Beth Wilkinson

Beth A. Wilkinson is a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer, who successfully argued for the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. She has also been a critic of unfair administration of the death penalty. She also served as Fannie Mae's executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary from February 2006 until September 2008.She resigned her position at Fannie Mae along with three other senior executives on September 19, 2008, after the troubled mortgage giant was taken over by the government. [http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/20/real_estate/fannie_execs.ap/index.htm "Four Fannie Mae Execs Resign"]

Her compensation at Fannie Mae was not disclosed when she was hired. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/business/16legal.html/ The Lure of the In House Job]

Personal

In June 2000, [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E2DA103FF932A25755C0A9669C8B63 New York Times Weddings: Beth Wilkinson, David Gregory] ] she married David Gregory, he is the host of Race for the White House on MSNBC and is an NBC reporter, they have three children. [ [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3688588/ David Gregory - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com ] ]

Biography

Education

Wilkinson graduated with a B.A from Princeton University in 1984,and from the University of Virginia Law School with a J.D.

Career

She joined the United States Army's Honors Program and served as a captain and assistant for intelligence and special operations in the office of the Army's general counsel. That office detailed her as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida to assist with the use of classified information in the prosecution of Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega. [ [http://www.fanniemae.com/aboutfm/executives/wilkinson.jhtml?p=About+Fannie+Mae&s=Executives About Fannie Mae: Executives > Beth Wilkinson ] ]

After completing her four-year obligation to the Army, Wilkinson became a full-time Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1991, prosecuting various kinds of cases including narcotics, white collar offenses, and violent crimes. Among her cases was the first United States prosecution of a bombing of an airliner--the 1994 case against Colombian narcoterrorist Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, whom she successfully prosecuted for the bombing of an Avianca civilian airliner as well as murder of U.S. citizens and other drug-related crimes. [ [http://www.princeton.edu/~armyrotc/alumni2.htm Princeton Army ROTC - Alumni ] ]

Wilkinson won the Justice Department's highest honor, The Attorney General's Exceptional Service Award, for her work on Mosquera case. She then became special counsel to the deputy attorney general, advising the top management of the Department on criminal policy and investigations. She was promoted to principal deputy of the Department's Terrorism and Violent Crime Section, and it was in that capacity that she participated in the trial team in U.S. vs. McVeigh and Terry Nichols. She won the Attorney General's Exceptional Service Award an unprecedented second time. [ [http://www.fanniemae.com/aboutfm/executives/wilkinson.jhtml?p=About+Fannie+Mae&s=Executives About Fannie Mae: Executives > Beth Wilkinson ] ]

After leaving the Justice Department, Wilkinson became a co-chair with Gerald Kogan of the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Committee of the Criminal Justice Program, "a bipartisan committee of death penalty supporters and opponents who all agree that the risk of wrongful executions in this country has become too high." [ [http://www.constitutionproject.org/deathpenalty/index.cfm?categoryId=2 Constitution Project: Death Penalty Initiative ] ] She also became a partner in Latham & Watkins, LLP, Washington, D.C., where she co-chaired the White Collar Practice Group and advised clients on internal investigations. [ [http://www.fanniemae.com/aboutfm/executives/wilkinson.jhtml?p=About+Fannie+Mae&s=Executives About Fannie Mae: Executives > Beth Wilkinson ] ]

Recruitment to Fannie Mae

In 2006,Fannie Mae recruited Wikinson as parts of its effort to rebuild its relationship with regulators after accounting scandals and complaints about its corporate culture. [ [http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1161680720146 Going In-House? It Might Be a Wise Move ] ]

Notes