Cynthia A. Glassman was sworn in as Under Secretary for Economic Affairs on Thursday, October 5, 2006. Prior to her nomination by President Bush, Dr. Glassman served as Commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from January 28, 2002, until July 14th, 2006. She was Acting Chairman during the summer of 2005.
Dr. Glassman serves as the principal economic adviser to Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. She is also the Administrator of the Economics and Statistics Administration and oversees two statistical agencies - the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau - that gather, calculate, and disseminate much of the U.S. demographic, social and economic data including reports on the nation's gross domestic product, retail sales, personal income, housing starts, inventory levels and international trade. Her priorities include advising Secretary Gutierrez on economic trends and policy; retaining and improving the high quality of the nation's economic and demographic indicators; and ensuring the successful preparation and implementation of the re-engineered 2010 decennial census.
Dr. Glassman has spent over 35 years in the public and private sectors focusing on financial services regulatory and public policy issues. She spent the first 12 years of her career at the Federal Reserve, first at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and subsequently at the Board of Governors, where her positions included Chief of the Financial Reports Section and Special Assistant to Governor Henry C. Wallich. She spent two years at Economists Incorporated, eight years at Furash & Company, where she was the Managing Director for the financial services regulatory and public policy practices, and five years at Ernst & Young, in the Risk Management and Regulatory Practice, and the Quantitative Economics and Statistics group.
She has served on the Boards of the Federal Reserve Board Credit Union, the National Economists Club, Women in Housing and Finance, and the Commission on Savings and Investment in America, and was on the Executive Advisory Committee for the Bank Administration Institute's Certified Risk Professional Certification Program.
Dr. Glassman, who received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College, taught economics at the University of Cambridge, England, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.
