FINRA CEO Mary Schapiro was named SEC Chairman by the incoming Obama administration, according to The Associated Press on Dec. 18. Schapiro led FINRA through the consolidation of the NYSE regulatory arm with NASD enforcement, combining the two entities' regulatory rulebooks for broker/dealers and creating a super- self-regulatory organization.
Schapiro was an SEC Governor for six years beginning in 1988 and was named acting Chairman of the SEC in 1993 by President Clinton. She has been Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, (CFTC), a particularly interesting part of her bio since there's been widespread speculation that the SEC and CFTC may at some point be combined under one entity as regulators are possibly revamped in response to the current financial crisis.
President-elect Obama also named Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Georgetown Law Professor Daniel Tarullo to a seat at the Federal Reserve in Washington, The AP reported. Gensler, a former executive at Goldman Sachs, has held undersecretary for domestic finance, and assistant secretary for financial markets posts at the Treasury Department; he is chair of the audit committee for the corporate benefits company WageWorks.
