Professional Biography
John Mark McWatters served as a Member of the Board of the Financial Stability Oversight Council or FSOC (chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury), the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee, and NeighborWorks America. He also served as the Chair and a Member of the Board of the National Credit Union Administration (nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate).
Prior to joining these organizations, Mark served as the Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs and as a Professor of Practice at the SMU Dedman School of Law and as an Adjunct Professor at the SMU Cox School of Business where he taught courses in tax policy and international, corporate and partnership taxation. At such time, he also served on the Governing Board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate) and the Advisory Committee of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (appointed by the Governor).
Immediately prior to his term in academia, he served as a Member of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Congressional Oversight Panel (chaired by then Professor Elizabeth Warren; appointed to the Panel by the United States House of Representatives), the body charged with overseeing the implementation of the TARP program by the United States Treasury Department during the Financial Crisis of 2008-2009.
He has also practiced law as a partner with three international law firms, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP (Fulbright & Jaworski LLP), K&L Gates LLP (Hughes & Luce LLP), and Squire Patton Boggs LLP (Patton Boggs LLP), and as counsel to a cross-border hedge and private equity firm, HBK Capital Management LP, where he specialized in taxation, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions.
Mark also served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Walter Ely of the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles.
He earned his J.D. degree from The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, an LL.M. degree from each of Columbia University School of Law and New York University School of Law (Taxation), and an M.L.A. degree from The University of Chicago. Mark also served for an academic year as a Fellow in the Leadership and Society Initiative at The University of Chicago.
Mark is licensed to practice law in Texas and New York and as a Certified Public Accountant in Texas.
Mark currently practices law and has two adult sons.