CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Mary Schapiro
Chairman, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (2009-2012)
Mary 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. Today she serves as managing director and chairman of the Governance and Markets Practice for the Promontory Financial Group, LLC.
During four years as SEC chairman, Schapiro presided over one of the busiest rule-making agendas in the SEC's history, during which the agency also brought a record number of enforcement actions, and 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 Schapiro'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 FINRA and its largest predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers. She was president of NASD regulation, vice chairman of the NASD, and was NASD's chairman and CEO at the time of its consolidation into FINRA.
Earlier, Schapiro 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 joined the board of directors of General Electric Co. in 2013.
