Richard Wade Vague is an American businessperson,

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

ist, and author who served as Secretary of Banking and Securities of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

from 2020 until 2023.

Early life and education

Vague was born in

Wichita Falls, Texas Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan area, Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer County, Tex ...

to an

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

engineer and a

homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American English, American and Canadian English, Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational ...

. He is the second of four children and the family moved around Texas often. He attended college at

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

and graduated with a B.S. in advertising in 1982. He worked part-time at American National Bank in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

while attending college. After graduating he became the bank's chief marketing officer.Ladendorf, Kirk. "Lomas to sell credit card operations." ''Austin American-Statesman'', June 9, 1989: B7. ''NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current''. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/0EAD89764552C7BB .

Business career

Vague's business ventures in the banking and energy sectors were built on the use of

affinity marketing Affinity marketing is a concept that consists of a partnership between a company (supplier) and an organization that gathers persons sharing the same interests to bring a greater consumer base to their service, product or opinion. This partnershi ...

Banking

Vague started his business career in banking at American National Bank (later renamed MBank Austin) as chief marketing officer. In 1985, Vague was president of Mpact Brokers, a discount brokerage subsidiary of MCorp Bank. In 1987 he was named president and CEO of MBank USA, a credit-card bank subsidiary of Lomas & Nettleton Financial Corporation. In 1989 as president of

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

based credit card bank Lomas Bank USA, he and fellow MBank executive John Tolleson orchestrated the sale of Lomas' retail banking and credit card divisions to

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

for $435 million in cash and $65 million in preferred stock. After the acquisition, Lomas Bank USA was renamed First USA Bank. In 1990, Vague was named president of bank card company First USA Holdings. In 1996, Vague and five other First USA executives sold off over 200,000 of their shares in the company.

Bank One Bank One Corporation was an American bank founded in 1968 and at its peak the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONE. The company merged with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on July 1, ...

acquired First USA in 1997, then the fourth largest credit card issuer in the US, for $6.65 billion in stock. In June 1999, Vague and fellow Bank One executive James Stewart launched Wingspan Bank as an

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...

division of Bank One. By October 1999, Vague resigned as head of Bank One's credit card operations after the credit card unit under-performed, which had impacted the bank's expected earnings by 15%. In 2000, Vague and former Bank One executive James Stewart founded

Juniper Bank Juniper Bank was a direct bank based in Wilmington, Delaware. The bank focused on branded credit cards. History The bank was founded in January 2000. It received financing from Benchmark Capital. In November 2000, the bank began offering in ...

. Juniper Bank became Barclaycard US when it was acquired by

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

in 2004.

Energy

In 2007, Vague and Kevin Kleinschmidt, a former Barclaycard US executive, founded Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company. Energy Plus was acquired by

NRG Energy NRG Energy, Inc. is an American energy company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. It was formerly the wholesale arm of Northern States Power Company (NSP), which became Xcel Energy, but became independent in 2000. NRG Energy is involved in energ ...

in 2011 for $190 million.

Venture capitalism

In 2010, he founded venture capital firm Gabriel Investments.

Politics

Vague has been a Republican, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

and registered as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

in 2017.Brennan STAFF WRITER, By Chris. "Phila. tech capitalist eyes presidential run - Vague has been taking voters’ temperature.." ''Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)'', January 17, 2019: A1. ''NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current''. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/17101C6045A7A1C0 . In 1995 he served on Delaware's Education Improvement Commission, which recommended decentralization and deregulation of education decisions in the name of financial efficiency. In 2017, he served as finance chair on Rebecca Rhynhart's campaign for Philadelphia City Controller. In 2014, he was named to Pennsylvania Governor

Tom Wolf Thomas Westerman Wolf (born November 17, 1948) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 47th governor of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2023. He previously served as chairman and CEO of his business, The Wolf Organization, and l ...

's transition team as a member of a group to review the Department of Human Services. Governor Wolf appointed Vague as Acting Banking and Securities Secretary in February 2020. Vague has donated significant sums of money to both Republicans and Democrats. In the first half of 2019 he gave $150,000 to political action committee Philadelphia 3.0. Vague briefly considered running for president as a Democrat in 2020. He conducted 22 focus groups in early primary states.

Books

Vague has written five books: ''The Paradox of Debt'' (2023), ''The Case for a Debt Jubilee'' (2021), ''An Illustrated Business History of the United States'' (2021), ''A Brief History of Doom'' (2019), and ''The Next Economic Disaster'' (2014). He claims that all profits from sales of his latest "Debt Jubilee" book will "go to charity."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vague, Richard State cabinet secretaries of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Democrats American businesspeople 1956 births Living people