Sheila Bair

In March 2020, Bair called for the Federal reserve to focus on getting credit flowing to U.S. businesses affected by the spreading coronavirus and workers losing their jobs.

On August 1, 2015, she became the 28th president of Washington College in Chestertown, MD where she served until June 2017. Previously, Bair served as chair of the FDIC Board of Directors from June 26, 2006 to July 8, 2011.

On March 29, 2012 Bair was honored by the Romney Institute of Public Management (BYU Marriott School of Management) as the Administrator of the Year.

Bair left the FDIC on July 8, 2011, when her five-year term expired. She became a senior advisor to The Pew Charitable Trusts in August 2011. She is founding chair of the Systemic Risk Council, a volunteer effort formed by the CFA Institute and the Pew Charitable Trusts to monitor and comment on regulation. Her New York Times bestseller Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself was published September 25, 2012. Bair has also written two books for children that encourage savings: Rock, Brock and the Savings Shock (2006) and Isabel's Car Wash (2008). Since leaving government service, Bair has served as an independent director on a number of corporate boards including Host Hotels (2012 to present) Thomson Reuters (2014 to present), Banco Santander, (2014 to 2015), the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (March 2017 to March 2020), Bunge LTD (November 2019 to present) and Fannie Mae (Aug 2019 to present). She was criticized for joining the board of Santander, a Spanish banking group, which critics viewed as inconsistent with her public views on the "revolving door." She has also served on a number of nonprofit boards, including as a founding director of the Volcker Alliance, the Center for Responsible Lending, the Rand Corporation, and the National Women's Law Center.

In a fictional TV movie about the crises, Patricia Randell played Bair in the 2011 HBO movie Too Big to Fail, based on the popular book of the same name by New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin.

In 2009, Bair was named one of Time magazine's "Time 100" most influential people. In 2008, Bair topped The Wall Street Journal's annual 50 "Women to Watch List." In 2008 and 2009, Forbes ranked her as the second most powerful woman in the world behind German chancellor Angela Merkel. Forbes described her FDIC office as "the last stop for capital-starved banks (and their insured customers) before going under."

In 2009, Bair was presented the Consumer Federation of America's Philip Hart Public Service Award.

Prior to her appointment at the FDIC, Bair was the Dean's Professor of Financial Regulatory Policy for the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a post she had held since 2002. She also served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury (2001 to 2002), Senior Vice President for Government Relations of the New York Stock Exchange (1995 to 2000), a Commissioner and Acting Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (1991 to 1995), and Research Director, Deputy Counsel and Counsel to Kansas Republican Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (1981 to 1988). While an academic, Bair also served on the FDIC's Advisory Committee on Banking Policy. Bair also pursued a seat in the U.S. Congress (she lost the 1990 Republican nomination in the 5th Kansas district by 760 votes to Dick Nichols). Bair began her career in the General Counsel's office of the former U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Bair is a native of Independence, Kansas. Her father, Albert, was a surgeon. Her mother, Clara, was a nurse and housewife. She received her bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Kansas in 1975, and worked as a bank teller for a brief period, before receiving a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1978. In 1981, she was recruited by Senator Bob Dole, a Republican from her state, to serve as counsel on his staff in Washington.

Sheila Colleen Bair (born April 3, 1954) was the 19th Chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), during which time she assumed a prominent role in the government's response to the 2008 financial crisis. She was appointed to the post for a five-year term on June 26, 2006 by George W. Bush.