Former Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission; Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board, Promontory Financial Group
Allianz Distinguished Visitor - Class of Fall 2014
Mary L. Schapiro is vice chairman of the Advisory Board of the Promontory Financial Group and was chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission from 2009 to 2012, capping a distinguished career in government and private sector regulation. She was the first woman to serve as SEC chairman and the only person to have served as chairman of both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
During her four years at the head of the SEC she presided over one of the busiest rule-making agendas in the agency’s history, including a record number of enforcement actions, and executed a comprehensive restructuring program to improve protections for investors. Upon her departure, President Barack Obama praised her leadership, saying the SEC had become stronger and the financial system had become “safer and better able to serve the American people, thanks in large part to Mary’s hard work.”
Before becoming SEC chairman, Schapiro served as CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest nongovernmental regulator of securities firms. She worked for more than a decade with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ( FINRA) and its largest predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD R), where she was chairman and CEO at the time of its consolidation into FINRA. Prior, she was chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); a commissioner of the SEC; and general counsel and senior vice president of the Futures Industry Association. She began her career at the CFTC, serving first as a trial attorney and later as counsel and executive assistant to the chairman. She joined the board of directors of General Electric Company in 2013.