| After what has arguably been one of the toughest periods for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the chairman of the insurance company has set an official departure date.
In June 2006, Sheila C. Bair was appointed by President George W. Bush to become the 19th chairman of the FDIC. Bair, 57, came to the agency from her post as the Dean’s Professor of Financial Regulatory Policy for the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She had been there since 2002. Bair’s other prior employers included the Treasury Department, the New York Stock Exchange and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. During Bair’s tenure, 365 FDIC-insured bank failures have occurred. Among them was Washington Mutual Bank — the biggest bank failure in U.S. history. “Ms. Bair has presided over a tumultuous period in the nation’s financial sector, working to bolster public confidence and system stability,” an FDIC biography of Bair states. “Under Ms. Bair’s leadership, the FDIC’s powers and authority were significantly expanded by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.”
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FDIC photo of Sheila Bair
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Bair, who was born in Kansas, plans to leave the FDIC on July 8, according to an FDIC announcement Monday.
“Consistent with previous public statements, Chairman Bair has announced her intention to depart the agency following the expiration of her term as chairman,” the statement said. “The FDIC will hold a board meeting during the first week of July.
“This will be Chairman Bair’s final board meeting.”
