William Longbrake Directory Page

Bill Longbrake has extensive experience in finance and investments, macroeconomics and monetary policy, risk management, housing, and public policy.  He has served in business, academic and government organizations. 

Since June 2009 Bill has been an Executive in Residence at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and participates in the Center for Financial Policy.  He spends one to two weeks monthly teaching classes and working on a variety of business, policy and governance issues with faculty, students, business leaders, government policymakers and executives of not-for-profit organizations. 

He is chairman of the board of HOPE LoanPort, a non-profit organization that provides a data management and communications web portal to housing counselors and home mortgage servicers.  He is a nonvoting member of the Washington State Investment Board, which manages over $100 billion in public employee retirement funds, and serves on the Audit and Public Markets Committees.  He is a director of City First Bank of DC and serves on the Compensation, Governance, and Loan committees. He is a director of Boeing Employees Credit Union and serves on the Governance and Finance and Risk committees. 

He is a member of several committees of the American Bankers Association, including those for Federal Home Loan Banks, government sponsored enterprises, and mortgage markets.  He is chairman of the board of trustees of and the College of Wooster; chairman of the board of trustees of Lift Up Africa, a charitable organization that finances humanitarian and sustainable development initiatives on the continent of Africa; and is president of the Longbrake Family Foundation. 

He was a trustee of Auburn Theological Seminary from 2008-14; a director of First Financial Northwest, a community bank located in Renton, Washington from 2008-10; a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle from 2002-10; and a director of the Washington Financial League from 2002-10. 

Between September 2006 and December 2008 he served on a half-time basis as the Anthony T. Cluff Senior Policy Advisor for the Financial Services Roundtable.  Members of the Roundtable include the largest financial services companies in the U.S.  He assisted in the preparation of “The Financial Services Roundtable Blue Ribbon Commission on Mega-Catastrophes: A Call to Action” and “The Blueprint for Financial Competitiveness”.  During his time at the Roundtable he also advised the HOPE NOW Alliance and was responsible for coordinating the collection of loan servicing and loss mitigation data. 

Longbrake joined Washington Mutual, Inc. in August 1982 and served in many positions until his retirement in September 2008, except from February 1995 to October 1996 when he was chief financial officer and deputy to the chairman for finance at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  During his years at Washington Mutual, he helped build the company from a $2.5 billion mutual savings bank located in Washington State to the sixth largest depository institution in the nation.

From 1982 to 1994 Longbrake was chief financial officer of Washington Mutual except for a two-year stint when he was the principal executive responsible for retail banking and home lending.  When he returned to Washington Mutual from the FDIC in 1996 he resumed the position of chief financial officer until 2002 when he became the bank’s first chief enterprise risk officer.  In 2001, Longbrake was named CFO of the Year in the Driving Revenue Growth category by CFO Magazine. From 2004 until retirement he served in a non-executive position as the company's liaison with regulators, legislators, industry trade organizations, and government-sponsored enterprises. 

He began his career in Washington, D.C. in 1970, where he served in various government positions until 1982, including acting senior deputy comptroller for policy and senior deputy comptroller for resource management for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and financial economist, acting controller and special assistant to the chairman at the FDIC.

He earned his bachelor-of-arts degree in economics from the College of Wooster in 1965, graduating with honors. He earned his master’s degree in monetary economics in 1968 and his master of business administration degree in 1969 from the University of Wisconsin. He received his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Maryland in 1976.

Longbrake is active in numerous academic, business and community service organizations, particularly those involving issues surrounding affordable housing and education. He chairs the Washington State Citizens Commission for Performance Measurement of Tax Preferences.  He is a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors and was a member of the Infrastructure Financing Task Force for Washington State.  He is a member the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business Advisory Board.  He is Chairman Emeritus of the Financial Services Roundtable’s Housing Policy Council. 

He was a member of the University of Washington’s Michael G. Foster School of Business Advisory Board from 1998 to 2014. He previously served as chairman of the Washington State Affordable Housing Advisory Board, Threshold Housing, the Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Program, and served as a member of the board and chaired the Audit Committee of the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), which provides affordable housing nationwide.  He is past president of the Washington State Chapter of Financial Executives International and the Puget Sound Council of Financial Institutions. Previously he was a member of the Fannie Mae National Advisory Council, the Thrift Institutions Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the board of directors of America’s Community Bankers.  From 1993 to 2002 he served on the board of directors of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.

Longbrake has published extensively and currently writes a monthly economic newsletter which is distributed by Barnett, Sivon and Natter.  He has taught courses in business administration and finance at the University of Maryland and Seattle University. In 2007 he received the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award from the Robert H. Smith School of Business of the University of Maryland.