Heath Price Tarbert (born July 15, 1976) is an American lawyer and former government official who served as the 14th Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2019 to 2021.
Tarbert later obtained a Master of Studies and a Doctor of Philosophy in comparative law from St John's College, Oxford, in 2005, where he was a Thouron Scholar.
[10][12][13] From 2010 to 2013, Tarbert was a senior counsel, and subsequently partner, at the law firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges, where he led the Financial Regulatory Reform Working Group.
[1] As acting Under Secretary, Tarbert was charged with advancing U.S. interests in multilateral organizations on financial stability and regulatory issues, while promoting growth, negotiating trade agreements, and advocating for standards that level the playing field for U.S. firms.
In this role, Tarbert was a key architect of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), which passed Congress with bipartisan support in August 2018.
[16] While at Treasury, Tarbert concurrently served as the acting U.S. Executive Director on the Board of the World Bank Group from 2017 to 2018, where he worked to negotiate a capital package that resulted in institutional reforms, including new financial discipline mechanisms and policies shifting a higher proportion of funding to poorer countries.
[23] In his role as chairman, Tarbert served as the CFTC's chief executive, overseeing the agency's approximately 1,000 employees and contractors across its offices in Washington, DC, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, and Kansas City, MO.
[29] "The partisan divisions in Washington may run deep, but the Commission's historically collegial atmosphere has continued uninterrupted," Tarbert noted in December 2020.
[31] Following Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, Tarbert announced he would resign from the CFTC chairmanship in early 2021 but retain his seat on the commission.
"[38] In June 2023, Circle announced that Tarbert would be joining their executive leadership team as Chief Legal Officer and Head of Corporate Affairs.
[2] Circle is a global financial technology company specializing in payments infrastructure and is the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), a digital stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar.
[39] Circle's Founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that Tarbert would play a major role in the company's future growth, both in "building a bridge between traditional finance and Web3 " and increasing "the utility value of USDC worldwide.