Aida Alvarez doesn't have your typical financial regulator's resume.
She's been a teacher, a reporter, a government agency spokeswoman, and a public finance executive.
Has all this prepared her for her latest assignment?
Stint at New York Post
"She may not fit the mold of what we've been used to seeing in bank regulators," said one Republican House aide. But "as long as she hires the right people, she's probably up to doing what was envisioned in the legislation," the aide,said.
In 1973, Ms. Alvarez became a reporter for the New York Post, and then for a New York television station.
She moved to government in 1984 as head of the public affairs division of New York City's Health and Hospitals Corp., the city's municipal health care system.
A year later, she switched careers again - this time to the world of investment banking.
Investment Banking Post
She became a public finance executive at Bear, Stearns & Co. in New York.
Most recently, she was an investment banker in the San Francisco offices of First Boston Corp.
Ms. Alvarez has been active in New York and national politics.
In the 1988 campaign, she served as the New York state co-chair of Al Gore's presidential campaign. She also was active in President Clinton's election effort.
Family Moving East
Born in Puerto Rico, she was three when her parents left the island for New York. She is the oldest of six children.
Her husband, Raymond J. Baxter, was director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. He recently gave up that job, and is moving, east this week with the couple's two-year-old daughter, Aurora, and Ms. Alvarez's mother.
Mr. Baxter will work for a Virginia-based health care consulting company, Larry Lewin-VHI.
