Catherine Austin Fitts

Catherine offers Solari Report subscribers a unique perspective on how to navigate the opportunities and risks in the global financial system and political economy.
Catherine is the president of Solari, Inc., publisher of the Solari Report, and managing member of Solari Investment Screens, LLC.
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Career

Catherine served as managing director and member of the board of directors of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration, and was the president of Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. Catherine has designed and closed over $25 billion of transactions and investments to-date and has led portfolio and investment strategy for $300 billion of financial assets and liabilities.

Catherine graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (BA), the Wharton School (MBA) and studied Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She blogs for the Solari Report at solari.com.

“Long ago, I made a promise that I would never act against the best interests or the excellence of my own people—that I would do my best to ensure that we were worthy of the stewardship of our world and that we did our best to leave a better world for generations yet to come. To make and keep such a promise is to understand that money and position are tools, not goals, and that death is not the worst thing that can happen. Some would probably accuse me of ‘fighting the tape’ and not being ‘good at the game.’ I would tell those people that now is not the time in the history of our people for a failure of imagination.”

Press Kit for Catherine Austin Fitts

Professional

Solari, Inc.
President, 1998 to date, publisher of The Solari Report.

Solari Investment Screens, LLC
Managing Member, 2006 to date, of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC., now an investment screen firm.

The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., Washington, DC, San Francisco, CA, New York, NY 
President, 1991-1998. Responsible for founding and building this broker-dealer/investment bank with special emphasis on financial software technology and advanced decision science. Transactions for government and private clients totaled $12 billion of auctions and private placements. Portfolio strategy for the Federal Housing Administration related to $400 billion of mortgage insurance and related securities and real estate assets and liabilities. Transactions and portfolio strategy relied heavily on pricing infrastructure of software, databases and pricing tools used to identify and price existing and pro forma geographic flows of private and public income and investment on an integrated basis.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC
Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner, 1989-1990. Responsible for the operations of the Federal Housing Administration, including: annual originations of $50-100 billion of mortgage insurance; servicing of $320 billion of mortgage insurance, mortgages and properties, portfolio analysis and pricing for 63,000 communities; production and management of assisted private housing; reengineering of organization of 7,000 employees in 80 offices nationwide; migration of systems to network systems and tools; and advisor to the Secretary on capital markets regulatory responsibilities, including the RTC Oversight Board, Federal Housing Finance Board and Home Loan Bank Board System, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Focus included changes in law, regulations and administration to institute financial and appropriation controls and financial, actuarial and place based disclosure for FHA, federal credit programs and agencies government wide.

Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., New York, NY
Managing Director and Member, Board of Directors, 1986-1989; Senior Vice President, 1984-1986; Vice President, 1982-1984; Associate, 1978-1982. Served in the Corporate Finance, Energy Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions and Public Finance Departments.

Academic

  • The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, M.B.A., 1978 (Finance)
  • The University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1974 (History)
  • Yale-in-China Language Institute, Hong Kong (Mandarin)
  • Bennett College, A.A., 1970 (English)
  • Summer Schools, Harvard 1969, Stanford 1970
  • Sabbatical, MIT, Fall 1995

Publications

Memberships

Academic

  • Member, Board of Trustees, The Friends Select School, 9/99-5/02
  • Member, Graduate Executive Board, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 4/86-10/94
  • Member, Board of Overseers, University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, 2/87-3/89
  • Member, Board of Directors, Wharton Business School Club of New York, Inc., 12/88-3/89
  • Member, Advisory Board, The Wharton School Club of Washington, DC, 9/91-12/95
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Bank Street College, 11/88-3/89
  • Member, Capital Task Force Financial Advisory Group, New York City Board of Education, 7/87-3/89

Arts & Community

  • Member, Board of Directors, New York City Food Bank, 3/87-3/89
  • Member, Council for Excellence in Government, 7/91-12/97
  • Member, The Urban Land Institute, 5/90-12/97
  • Member, Board of Directors and Executive Committee, National Multi Housing Council, 4/92-12/95
  • Member, Board of Directors, The Housing Roundtable, Inc., 1/91-12/93
  • Member, Board of Directors, Children’s Health Defense – Europe, 10/22 – to Date

Business & Capital Markets

  • Member, Board of Directors, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), 7/04 – 10/10
  • Member, Rotary Club of Bolivar, TN, 3/04-5/06
  • Member, Advisory Board, Sanders Research Associates, 6/01-8/04
  • Member, The Economic Club of New York, 1/88-12/01
  • Member, Board of Directors, Student Loan Marketing Association, Sallie Mae, 11/91-3/94
  • Member, Board of Directors, Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., 1/86-3/89
  • Member, Board of Directors, Carteret Savings Bank, F.A., Morristown, NJ, 6/91-12/92
  • Member, Board of Directors, First American Corp. and First American Bankshares, Inc., 3/94-10/96
  • Member, Advisory Council, Federal National Mortgage Association, Fannie Mae, 2/92-12/93
  • Member, Emerging Markets Advisory Committee, Securities & Exchange Commission, 4/90-10/93
  • Member, The Bond Club of New York, Inc., 2/88-3/89

Church

  • General Assembly Church – 4/19 to date
  • Member, Christ Our Hope Reformed Episcopal Church – 1/11 to 3/19
  • Member, Hickory Valley Baptist Church, 11/99 – 1/11
  • Member, Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, 11/97 – 8/00
  • Attendance, Race Street Friends Meeting, 9/58-5/68

Information Technology

  • Member, Advisory Board, HTML.com, 11/02-12/06

Other

Internships

  • Goldman Sachs, 1977
  • Sante Fe National Bank, 1976