Ms. Julia Nickles Bryan

Julia is a former structured finance executive now focused on election reform. In 2018, Julia joined other members of YPO (Young Presidents Organization) in founding the YPO Democracy Group, which includes business leaders in the DC/MD/VA area committed to educating and engaging YPO members on nonpartisan structural reforms to improve the functioning of our democracy. In less than one year, the group has held two events and published two op-eds in support of gerrymandering reform.

Julia’s professional career began as a representative on Capitol Hill for California’s Governor Jerry Brown and then as Legislative Assistant to Jerry Patterson (D-CA). Later she served on the staff of the International Development Finance Subcommittee of the House Banking Committee. From there she moved to Freddie Mac, becoming their first Investor Relations professional.

She continued her career in New York where she specialized in structured finance and served as Vice President on a two-person team that lead the creation of two mortgage lending institutions in the United Kingdom, first for Salomon Brothers Inc. and later for Bear Stearns. At Salomon, she was instrumental in the first ever issuance of sterling securities backed by U.K. mortgages. She continued to innovate LIBOR-linked issuances at Bear Stearns. She later moved to Merrill Lynch where she served as a Director focused on U.S. residential mortgage finance, leading the origination of billion-dollar prime and subprime transactions. As a structured finance professional committed to quality control, Julia continued her career as a consultant for PentAlpha, a firm engaged as credit risk manager on numerous private-label mortgage-backed securities.

Julia is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she received her bachelor’s with a double major in political science and economics. She lives in Baltimore with her husband, Charles, and their two children. She served on the board of Planned Parenthood of Maryland for ten years, including two years as board chair.