On July 18, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Jaime Lizárraga was sworn in as the SEC’s newest Commissioner following the departure of Allison Herren Lee on July 15. The current SEC Commissioners are as follows, in order of reverse seniority:
| Jaime Lizárraga
Commissioner
|
Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga is returning to the SEC after a lengthy career in public service, serving in roles as Senior Professional Staff Member/Director of Legislative Affairs for the Democratic staff of the House Financial Services Committee, Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Deputy Director of the SEC’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. More recently, he served as Senior Advisor to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Commissioner Lizárraga’s term expires on June 5, 2027. |
|
Mark Uyeda Commissioner |
Commissioner Mark Uyeda was sworn in as a Commissioner in June 2022 continuing his long career at the SEC. He has served on the staff of the SEC since 2006, including as Senior Advisor to Chairman Jay Clayton, Senior Advisor to Acting Chairman Michael S. Piwowar, Counsel to Commissioner Paul S. Atkins, and various staff positions in the Division of Investment Management. At the time of his appointment, he was serving as securities counsel to the Senate Banking Committee’s minority staff. Prior to joining the SEC, he served as Chief Advisor to the California Corporations Commissioner and was an attorney at K&L Gates and O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
Commissioner Uyeda’s term expires on June 5, 2023. |
| Gary Gensler
Chair (twitter: link)
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Chair Gary Gensler was sworn in as Chair of the SEC in April 2021. Before joining the SEC, Chair Gensler was most recently Professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Co-Director of MIT’s Fintech@CSAIL, and Senior Advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative. From 2017-2019, he served as chair of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission. Chair Gensler also served as chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leading the Obama Administration’s reform of the $400 trillion swaps market, Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes in writing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002), and was Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1997-2001. Prior to his public service, Gensler worked at Goldman Sachs, where he became a partner in the Mergers & Acquisition department, headed the firm’s Media Group, led fixed income & currency trading in Asia, and was co-head of Finance, responsible for the firm’s worldwide Controllers and Treasury efforts.
Chair Gensler’s term expires on June 5, 2026. |
| Caroline Crenshaw
Commissioner |
Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw was sworn in as a Commissioner in August 2020. Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Crenshaw was a career SEC staff attorney in the Division of Examinations (formerly the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations) and the Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Crenshaw also served as Counsel to Commissioners Kara Stein and Robert Jackson. In addition, Commissioner Crenshaw currently serves as a captain in the United States Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Prior to government service, Commissioner Crenshaw practiced law in the Washington, D.C., office of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan LLP. At Sutherland she represented public companies, broker-dealers, and investment advisers on complex securities law investigations and enforcement matters.
Commissioner Crenshaw’s term expires on June 5, 2024. |
| Hester Peirce
Commissioner (twitter: link) |
Commissioner Hester Peirce was sworn in as a Commissioner in January 2018. Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was a Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues. Commissioner Peirce served as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins. She also worked as a Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Peirce was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) and clerked for Judge Roger Andewelt on the Court of Federal Claims.
Commissioner Peirce’s term expires on June 5, 2025. |
With the recent appointments of Commissioners Lizárraga and Uyeda, each of the five SEC Commissioner seats has been filled. No more than three Commissioners may belong to the same political party. Lizárraga joins Chair Gensler and Commissioner Crenshaw in the Democrat-led majority, with Commissioner Uyeda joining Commissioner Peirce in the Republican minority. Commissioners Uyeda and Peirce worked together as counsels to Commissioner Atkins, where they were joined by former Commissioner Dan Gallagher. At Commissioner Uyeda’s first Open Meeting on July 13, 2022, he joined Commissioner Peirce in voting against the rule proposal to amend Exchange Act Rule 14a-8 and in voting against the final rule on proxy advisory firms.
Information about the current SEC Commissioners can be found online here.
Special thank you to Marshall Makk, summer associate in our Houston office, for this work on this post.