Cynthia A. Glassman is a member of the Board of Discover Financial Services where she chairs the audit committee. She is also on the Board of Navigant Consulting, Inc. where she chairs the nominating and governance committee and serves on the compensation committee. In addition, Dr. Glassman is a Senior Research Scholar focusing on corporate governance in the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at the GWU School of Business.
Prior to her current roles, she was appointed by President Bush to serve as the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce from 2006 to January 2009. In that role, she served as the principal economic advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and oversaw two major Federal statistical agencies. She was also the Secretary’s designated Board Representative to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), where she was actively involved in PBGC investment policy and corporate governance matters.
Appointed by President Bush, Dr. Glassman served as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2002 to 2006 and served as Acting Chairman during the summer of 2005. As the only Commissioner with a doctorate in economics, Dr. Glassman brought a unique voice to the Commission, where she regularly sought greater rigor in the regulatory process. During her tenure, she was closely involved in developing and voting on the regulations implementing the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as a number of other regulations regarding corporate governance and financial markets. Her role also included voting on numerous enforcement actions.
Dr. Glassman has spent over 40 years in the public and private sectors focusing on financial services regulatory and public policy issues. Earlier in her career, she spent 12 years at the Federal Reserve and 15 years at consulting firms. She is currently on the Advisory Board of C-LEAF, the Center for Law, Economics, and Finance at the George Washington University (GWU) Law School. She has served on the Boards of the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation WTEF), the SEC Historical Society, the Federal Reserve Board Credit Union, the National Economists Club, Women in Housing and Finance, the Commission on Savings and Investment in America, and Hopkins House, a preschool for low income families.
Dr. Glassman has written extensively on corporate governance, financial reporting, risk management and competitiveness issues. She has spoken nationally and internationally before professional and business groups. Dr. Glassman received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College. She was a supervisor in economics at the University of Cambridge, England, where she has been named an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.