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Young tech gurus bring start-up ethos to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

By Suzy Khimm,September 07, 2012

View Photo Gallery - : Who’s who at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: A look at…

Some join the federal government after law school; others after a stint with a campaign, nonprofit or consulting firm. Audrey Chen came from “South Park.”

As a senior designer at Comedy Central, Chen re-engineered the Web sites for cult hits such as “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” But a year ago, the Brooklynite was persuaded to join a team of Web developers, information architects, and digital strategists who want to revolutionize the very way that Washington works.

If Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are now the guiding lights for the young generation now “staring up at fading Obama posters” — as Paul Ryan said in his convention speech — then the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recruited straight from the source.

The CFPB was created in July 2010 to battle exploitative and deceptive financial practices as part of President Obama’s Wall Street overhaul. And it’s become a mecca for the young, creative do-gooders who still believe that new technology and the right open-source ethos can fulfill the president’s promise of a changed Washington.

Chen, 34, had never worked for the government before — or expected that she would. But in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, she leapt at the chance to join a new agency that likens itself to a tech start-up, with the goal of creating an efficient, participatory, transparent government that replaces ideology and partisanship with data and results.

She’s now the CFPB’s creative director, helping to lead a tech and innovation team whose work is integral to the agency’s policy efforts. “I’m excited by things that need fixing,” said Chen, a petite Brooklynite with a chin-length bob and thick black glasses.

Chen is joined by Victor Zapanta, a 29-year-old CFPB Web developer who uses Twitter and Foursquare to track his every move around Washington, whether it’s a pop-up art installation in Anacostia or the launch of a new credit-card database. As a CFPB tech specialist, Erie Meyer, 27, espouses the start-up strategies of Eric Ries, a leading Web entrepreneur; outside of the office, she hosts meet-ups for a group of female Web gurus known as the “Tech LadyMafia.” Another CFPB tech strategist, Noah Kunin, is among the longest-tenured staffers in the entire agency, having joined in December 2010. He’s now 30.

These young staffers want to make Washington work better, faster and smarter. But they’re also trying to pull it off at the most politically controversial agency inside the Beltway — one with unprecedented authority over the financial industry, which Mitt Romney himself has vowed to repeal. It’s not clear whether such a revolution can happen at a place that’s required, by law, to put up red tape — or whether the CFPB will survive long enough to turn its virtual dreams into a reality.

A Beltway start-up

From the outside, the CFPB looks like an unlikely place for any kind of revolution: Its headquarters are a bland, concrete relic that used to house the old Office of Thrift Supervision. The previous tenant’s logo is still rusted into the side of the building, covered up with a large white placard. Inside, signs are taped to the conference room doors.

Despite its humble facade, the CFPB has more leeway than any other agency to reinvent the way that government works by virtue of starting from scratch. Obama’s promise of change wasn’t just about overcoming partisanship, but also using technology to change the nature of government itself. His 2008 campaign leveraged digital tools to attract voters, volunteers and contributions. On his first day in office, the president vowed to apply the same digital tools and ethos to bring “an unprecedented level of openness” and public engagement to Washington itself.

Early on, the CFPB attracted some of the very veterans who powered Obama’s 2008 campaign. Its approach to its tech-centered projects has been shaped as much by industry leaders like Apple and Google as the Treasury Department. “Think Mint.com meets Healthcare.gov with a really fun team and an agency with a wonderful mission,” Merici Vinton — an Obama 2008 campaign staffer and recently-departed CFPB tech strategist — told blogger Alex Howard in the agency’s early months. “The downside for a talented, high demand developer is that there isn’t an IPO or acquisition at the end of this rainbow. The upside is — creating this agency and getting it right from day one is important work.”

This isn’t your father’s government agency: It’s a place that hosts its own lunchtime version of TED talks, serves Pabst Blue Ribbon at holiday parties and adopts a Silicon Valley method to managing its digital projects. Even the CFPB logo is a conscious departure from the buttoned-down aesthetic of the Beltway: It depicts a searchlight shining across bright green, all-lower-case letters.