Thomas H. Stanton

is an attorney who has dedicated his career to strengthening design and management of government programs that deliver public services. He is a former member of the federal Senior Executive Service.

Mr. Stanton is a former President of the Association for Federal Enterprise Risk Management (AFERM), an organization dedicated to improving risk management in federal agencies and programs. In 2018 AFERM awarded him its Hall of Fame Award. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). In 2017 NAPA awarded him its George Graham Award for Exceptional Service to the Academy.

Mr. Stanton teaches as an adjunct faculty member at the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, where he received the award for Excellence in Teaching. He teaches the program’s core course for the MBA/MA in Government and for the Public Management program. Mr. Stanton has been an invited witness before many congressional committees and subcommittees, and in 2020 and 2021 taught courses at the Yale Alumni College based on his book, American Race Relations and the Legacy of British Colonialism (Routledge, 2020).

With a career that bridges the practical and the academic, Stanton’s work has led to the creation of new offices and approaches to delivering public services more effectively. His accomplishments over the years include:

• Providing strategic planning to assist the Small Business Administration to launch and implement its $5 billion loan asset sales program,
• Assisting the Small Business Administration to create an Office of Lender Oversight,
• Assisting the Office of Management and Budget to set a multiyear agenda for improved management of federal credit programs,
• Inventing the concept of contingent capital now used to strengthen major financial institutions globally,
• Assisting the USDA-Rural Development mission to establish Enterprise Risk Management and hire a Chief Risk Officer,
• Assisting the Veterans Benefits Administration to establish Enterprise Risk Management, and
• Producing numerous books and articles and helping to convene conferences and roundtables to help federal agencies improve design and management practices.

And legislative activities that include assisting in enacting legislation to:

• Create the first safety-and-soundness regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and
• Require federal government publication of an annual report on Tax Expenditures

Mr. Stanton’s book, Why Some Firms Thrive While Others Fail: Governance and Management Lessons from the Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2012), builds on his service with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, where he interviewed numerous CEOs, bankers, traders, risk officers, regulators and policymakers. That book was also published in China (企业生死之谜：经济危机的治理与管理教训).

Other books include Managing Risk and Performance: A Guide for Government Decision Makers (John Wiley & Sons, 2014), co-edited with Douglas Webster, and Public Sector Enterprise Risk Management: Advancing Beyond the Basics (Routledge, 2019), co-edited with Kenneth Fletcher.

This website contains information about the books and articles that Tom Stanton has written. You are welcome to download any of the publications available on the site.

If you have questions or comments, please email Tom Stanton at: t[email protected].