President-elect Joe Biden is expected to choose Gary Gensler, a former financial regulator, and Goldman Sachs executive, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Gensler has a reputation as a tough regulator who directed the overhaul of derivatives markets mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
“The choice of Mr. Gensler, who declined to comment, wasn’t final and could still change,” the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
Gensler was chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leading the Obama Administration’s reform of the $400 trillion swaps market. He also was 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 during the Clinton Administration.
He worked on various political campaigns, most recently as CFO for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, as a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, and subsequently as an economic advisor for the Obama 2008 campaign.
Gensler is also Bitcoin savvy, conducting research and teaching on blockchain technology, digital currencies, financial technology, and public policy as a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Industry watchers and consumer advocates were pleased with the news.
“Gary Gensler was incredibly effective at CFTC. If true, this would be a good choice for investors,” Barbara Roper, Director of Investor Protection, Consumer Federation of America, tweeted when hearing of the possible choice.
Gensler is an avid runner, having completed nine marathons and the JFK 50-mile race. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics in 1978 and his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1979. He has three daughters and is from Baltimore, Maryland.
He also co-authored The Great Mutual Fund Trap, which is described as “a book presenting common sense investing advice for middle-income Americans.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
