CCA Board of Directors

Robert McNamara
Career Education Corporation
Hoffman Estates, IL

Mr. McNamara has been a member of the CCA Board of Directors for the past two years, focusing primarily on supporting the Government Relations efforts of the Association. He is currently the co-chair of the Legal Affairs Committee (which has subcommittees focused on Compliance, Litigation, General Counsel Issues and Other Legal Issues), and, in that capacity, also sit as a Member of the CCA Public Policy Committee. In addition he is a member of CCA’s Federal Legislative, Regulatory Affairs, Grassroots, State Affairs and Healthcare Committees.

For the past two years, Mr. McNamara has been the Senior Vice President in charge of CEC’s Government Relations Department, which is responsible for monitoring and influencing federal and state legislation; for hiring and coordinating the activities of a number of federal and state lobbyists, for coordinating and supporting certain political and civic outreach efforts by CEC campus presidents; for directing the activities and contributions of the new-formed CEC PAC; for coordinating the participation of CEC campus presidents and their graduates in CCA Hill Day; and for serving as a member of the GR Group of the publicly-traded companies, which have provided increased support to implement the three-year plan.

Prior to joining CEC, Mr. McNamara was a partner in the Washington office of the national law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, LLP, where he was a member of the firm’s Government Advocacy Group from 2001-2004. While at the firm, he also served as a Managing Director of ManattJones Global Strategies, LLC, the firm’s international consulting subsidiary. Prior to joining Manatt, Mr. McNamara was General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, a position appointed by President Clinton in November 1997. In that capacity, Mr. McNamara served as the Agency’s chief legal officer, ensuring the CIA complied with U.S. and international law.

Before his appointment as CIA General Counsel, Mr. McNamara served as Assistant General Counsel for Enforcement at the U.S. Department of the Treasury for eight years, where he supervised lawyers assigned to the U.S. Customs Service, the Secret Service, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN). While at the Treasury, he specialized in financial institution fraud and international money-laundering issues, and represented the Department and senior Treasury officials during numerous congressional inquiries and investigations. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of Enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees institutional markets and regulates commodity professionals.

Mr. McNamara also served as General Counsel of the Peace Corps, Legislative Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the then-Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and Assistant Majority Counsel of the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee. In addition, he was an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught Trial Practice for 12 years. Mr. McNamara began his legal career as a judicial law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for the late Chief Judge George C. Edwards, Jr,. in Cincinnati. He began his public service career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Palau, Micronesia.

Mr. McNamara was a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Information Policy Board, and a former member of the Defense Policy Board’s “Task Force on Intelligence in Support of the War on Terrorism.” He has also served as the Career College Association’s first Public Member of its Board of Directors from 2002-2004. He is the recipient of the CIA’s Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA Director’s Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury.

Mr. McNamara holds a B.A. degree from Mount Carmel College, an A.B. degree from John Carroll University, and a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was Symposium Editor of the American Criminal Law Review. Mr. McNamara and his wife Patti have been married for 29 years and have two children, Brendan and Caitlin, who live in Bethesda, Maryland.