John Walsh was appointed Acting Comptroller of the Currency on August 15, 2010. In this position he serves as director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and chief executive of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), overseeing about two-thirds of commercial banking assets in the United States.

Walsh graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1973. Trained to be an aerospace mechanical engineer, and graduating magna cum laude, he was offered a job with Bell Labs. Instead, he joined the Peace Corps, teaching high school in Ghana for two years. He returned to school and earned his master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1978. Walsh worked with the Mutual Broadcasting System, and then spent six years at the Office of Management and Budget as an International Program Analyst.

 

Walsh served as an International Economist for the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1984 to 1986, and on the Senate Banking Committee from 1986 to 1992. In 1992 he joined the international economic consulting firm, Group of Thirty, becoming its Executive Director in 1995.

 

Walsh also served as Treasurer of the Baraka School, which brought students in Kenya into contact with inner-city youth in the U.S. The program was the focus of the 2005 documentary film, The Boys of Baraka. Unfortunately, the school itself was closed in 2003 after a terrorist attack in Mombassa drove the school’s insurance costs too cost.

 

While working for the Senate Banking Committee, Walsh became friends with John Dugan, the counsel for the Republican members. Years later, when Dugan became Comptroller of the Currency in 2005, he chose Walsh to be his chief of staff. After Dugan completed his five-year term, Walsh moved up to acting comptroller.

 

Walsh’s wife, Kate, has been the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality since 2002. The Walshs have two daughters and two sons.