Interview with Mary Schapiro

Mary Schapiro

Managing Director and Chairman of the Governance and Markets Practice
Promontory Financial Group
Former Chair, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
 

Biography

Ms. Schapiro’s service as the 29th SEC chairman culminated decades of regulatory leadership. 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 four years as chairman, Ms. Schapiro presided over one of the busiest rule-making agendas in the SEC’s history, during which the agency also executed a comprehensive restructuring program to improve protections for investors. Upon her departure, President Obama praised her leadership, saying the SEC became stronger and the financial system “safer and better able to serve the American people — thanks in large part to Mary’s hard work.”

Before becoming SEC chairman, Ms. Schapiro served as CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the largest nongovernmental regulator of securities firms. Earlier, she was chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; 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 also serves on the boards of Promontory Interfinancial Network and General Electric Co.