Allison Confirmed for Treasury Post

Former Fannie Mae CEO Herbert M. Allison, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on Friday to serve as the Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for Financial Stability. In this position, he is responsible for developing and coordinating the Treasury's policies on legislative and regulatory issues aimed at restoring the nation's financial system.
Allison's duties include overseeing the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He will also serve as counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Allison replaces Neel Kashkari who was named interim assistant secretary for Financial Stability when the position was created by Congress last fall.
Commenting on Allison's confirmation, Secretary Geithner said, ""Herb Allison has extraordinary experience strengthening American financial institutions and has demonstrated great leadership in recent months at Fannie Mae. We are pleased to have him guiding the administration’s financial stability efforts here at Treasury.""
Allison stepped in as president and CEO of Fannie Mae last September, when the government took control of the GSE. Allison says Fannie was one of two major financial institutions that he led ""through transformations necessary to their future success."" Before being appointed to Fannie Mae, he guided TIAA-CREF through a similar corporate redesign as chairman, president, and CEO of the financial services and investment company.
Allison began his career at Merrill Lynch, where he served many roles and was ultimately elected president, COO, and a member of the board. He was a director of Time Warner and a member of the advisory board of the Yale School of Management, the advisory council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's international advisory committee. From 2003-2005, he was a director of the New York Stock Exchange. Allison earned a bachelor's in philosophy from Yale University and a master's in business administration from Stanford University. He spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, including a year in Vietnam.
At his confirmation hearing before the Senate earlier this month, Allison said, ""Given the magnitude of the financial crisis, this [Financial Stability] program must meet the highest standards...with the extraordinary amount of the American people's money with which we have been entrusted, good work is not enough - we must strive to be flawless. Every dollar must be wisely and carefully managed, and we must be constantly accountable to the public.""
Allison pledged to lawmakers, ""I will work closely with the special inspector general, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Oversight Panel, the Financial Stability Oversight Board, and the committees of Congress to assure the kind of accountability and oversight the American people deserve...I will emphasize transparency so that the Congress and the American people will know what we are doing with their money, why we are doing it, and how it is making a difference in our economy.""