CFPB Announces New Hires

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced additions to its senior leadership and executive teams via an emailed press release.

One leadership position will be occupied by Kate Fulton, who is coming on board as the agency’s chief operating officer, managing the Operations Division and supporting all aspects of the CFPB’s operations. Fulton joined the CFPB in 2013, serving as senior counsel in the Legal Division and later in the Office of Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending. In 2016, she was named deputy chief of staff and senior counsel. Before joining the CFPB, Fulton was attorney advisor at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and at a law firm representing federal employees.

Yasaman Sutton will also serve in a leadership position at the CFPB, as senior advisor and counselor to the director. During her 14 years in the Executive Branch, Sutton provided advice and representation on legal matters affecting the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.

As for its executive positions, the CFPB revealed that Melissa Brand has been named as director of the Office of Civil Rights. She spent almost 10 years at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she wrote approximately 1,000 federal sector appellate decisions on discrimination, and worked as an administrative judge while at the Commission. She has been the CFPB’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints program manager since 2016.

Jim Rice will serve as the assistant director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs, bringing over three decades of experience serving in the U.S. Army. He commanded at every level from platoon to brigade, including as the first Army Medical Department officer to command at both the battalion and brigade levels in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rice later served as the director of the U.S. Army Wounded Warrior program. In his final military assignment, he served as the chief of the Health Services Division for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.