The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently promoted five of its executives and hired another.
First, the CFPB hired Grady Hedgespeth as assistant director for the office of small business lending markets. Previously, Hedgespeth served as director of the office of economic opportunity for the U.S. Small Business Administration, where he started in 2007 as the director of the office of financial assistance.
Before working in government, Hedgespeth led two different national small business community development financial institution lenders and created several businesses focused on underserved markets at some of the nation’s largest banks, the bureau says in a release.
The CFPB has also appointed Elizabeth Ellis as deputy associate director for the external affairs division. Ellis previously served as the deputy assistant director for the office of financial institutions and business liaison at the CFPB. Before that, she worked as the senior advisor to the bureau’s chief of staff.
Prior to joining the CFPB, Ellis was a financial analyst on the Congressional Oversight Panel, where she evaluated the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and reviewed the state of financial markets and the regulatory system. Before working in government, Ellis was a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the banking and capital markets audit practice.
The bureau has also appointed Seth Frotman to serve as the new student loan ombudsman and assistant director for the office for students and young consumers. Previously, he served in the same positions on an acting basis.
Frotman originally joined the bureau as part of the treasury implementation team in early 2011 as senior advisor to Holly Petraeus, the assistant director for the office of servicemember affairs. He has also worked on the senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions and was the deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy. Before coming to Washington, he served as an assistant staff counsel for the New Jersey State Senate and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The CFPB has also appointed Katherine Gillespie as deputy associate director for the consumer education and engagement division. Previously, Gillespie served in the same position on an acting basis. Prior to that, she worked as senior counsel to the bureau’s deputy director and the associate director of the supervision, enforcement and fair lending division.
Gillespie originally joined the CFPB in 2011 as a senior counsel in the office of fair lending and equal opportunity. Prior to joining the bureau, she worked as a civil rights attorney at law firm Relman, Dane & Colfax, where she focused on litigating fair housing and other civil rights issues. Before that, Gillespie was an attorney at WilmerHale. She clerked for the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The bureau has also appointed Chris Johnson as assistant director for the office of consumer response. Previously, Johnson served in the same position on an acting basis. Johnson joined the Office of Consumer Response in January 2011 as a member of the treasury implementation team. Within the office of consumer response, he has worked as the deputy assistant director, a section chief and a quality assurance manager.
Prior to joining the CFPB, Johnson was the director of service operations and customer care for Easterns Automotive Group, where he oversaw field service operations, as well as the company’s centralized complaint handling, customer feedback, regulatory response and service scheduling functions. In addition, he has served in various leadership roles in automotive retail, consumer credit card collections, project management and call center operations for CarMax Auto Superstores Inc., Circuit City Stores Inc. and First North American National Bank.
The bureau has also promoted John Schroeder as Midwest regional director for the office of supervision examinations. Previously, Schroeder served in the same position on an acting basis. He joined the CFPB in March 2013. Prior to becoming an acting regional director, he worked as the assistant regional director and as a field manager in the Midwest region.
Before joining the bureau, Schroeder spent more than two decades working for the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, where he served as general counsel and deputy director of consumer credit, along with a number of other roles.