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Mary Miller, a former Baltimore mayoral candidate who came in third place in the 2020 Democratic primary, chaired the audits committee of the board of the shuttered California lender that was taken over by federal regulators last week.
The former Obama administration Treasury Department official was appointed to the board of the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank in 2015, according to the bank’s 2023 proxy filing. In addition to chairing the audits committee, Miller served on the board’s risk and finance committees, where she was responsible for “risk appetite, risk profile and risk culture” and financial and balance sheet strategies.
She is also one of five board members appointed by the now-shuttered bank’s new FDIC-founded parent company to a committee tasked with considering potential buyers, managing billions in debt and restructuring the remaining parts of the Silicon Valley Bank portfolio.
Miller declined to comment.
Last week, Silicon Valley Bank became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 global financial crisis, after it revealed huge financial losses tied to rising interest rates and dwindling startup funding, leading panicked depositors to withdraw their money in a bank run.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the failure. The Federal Reserve Board announced it will conduct an investigative report of the bank’s collapse that will be publicly released by May 1.
Per the 2023 proxy filing, the audit committee that Miller chaired was responsible for “integrity of our financial statements, including internal controls over financial reporting,” ethical and regulatory compliance, and financial crimes risk management.
The board as a whole met 10 times during 2022, according to the filing, while the audit committee met 16 times, the finance committee met 12 times and the risk committee met 18 times.
The same document said Miller was paid $175,000 in fees earned or cash, on top of a stock award of $154,278, making her the third-highest paid of 11 non-employee board directors. The document also said she owned 5,605 Silicon Valley Bank shares.
Miller, viewed as a dark horse in a crowded Democratic primary that was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, placed a distant third place behind now-Mayor Brandon Scott and former Mayor Sheila Dixon, propelled by a $1.5 million infusion of her own cash.
Her campaign touted her experiences leading recovery efforts, from the Great Recession as the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for domestic finance from March 2012 to September 2014, and as assistant secretary of the treasury for financial markets from February 2010 to March 2012. She also led the fixed income division for T. Rowe Price, a Baltimore-based global investment management firm where she worked for 26 years.
She received a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is qualified as a chartered financial analyst.
Miller has quietly remained involved in Baltimore City politics, donating $250,000 to fund a political action committee that supported now-Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates shortly before last summer’s Democratic primary. The PAC produced a video that featured former opponents Miller and Dixon joined in support for Bates, who was facing incumbent Marilyn Mosby in a heated race.
The same summer, she released a co-written report with a Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative researcher that estimated that Baltimore’s vacant housing stock leads to at least $100 million in lost tax revenue each year and costs the city $100 million in annual expenses.
She currently serves on the Johns Hopkins University board of trustees and worked for the university as interim senior vice president for finance and administration during the 2020-21 academic year.
emily.sullivan@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Emily Sullivan covers Baltimore City Hall. She joined the Banner after three years at WYPR, where she won multiple awards for her radio stories on city politics and culture. She previously reported for NPR’s national airwaves, focusing on business news and breaking news.
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