Timothy Massad

Timothy George Massad (born July 30, 1956) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under President Barack Obama. He had previously been Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability at the United States Department of the Treasury, where he oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) created by the U.S. government in response to the financial crisis of 2007–08.

Timothy Massad
Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
In office June 5, 2014 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Mark Wetjen (acting)
Succeeded by	J. Christopher Giancarlo
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
In office June 30, 2011 – June 5, 2014
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Herbert M. Allison
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	July 30, 1956 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Harvard University (BA, JD)

Massad earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University in 1978. After stints working for Ralph Nader and the AFL–CIO, he returned to Harvard to earn a law degree in 1981. He then began a 25-year career as a corporate lawyer at the firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he became an expert on corporate finance and derivatives.

Massad briefly joined the staff of TARP's Congressional Oversight Panel before moving to the Office of Financial Stability as chief counsel. In September 2010 he was named acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. The U.S. Senate confirmed him to the position in June 2011. In November 2013, President Barack Obama nominated him to be CFTC chairman. The Senate confirmed him in June 2014.

Early life and education

Massad was born July 30, 1956,[1] in New Orleans, Louisiana.[2] His parents were the children of Lebanese immigrants. His mother, Delores Jean Razook, was a homemaker, and his father, Alexander Hamilton Massad, was an executive in the oil industry, mostly at Mobil. In Timothy's earlier years the family moved often because of his father's career, but in 1968 they settled in Darien, Connecticut, where the parents remained for 18 years. Massad has a brother and a sister.[3]

Massad graduated from Darien High School in 1974 as a National Merit Scholar and interned with a Congressman.[4][5] He then enrolled at Harvard University, earning a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in social studies in 1978.[1] After graduation he went to work for Ralph Nader[4] and also worked for the AFL–CIO, a labor movement organization.[6] During this time he was active in the anti-nuclear movement.[7]

Legal career

Unsatisfied with his employers' grasp of business and economics, Massad enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1981.[4] In 1983 he helped organize a petition against permitting professors to count class participation toward students' grades.[8] He graduated in 1984 and began his 25-year career at the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore that same year.[4]

At Cravath he became a generalist in corporate law[4] with focus on corporate finance and international business. He was mostly based in New York City, but he also worked at Cravath's London office for a year and co-managed the Hong Kong office from 1998 to 2002.[9][10] In 2007 he headed Cravath's India practice.[1] During his time at Cravath he became an expert on derivatives and securities law,[11] co-writing with other Cravath lawyers the ISDA Master Agreement that governs most derivatives contracts between institutions.[12]

Government service

Massad's Treasury portrait

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was enacted in October 2008 in response to the ongoing financial crisis. It created the Office of Financial Stability within the Treasury Department to administer the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a $700-billion bailout fund for the financial industry.[13]

Massad became involved in TARP when he called a friend, Damon Silvers, to congratulate him on being named to the program's Congressional Oversight Panel. During this conversation, Silvers recruited him to join the panel's staff.[1][14] Massad took a leave of absence from Cravath from December 2008 to February 2009[9] to be a pro bono legal adviser to the panel.[15]

Later, when Treasury officials were looking for a chief counsel for the Office of Financial Stability, Silvers recommended Massad.[14] Massad left Cravath in May 2009 to take the position.[9] Following the departure of Herbert M. Allison, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, Massad was named acting Assistant Secretary beginning in September 2010. The U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment as Assistant Secretary in June 2011.[16] In this role he has supervised the gradual wind-down of TARP.[15]

Massad announced in October 2013 that he would resign as Assistant Secretary.[14] The next month, President Barack Obama announced he would nominate Massad to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates derivatives.[17] That post became vacant on Jan. 3, 2014, when Gary Gensler stepped down.[18] The Senate confirmed him on June 3, 2014.[19] He was sworn in on June 5.[20]

