James B. Lockhart III

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James B. Lockhart III (born 1946) is an American U.S. Navy officer, business executive, and, since September 2009, Vice Chairman of WL Ross & Co, which manages $9 billion of private equity investments, a hedge fund and a Mortgage Recovery Fund. It is a subsidiary of Invesco, a Fortune 500 investment management firm.^[1] He coordinates WL Ross's investments in financial services firms and mortgages. Lockhart serves co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings.^[2]

For the prior 71⁄2 years, he served in the US Government in a series of Presidential-appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. From July 30, 2008, he was the Director (CEO) and Chairman of the Oversight Board of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). He was the Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), which is now part of FHFA. He was nominated to that position by President George W. Bush, a friend of his from prep school, college and business school,^[3] and confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2006.^{[citation needed]}

He also served on the Financial Stability Oversight Board from its inception in 2008. This board was set up to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program.^[4] which is chaired by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and has as its other members the Secretaries of the Treasury and HUD, and the Chair of the SEC.^{[citation needed]}

From 2002 to 2006, Lockhart served as The Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the Social Security Administration and as Secretary to the Social Security Board of Trustees. He was a member of President Bush's Management Council and its Executive Committee. At SSA, he was the leader in promoting Social Security reform and in getting the Supplemental Security Income Program, the nation's largest cash-based welfare program, removed from GAO's High Risk list. SSA, OFHEO and FHFA all received the Association of Government Accountants' prestigious Certificate in Excellence for Accountability Reporting.^{[citation needed]}

Lockhart served in President George H.W. Bush's Administration as Executive Director (CEO) of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) from 1989-93. While he was at the PBGC, the agency restored the LTV Steel pension plans through a Supreme Court ruling and faced major airline (Eastern, PanAm, Continental and TWA) and steel company bankruptcies. PBGC also produced its first audited accounts in its history and was removed from GAO's High Risk list under Lockhart's leadership. As a way to encourage better funding of pension plans, he began publishing the “Top 50” underfunded pension plan list. He also pushed for legislative reforms which led to the passage of legislation in 1993.