Valerie Abend is the Senior Critical Infrastructure Officer for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
In this role, Ms. Abend leads the agency’s cyber security and resilience efforts for its supervised banks and serves as the inaugural chair of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Working Group. She joined the OCC in December 2012.
Ms. Abend has more than 20 years of public and private sector experience. Prior to joining the OCC, she worked as a Managing Director with BNY Mellon from 2010 through 2012. Before that, she was a senior official with the Federal Reserve Board from January 2009 to June 2010.
From 2006 to 2009, Ms. Abend served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where in 2007 the President appointed her Deputy Assistant Secretary for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Compliance Policy.
Ms. Abend also was an Associate Director for Public Policy at KPMG LLP. During her career, she has served on the President’s Identity Theft Task Force; the Executive Committee of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council, where she Co-Chaired the Policy Committee; the Board of Directors for the Internet Security Alliance; and is a member of the Executive Women’s Forum.
Ms. Abend received her bachelors in political communications and a masters in Public Administration both with honors from The George Washington University.