![A smiling light-skinned female with short brown hair wearing a navy suit jacket against a light background](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-05/JoAnnBarefoot_milkeninstitute.jpg?itok=RZ5ZCr6n)
Jo Ann Barefoot
Jo Ann Barefoot is CEO & co-founder of AIR—the Alliance for Innovative Regulation—and host of the global podcast show Barefoot Innovation. A noted advocate of “regulation innovation,” Barefoot is senior fellow emerita at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business & Government. She has been Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, partner at KPMG, co-chair of Treliant Risk Advisors, and staff member at the US Senate Banking Committee. She serves on the board of Oportun, on the FinTech advisory committee of FINRA, on the Milken Institute FinTech Advisory Committee, and on the California Blockchain Working Group Advisory Board. Barefoot previously chaired the boards of directors of the Financial Health Network and FinRegLab and served on the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board. She currently serves on the boards of FinRegLab and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Barefoot co-founded Hummingbird Regtech and, in 2020, was named to the FinTech Hall of Fame by CB Insights. In 2021 she was voted Fintech Woman of the Year by Finovate and was named to the Forbes list of 50 Over 50, and AIR was honored in Fast Company's awards on World-Changing Ideas.