Richard A. Cordray, '86: Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Resigned Friday
Who Is Richard Adams Cordray? Director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Resigns
Richard Adams Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, resigned Friday. Following his resignation, President Donald Trump announced Mick Mulvaney, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, will take over as the acting director of the agency.
Born on May 3, 1959, in Columbus, Ohio, Cordray is an American lawyer and politician who served as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2012 to 2017. Prior to this, Cordray has served as Ohio's attorney general, solicitor general and treasurer.
Cordray grew up in Grove City, Ohio, where he attended public schools. While studying in the Grove City High School, Cordray emerged champion in the high school quiz show – ‘In The Know.’ During this time he used to work in McDonald’s for a minimum wage.
He graduated from high school in 1977 as co-valedictorian of his class. He took up his first job in politics as an intern for United States Sen. John Glenn when he was a junior at James Madison College, Michigan State University. Cordray earned Phi Beta Kappa honors – the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences in the U.S. In 1981, he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Legal and Political Theory.
As a Marshall scholar, Cordray earned a masters degree with first class honors in Economics from Brasenose College, Oxford. Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for intellectually distinguished young Americans to study at any university in the United Kingdom. He also earned a Varsity Blue in basketball in 1983.
In 1986, he earned his Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of Chicago Law School. There he served as the editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. After he took up a job as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, he went to his high school to deliver the commencement speech for the graduating class of 1988.
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