After more than 100 days, the Trump administration is pushing to fill many vacancies at the nation’s key industry regulators.
With a growth agenda in mind, the Trump White House is moving to fill vacancies at the CFTC and SEC, left open since the end of the Obama administration.
At the CFTC, White House officials announced that former fund manager Brian D. Quintenz of Ohio has been nominated a second time to be a CFTC commissioner. His previous nomination by the Obama administration was approved by the Senate but could not be voted upon in time before the previous Congress ended in January.
If he is approved, Quintenz will complete the remainder of a five-year term, slated to expire April 13, 2020, that Scott O’Malia left in 2014 to take the CEO post at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).
Previously, Quintenz, served as the founder, managing principal, and chief investment officer of Saeculum Capital Management from November 2013 to November 2016, officials say. He wound down the firm in order to join the CFTC.
Before Saeculum, Quintenz was a consultant with Rose International from June 2013 until November 2013, officials say. Prior to that position, he worked at Hill-Townsend Capital from 2009 to 2012, initially as an analyst and then as the senior associate.
Aside from work as a fund manager, Quintenz served in the office of U.S. Representative Deborah Pryce from 2001 to 2007 as a staff assistant and later as a legislative assistant, and finally as senior policy advisor, officials say.
“I began my career in finance in 2008, during the financial crisis,” Quintenz said during his initial Sept. 15 hearing last year. “Working directly under the CEO at an investment firm focused on the banking sector, I performed detailed valuations on financial institutions of all sizes and complexities. I became an expert at reading banks’ balance sheets and income statements, understanding their accounting rules and financial disclosures, and forecasting their capital levels and quarterly earnings.”
This experience early in his career made him “a firm believer in data and transparency,” Quintenz said. “Transparency increases market efficiency and can provide important checks on risky behavior. The Commission’s focus on data and transparency is encouraging, but more progress is needed. If confirmed, I will draw from professional experience to advance that important work.”
If Congress approves the addition of Quintenz, the CFTC still needs to fill two commissioner positions
Jay Clayton, SEC chairman
At the SEC, the Senate recently approved Jay Clayton, a prominent Wall Street lawyer, as the next SEC chairman. Clayton, a former partner with the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, succeeds Mary Jo White, who served from April 2013 to January 20, 2017 when Donald Trump became president. With the Clayton appointment, the SEC consists of Kara M. Stein, an SEC commissioner, and Michael S. Piwowar, acting chairman for the SEC, but still needs two more commissioners.
In the meantime, the SEC has been filling key positions.
In fact, the regulator announced on May 15 that Robert B. Stebbins has been named general counsel of the agency and that Jaime Klima has been named chief counsel to Clayton, officials say. In addition, the SEC has named Sean Memon as deputy chief of staff for the SEC.
In his role as the general counsel, Stebbins is the chief legal officer of the SEC, providing legal services to the commission and staff. Before his move to the SEC, Stebbins was with law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he has worked since 1993, first as an associate and then later as a partner since 2001, officials say. At the firm, Stebbins’s efforts focused on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, investment funds, and capital markets transactions. In addition, he advised clients on SEC compliance issues and corporate governance matters.
In her new role as chief counsel, Klima will serve as a senior legal and policy adviser, and will coordinate the rulemaking agenda of the SEC, officials say. She will also serve as the chairman’s representative on the Deputies Committee of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
Most recently, Klima served as SEC co-chief of staff under then-Acting Chairman Piwowar, advising on issues of agency management and policy, officials say. Before that position, she was counsel to Piwowar and Commissioner Troy A. Paredes and covered many issues such as rulemaking and enforcement matters.
Before joining the SEC, Klima practiced law at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, specializing in broker-dealer compliance and regulation, officials say. She also clerked for the Honorable Richard Lowell Nygaard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Before serving as the agency’s deputy chief of staff, Memon worked providing advice to public and private companies in legal and financial roles, officials say. Before joining the SEC, Memon practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell in Washington, D.C., where he advised clients in regulatory and transactional matters such as capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. He also advised companies on matters involving financial technology and the development of new products and services, officials add.
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