Kathy Dick

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Salt of the Earth Consulting

Kathryn Dick (she/her) is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Salt of the Earth Consulting (SOTE), leveraging her accomplished career and reputation as a sought-after advisor to financial institution clients. Kathy has deep experience in navigating regulatory issues, governance and risk management challenges, strategic initiatives, and compliance requirements.

Kathy began her career in the public sector, spending 26 years at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). There, she started as a community bank examiner and rose through the OCC ranks to complete her tenure as a Deputy Comptroller for Credit and Market Risk, Chair of the OCC’s National Risk Committee, and OCC representative for the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. Along the way, Kathy served as the Examiner-in-Charge of the OCC’s London Office, developed the OCC’s Financial Markets Group and was responsible for identifying emerging risk issues in the banking system and leading efforts to promptly respond to early warning signals. In response to the 2008 financial crisis, she served as co-Chair of the agency team established by the Comptroller to influence global and domestic regulatory reform efforts.

Upon leaving the OCC in 2010, Kathy joined the consulting firm Promontory Financial Group (“Promontory, a Business Unit of IBM”). Kathy served as one of Promontory’s critical leaders, executing on the mission and vision developed by former OCC Comptroller of the Currency, Gene Ludwig, Founder of Promontory. As a Managing Director, Kathy successfully led client engagements at multinational banks, midsize banks, thrifts, and financial market utilities such as rating agencies and clearinghouses. She played a key role in client outreach by heading one of Promontory’s primary client coverage groups.

After eight successful years at Promontory, Kathy chose to step deeper into the private sector by joining United Services Automobile Association (USAA) in a newly created position of Senior Vice President of Risk, Governance and Regulatory Strategy. This career move was motivated by her respect for persons who serve to protect their communities (including Kathy’s immediate family members) and the USAA mission to facilitate the financial security of its members. While at USAA, Kathy recruited and hired the team needed to develop and support a comprehensive regulatory relations strategy for engagement with Federal and State regulatory authorities. Kathy was responsible for regulatory reporting to USAA’s management committees and Board of Directors, and established infrastructure to manage and report accurately and timely on regulatory matters.