Photo: United States Department of Education / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Cordray represents a kind of public service that rarely gets applause: building institutions for people with little leverage. A Marshall Scholar who studied at Oxford, he became the founding director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, standing up an entire agency meant to shield ordinary borrowers from predatory finance. Being the first to run something is harder than inheriting it, and he did that after stints as Ohio's attorney general, solicitor general, and treasurer. Later he steered the vast federal student aid operation. He reads to me as a substance-over-spectacle operator, the sort who quietly designs the rules that protect the weaker side. I find that easy to trust.
Overview
Richard Adams Cordray (born May 3, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician who served from 2021 to 2024 as chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid in the U.S. Department of Education. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2012 to 2017 as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and previously as Ohio attorney general, solicitor general, and state treasurer.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Richard Cordray
- Name (Japanese)
- リチャード・コードレイ
- Reading
- りちゃーど・こーどれい
- Born
- May 3, 1959 (age 67)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Boar
- Origin
- Columbus, Ohio, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- lawyer / politician / treasurer / jurist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Grove City High School
- University
- Brasenose College
Awards & achievements
- Marshall Scholarship
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Lawyer — see all → · Politician — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.