Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Rep. Andy Barr

Andy Barr has served as the United States Representative for Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District since 2013.

Congressman Barr is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee where he serves as the Chairman of the influential Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee. This Subcommittee has oversight of key financial regulators including the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Financial Stability Oversight Council. This Subcommittee also has jurisdiction over the monetary policy functions of the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve System and, as a result, is leading congressional oversight of the Fed’s efforts to combat inflation.

Congressman Barr is in his second term on the House Foreign Affairs Committee where he serves on the Indo-Pacific Subcommittee. Congressman Barr was also appointed to serve on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 118th Congress. On both committees, Congressman Barr brings extensive experience overseeing the U.S. Department of Treasury’s international portfolio, including its role in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, its implementation and enforcement of sanctions through the Office of Foreign Asset Control, and its participation in international financial institutions. This makes Congressman Barr uniquely qualified to advance U.S. interests in its economic competition with the People’s Republic of China, craft policies to prevent Chinese military, surveillance and technology companies from accessing U.S. capital markets, and counter the CCP’s economic aggression.

During his time in Congress, Congressman Barr has been a champion for Kentucky families, farmers, and small business owners. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congressman Barr was a key architect of the Paycheck Protection Program, which delivered forgivable loans to small businesses to stay open and keep paychecks flowing to their workers.

Congressman Barr graduated from Lexington’s Henry Clay High School in 1992, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Virginia in 1996, and received his law degree from the University of Kentucky in 2001.

Congressman Barr and his wife Davis reside in Lexington, Kentucky with their son, Hale, and his two daughters, Eleanor and Mary Clay.

Keynote Speaker

Congressman Patrick McHenry

Congressman Patrick McHenry is serving his tenth term as the representative for North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District.

In the 118th Congress, Congressman McHenry was elected as the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, a committee he has served on since he was elected to Congress. As Chairman, he continues advocating for innovative solutions that increase access to banking services and credit for American families and small businesses.

Prior to serving as the Chairman, Congressman McHenry was elected as the Republican Leader at the beginning of the 116th Congress. He also served as Vice Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

In 2015, Congressman McHenry was selected as Chief Deputy Whip, where he directly assisted Majority Whip Scalise by building consensus for the conservative policy agenda of the House Republican Conference. One of his proudest accomplishments as Chief Deputy Whip was the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which helped fix our nation’s broken tax code and provided much-needed tax relief to American families and businesses.

During the 113th Congress, Congressman McHenry served as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. In this role, he provided oversight of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal financial regulators. Congressman McHenry was previously a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In addition to his leadership roles on the Financial Services Committee, Congressman McHenry has successfully passed important legislation into law that helps entrepreneurs and startup investing. In the 114th Congress, Congressman McHenry authored the “RAISE Act” (Reforming Access for Investments in Startup Enterprises), which was signed into law by President Obama, providing the means for startup employees to sell their stock options to private investors.

Additionally, Congressman McHenry authored the primary legislation to legalize equity-based crowdfunding in the United States. The crowdfunding language he first authored in 2011 was eventually included in the JOBS Act which President Obama signed into law in April 2012. In recognition of his work supporting crowdfunding, Congressman McHenry was presented with the 2013 “Crowdfunding Visionary Award” by the Global Crowdfunding Convention. Congressman McHenry was also awarded the Crowdfunding Leadership Award by the University of California at Berkeley Fung Institute’s Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial Finance in 2013.

Congressman McHenry’s interest in crowdfunding and capital formation more broadly developed as a child, when his father attempted to grow a small business but struggled for financing. It was this experience—and the lack of small business financing in rural western North Carolina—that drove Congressman McHenry to become a leader on crowdfunding, capital formation, and other forms of disruptive finance. Recently this has expanded to encompass fintech as he works with industry leaders to discover innovative ways to combine finance and technology with the goal of expanding access to capital for America’s entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Congressman McHenry is a graduate of Ashbrook High School in Gastonia, N.C. and Belmont Abbey College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History. Congressman McHenry and his wife Giulia live in Denver, N.C. and worship at Holy Spirit Church. They are the parents of two daughters, Cecelia Rose and Therese Anne (who goes by Rese), and one son, Peregrine Callan (who goes by Perry).