Key Leader Biographies:
Mark L. O’Dell
Deputy Comptroller
Operational Risk
Mark L. O’Dell is the Deputy Comptroller for Operational Risk at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Mr. O’Dell has over 30 years of bank supervision experience, including key supervisory positions that addressed complex industry concerns. He
assumed his current position in January 2004. He has examined community banks, large banks, international branches, and troubled banks.
Mr. O’Dell oversees policy and examination procedures development addressing operational risk issues, including bank information technology. The
Operational Risk Department is also the focal point for the OCC’s core policy platforms that govern how the OCC supervises national banks.
His department, through participation on interagency working groups, assists in developing U.S. supervisory policy implementing Basel II’s Advance
Measurement Approach (AMA) for operational risk. As a part of his Basel responsibilities, Mr. O’Dell is the OCC’s representative to the Bank of
International Settlements (BIS) Standards Implementation Group – Operational Risk (SIGOR). SIGOR is a permanent working group of the Accord
Implementation Group focusing on the practical challenges associated with the successful development, implementation, and maintenance of an AMA
operational risk framework. The group also facilitates the resolution of issues associated with the cross-border supervision of operational risk.
Mr. O’Dell began his career as a Bank Examiner in Colorado. From 1990 to 1993, he worked in the OCC’s London office examining branches of the
largest U.S. banks located in Europe. Later he served as the Director for Analysis in the OCC’s Large Bank Division, which supervised 12 of the
largest national banks in the United States. His duties as director included managing the OCC’s Shared National Credit (SNC) program — an
interagency program established in 1977 to provide a periodic credit risk assessment of the largest and most complex credit facilities owned by
supervised institutions. Through his efforts, summary SNC data and results were shared with the industry for the first time.
In 1997, Mr. O’Dell was asked to lead the OCC’s Year 2000 supervisory effort. During the next three years, he was responsible for developing
supervisory policy and examination procedures to assess national bank Year 2000 remediation efforts. His duties also included being the OCC’s
representative on the interagency task force that coordinated domestic supervisory Year 2000 efforts, as well as serving on the President’s Council on
Year 2000 Conversion. For his efforts, he was awarded the Secretary of Treasury’s Award in 2001.
Mr. O’Dell was promoted to Deputy Comptroller for Core Policy in 2001. The Core Policy function was reorganized into Operational Risk in 2004.
Mr. O’Dell joined the OCC in 1978 and was commissioned as a National Bank Examiner in 1983. He holds a bachelor of science in mathematics and
an MBA from Colorado State University. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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