Secretary Spellings Appoints Lawrence Warder as Acting Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has designated the Department’s Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Warder as Acting Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid (FSA) effective today.

“I am pleased Larry has agreed to add to his duties and serve as acting chief operating officer at FSA as the Department moves forward in its search for a permanent candidate,” said Secretary Spellings. “Larry brings extensive management expertise, financial issue knowledge and strong leadership skills to the job. He is ready to hit the ground running at this important time at FSA.”

Prior to joining the Department in July 2006 as Chief Financial Officer, Warder had a 36-year career in the private sector, with 33 of those in management consulting to a variety of industries. He spent the majority of his career with Deloitte Consulting, serving as global director of operations and holding other senior management positions in the London, New York, Dallas and Detroit offices. Earlier in his career, he served as supervisor for financial systems at General Tire and Rubber Co. Warder received his bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of Akron and his master’s in business administration from Kent State University. He is a certified management consultant, management accountant and public accountant.

FSA was created by Congress in 1998 as a performance-based organization and delivers approximately $77 billion of financial aid each year to more than 10 million students and their families. In January 2005, its student aid programs were removed from the GAO High-Risk designation list after 15 years. Today, FSA delivers more aid to more students at a lower operating cost with greater accuracy than at any point in its history. In addition, FSA has continued to reduce the default portion of the student loan portfolio by nearly 40 percent since FY2000, at the same time that the overall outstanding student loan portfolio doubled.