership and dues committee. Mr. Robbins was previously a member of Fannie Mae’s National Advisory Council and served on its Western Regional Advisory Board. He is a regular contributor to the Executive Suite series for Mortgage Banking Magazine. He is also chairman of the Policy Advisory Board for the University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate, a position he has held since 1994. He is a director of Phoenix Footwear Group and a trustee and treasurer of the University of San Diego.

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