Speaker biographies

James B. Lockhart III is the director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, and he was later confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 15, 2006. Mr. Lockhart also served as deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), a presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed position. He was the SSA’s chief operating officer, the secretary to the Social Security Board of Trustees, and a member of the President’s Management Council and its executive committee. Mr. Lockhart also served in the previous Bush administration as executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from 1989 until 1993, where he reported to a board composed of the secretaries of labor, treasury, and commerce. Mr. Lockhart cofounded and served as managing director of NetRisk, a risk management software and consulting firm serving major financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, and investment management firms worldwide. He also has an extensive background in financial services including insurance, investment banking, and pensions. He has served in senior positions, both in Europe and the United States, at National Reinsurance, Smith Barney, Alexander & Alexander, and Gulf Oil. Mr. Lockhart has been a member of the American Benefits Council’s board of directors and serves on the advisory board of the Task Force for the Critical Review of the U.S. Actuarial Profession.

Peter J. Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Financial Policy Studies at AEI, where he codirects the Institute’s program on financial market deregulation. 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 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.

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