William M. Isaac is a senior managing director of FTI Consulting and serves as Global Head of FTI Consulting’s Financial Institutions group. The financial institutions practice group provides regulatory counseling and risk management services, strategy consulting, expert testimony, and corporate governance consulting for financial institutions, law firms and governments.
Experience
Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Isaac founded the Secura Group, a leading financial institutions consulting firm. LECG acquired the Secura Group in 2007 and Mr. Isaac remained with the financial services group at LECG through early 2011. Prior to forming Secura, Mr. Isaac headed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during the banking crisis of the 1980s, serving under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1978 through 1985. Mr. Isaac also serves as Chairman of Fifth Third Bancorp, one of the nation’s leading banking companies.
Mr. Isaac is involved extensively in thought leadership relating to the financial services industry and provides advice to policy makers worldwide. He is the author of Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America, published by Wiley & Sons, with a foreword by legendary former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Senseless Panic provides an inside account of the banking and S&L crises of the 1980s, compares that period to the financial crisis of 2008, and recommends reforms to prevent future crises. Mr. Isaac’s articles are published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, American Banker, Forbes, Financial Times, Washington Times, and other leading publications. He also appears regularly on leading television and radio programs, has been a contributor to CNBC, testifies before Congress and is a frequent speaker before audiences throughout the world. See www.williamisaac.com.
Mr. Isaac founded The Secura Group in 1986 after serving as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 1981 through 1985, one of the most tumultuous periods in US banking since the Great Depression. Some 3,000 banks and thrifts failed during the 1980s, including a number of the nation’s largest banks such as Continental Illinois and nine of the ten largest banks in Texas. Mr. Isaac was appointed by President Carter to the board of directors of the FDIC, and confirmed by the Senate, in 1978 at the age of 34, making him the youngest FDIC board member and chairman in history. While Mr. Isaac was at the FDIC, he also served as chairman, Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (1983-85), as a member of the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee (1981–85), and as a member of the Vice President's Task Group on Regulation of Financial Services (1984).
Mr. Isaac was formerly a senior partner of Arnold & Porter. Arnold & Porter was a founding partner of the Secura Group. Mr. Isaac left the firm in 1993 when Secura purchased Arnold & Porter’s interest in the firm.
Before his appointment to the FDIC, Mr. Isaac served as vice president, general counsel and secretary of First Kentucky National Corporation and its subsidiaries, including First National Bank of Louisville and First Kentucky Trust Company.
Mr. Isaac began his career with Foley & Lardner where he practiced general corporate law specializing in banking law (primarily regulatory affairs, including securities matters, acquisitions and branching) and antitrust law.
Mr. Isaac is a Former Member, Board of Directors of MPS Group, Inc prior to its sale to Adecco; Former Member of the Board of Directors of Trans Union Corporation; Former Member, Board of Directors of The Associates prior to its sale to CitiGroup; Former Chairman, Board of Directors, Goodwill Industries, Sarasota; Former Member, Board of Directors of Amex Bank; Former member, Board of Directors, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Florida; and Former Member, Board of Trustees, Miami University Foundation.