ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul has nominated Adrienne Harris to lead the New York State Department of Financial Services as its next superintendent.
Formerly a top economic advisor to President Barack Obama, Harris would become the state’s top financial regulator. She would succeed Linda Lacewell, who resigned from the role in August.
If confirmed by state Senate, Harris would oversee the banking and insurance industries and their compliance with state laws as New York works to rebuild its economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Harris graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor’s degree and subsequently earned her law degree from Columbia Law School and an MBA degree from New York University.
About Harris
Harris began her career as an associate at Sullivan and Cromwell LLP in New York City, representing a number of U.S. and non-U.S. based corporations in various forms of litigation and regulatory matters, before accepting a position at the U.S. Department of the Treasury under President Barack Obama.
While at the Treasury Department, Harris served as a senior advisor. In that role, Harris focused on a number of financial-policy issue areas. The work included helping jumpstart national financial-reform efforts; finding ways to advance fintech; identifying solutions to the student-loan crisis; analyzing the nexus between foreign investment and national security; and working to promote financial intelligence and health in communities throughout the country.
Following her time at the Treasury Department, Harris then joined the White House, where she was appointed as special assistant to the president for economic policy, as part of the National Economic Council.
In that role, Harris managed the financial-services portfolio, which included developing and executing strategies for financial reform and the implementation of Dodd-Frank, while also continuing to advance fintech initiatives; consumer protections for the American public, cybersecurity, and housing-finance reform priorities.
Since leaving the White House in January 2017, Harris went on to serve as general counsel and chief business officer, and presently as advisor at States Title, Inc. (now DOMA), which provides title insurance and settlement services in a number of states throughout the nation. Harris also currently serves as a professor and faculty co-director at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy’s Center on Finance, Law and Policy at the University of Michigan, as well as a senior advisor at the Brunswick Group in Washington D.C., where she advises multinational corporations on mergers and acquisitions, stakeholder communications and management, future-proofing and policy intelligence.