Political activities

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability Massad confirms receipt of the proceeds from the sale of Treasury's final shares of AIG common stock

Massad is a longtime donor to the Democratic National Committee[2] and to Democratic candidates, including John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election and Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential election.[1] He was active in the anti-nuclear movement in the years before he went to law school, organizing with Donald K. Ross a large protest in Washington, D.C., on May 6, 1979, in the wake of the Three Mile Island accident.[7][21]

During law school Massad worked on Michael Dukakis's successful 1982 campaign for Governor of Massachusetts. During the 1988 presidential election Massad again supported Dukakis, whom he described as his political hero. Massad was a voting delegate at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, where Dukakis was nominated for president, and took a leave of absence from Cravath to serve as Connecticut director of the Dukakis campaign for the general election.[5][22] Dukakis lost Connecticut, and the election, to George H. W. Bush.[23]

Personal life

Massad is an accomplished cook. In his early years at Cravath he spent his vacations as a volunteer apprentice at the Manhattan restaurant Bouley.[2][24] He is known at Treasury for running a baking contest among his staff.[10]

Massad has a wife and two children. They live in Washington, D.C.[3]

See also

• List of Lebanese people in the United States

References

1. WhoRunsGov. Tim Massad. Washington Post. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
2. Douwe Miedema. New swaps regulator must prove mettle in Wall Street reform. Reuters, Nov. 12, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
3. Alexander Massad: obituary. The Oklahoman, Jan. 19, 2010. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
4. Stephen Voss. Tim Massad: Washington's most powerful money manager? The Washingtonian, Sep. 8, 2011. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
5. Francis X. Fay, Jr. Darien native quarterbacking Dukakis' Connecticut campaign. The Hour, Sep. 12, 1988, p. 1
6. Michael R. Crittenden, Scott Patterson, Jamila Trindle. Four potential candidates for CFTC chairman. The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 4, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
7. Paul W. Valentine, Karlyn Barker. The protestors: 65,000 protest dependence on A-energy. Washington Post, May 7, 1979.
8. Fox Butterfield. 500 at Harvard Law School protest new grading policy. The New York Times, May 7, 1983. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
9. Timothy Massad. United States Department of the Treasury, Jul. 1, 2011. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
10. Andrew Ackerman and Michael R. Crittenden. Compared to CFTC, heading TARP may have been easy job. The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 12, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
11. Andrew Ackerman. Challenges await Commodity Futures Trading Commission pick. The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 12, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
12. Tom Osborn. Who is Timothy Massad?. Risk, Feb. 24, 2014. Accessed Mar. 28, 2014.
13. Office of Financial Stability website, United States Department of the Treasury. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
14. Michael R. Crittenden. Treasury official Massad to step down. The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 4, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
15. Peter Schroeder. Massad turns out the lights on TARP. The Hill, Jun. 10, 2011. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
16. Timothy G. Massad confirmed as Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. United States Department of the Treasury, Jul. 1, 2011. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
17. Zachary Warmbrodt. President Obama says Timothy Massad his pick to lead CFTC. Politico, Nov. 12, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
18. Andrew Ackerman. CFTC loses a chairman, gains a comment period. The Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2014. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
19. Gina Chon, Gregory Meyer. Massad confirmed as new CFTC chairman. Financial Times, Jun. 3, 2014. Accessed Jun. 16, 2014.
20. Andrew Ackerman. Massad sworn in as CFTC chairman. The Wall Street Journal, Jun. 5, 2014. Accessed Jun. 16, 2014.
21. Richard L. Strout. Age of protest awakened by nuclear jolt. The Christian Science Monitor, May 8, 1979.
22. Frank Lynn. Candidates woo the state. The New York Times, Nov. 6, 1988. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
23. United States presidential election of 1988. Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.
24. Alexandrea Stevenson, Ben Protess. Obama nominates Treasury official as top derivatives regulator. The New York Times, Nov. 12, 2013. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014.