Gary Gensler
Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will be President-elect Joe Biden's pick to become the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Reuters.
"A knowledgeable and aggressive choice," Nick Morgan, a partner at the global defense firm Paul Hastings, told ThinkAdvisor in a Tuesday email message. "As the chair of the CFTC during the Obama administration, Gensler earned a reputation as an aggressive regulator following the financial crises, particularly in his pursuit of the LIBOR manipulation cases."
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Gensler, however, "does not have the criminal prosecution background that [former SEC chair] Mary Jo White had, which may suggest a more career regulator approach than a 'tough on crime' approach," Morgan said.
Gensler is pro-fiduciary.
As chairman of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission, which recommended the state pursue a fiduciary law, he told state senators in March 2019 that "If you don't broaden the fiduciary duty to cover broker-dealers … if that's not going to be the law, I would at least on the investment advisors that are already covered by fiduciary duty, raise that standard to the national standard, so it's consistent."
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
