Speaker Biographies
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.
Michael J. Ryan Jr. is executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Commission on the Regulation of U.S. Capital Markets in the 21st Century, a bipartisan, independent commission charged with considering the appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks for modernizing the U.S. capital markets and studying the impact of federal and state regulations on U.S. capital markets, investors, and the economy. Previously, Mr. Ryan was executive vice president, general counsel, and a member of the office of the chairman of the American Stock Exchange, which he joined in November 1998. Mr. Ryan was responsible for all aspects of the legal functions at the American Stock Exchange, and along with the chairman, CEO, and president assisted in management of day-to-day operations. Between April 1997 and November 1998 Mr. Ryan served as counsel to the chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD). Prior to joining NASD, Mr. Ryan spent four years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the divisions of market regulation and corporation finance. From September 1985 through July 1988, Mr. Ryan worked as a senior accountant with Price Waterhouse & Co. He is a member of the bar in Maryland and a certified public accountant, and previously served on the boards of directors of the Options Clearing Corporation and the Children’s Neurobiological Solutions Foundation.
Thomas P. Vartanian is a partner in the Washington office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, where he is currently chairman of the Financial Institutions Transactions Group. He has handled hundreds of complex financial transactions, securities offerings, regulatory and enforcement actions, and litigation for regulated financial institutions and commercial and industrial companies that compete in the financial services market. Prior to joining Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, he was the general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. Before that, he was the special assistant to the chief counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Peter J. Wallison joined AEI in January 1999, is currently a senior fellow and co-director of AEI’s program on financial market deregulation, and holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Economic Policy Studies. He previously practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. From June 1981 to January 1985, Mr. Wallison was general counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration’s proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry. He also served as general counsel to the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee and participated in the Treasury Department’s efforts to deal with the debt held by less-developed countries. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan. Between 1972 and 1976, Mr. Wallison served first as special assistant to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller when he was vice president of the United States.
William L. Walton has been chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the Allied Capital Corporation since 1997, and a director since 1986. Mr. Walton’s previous experience includes serving as a managing director of Butler Capital Corporation, as personal investment adviser to founder of CBS William S. Paley, and as senior vice president in the merger and acquisition group at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. He also founded two education service companies, Language Odyssey and Success Lab. Mr. Walton serves on the boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Financial Services Roundtable, as treasurer of the National Symphony Orchestra, and as chairman of the Kelley School of Business Dean’s Council at Indiana University.
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