Brian Brooks rose to national prominence in 2017 and 2018 when the New York Times and other national news media reported that he was a shortlist candidate for White House Counsel, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary, and Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has had a distinguished career in finance, law, and politics.
Brian currently lives in San Francisco and serves as Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase Global, Inc., the nation’s largest digital asset platform with a Series E valuation of $8 billion. In addition to Coinbase, Brian has leadership roles with such financial technology companies as Avant Inc., where he serves on the board of directors of the major consumer lending and technology company ranked #5 on KPMG’s 2017 list of the most important financial technology companies in the world; and Spring Labs, a blockchain startup where is a founding advisor along with Sheila Bair, the former chair of the FDIC, Gary Cohn, the former White House economic advisor, and Bobby Mehta, the former CEO of HSBC N.A.
Brian joined Coinbase from Fannie Mae, the nation’s largest financial institution, where he served for four years as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, overseeing a legal and government relations department of approximately 200 professional staff. In March 2019, Brian was elected to Fannie Mae’s board of directors. Fannie Mae was ranked 21st on the 2018 Fortune 500, with revenues of $112.4 billion and assets of $3.2 trillion.
Brian has played major roles in national politics and policy. In 2017, he played a leading role in the nomination, confirmation, and appointment process of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting, and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika. In his 2013 book The Map and the Territory, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that “Brian Brooks enhanced my understanding of the legal intricacies of mortgage markets.
He is the father of two Harvard undergraduates as well as a high school sophomore and an eighth grader in Washington, DC.
