On Friday, April 17, 2021, the SEC announced that Gary Gensler has been sworn into office as a member of the SEC and the agency’s Chair. Mr. Gensler was nominated to Chair the SEC by President Joseph R. Biden on February 3, 2021, and the Senate voted to confirm him as SEC Chairman on April 14, 2021.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Gensler was most recently the Professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Senior Advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative, and Co-Director of MIT’s Fintech@CSAIL. Mr. Gensler also served as chair of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission from 2017-2019.
Mr. Gensler, whose career began in banking, brings with him a wealth of experience from past positions held, including:
- Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Obama where he led the Administration’s reform of the $400 trillion swaps market
- Senior Advisor to US Senator Paul Sarbanes where he assisted in the drafting of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002
- Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1997-2001
- Partner in the Mergers & Acquisition department at Goldman Sachs. He also headed the firm’s Media Group, led fixed income and currency trading in Asia, and was co-head of Finance, which was responsible for the firm’s worldwide Controllers and Treasury efforts.
In acknowledgment of his service, Mr. Gensler was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Treasury’s highest honor. He is also a recipient of the 2014 Frankel Fiduciary Prize.
Mr. Gensler earned his undergraduate degree in economics and his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sources:
Gary Gensler Sworn in as Member of the SEC (sec.gov)
