The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in a press release Monday that it has named Mark J. Flannery as the newest chief economist and director of the Economic and Risk Analysis division (DERA), a section that offers interdisciplinary scrutiny to help bring up to date the Commission’s policymaking, rulemaking, enforcement and examinations.
Flannery, who has been a professor of finance at the University of Florida’s Warrington School of Business Administration since 1989, will take over the reins from acting DERA co-directors Scott Bauguess and Jennifer Marietta-Westberg in September and officially replace former director Craig Lewis, a finance professor at Vanderbilt University.
In addition to his teaching duties – he also instructed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Pennsylvania – Flannery is also a Model Validation Council member at the Federal Reserve, a senior adviser at the Office of Financial Research of the Treasury Department and a member of the advisory committee at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Center for Financial Innovation and Financial Stability.
In comments regarding his addition to the SEC, Flannery explained how honored he is to be serving at the SEC and applying his expertise to important matters.
“I am honored to lead this group of economic experts and hope that my research and professional experience can assist the Commission in its mission to protect investors and make securities markets more efficient,” said Dr. Flannery in a statement. “I look forward to delving into the important economic issues before the Commission and to applying my analytical and empirical tools to this regulatory arena.”
Flannery, who obtained his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, has also published research on a wide variety of topics, such as banking and capital matters, corporate finance and systemic risk. He was the editor of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking for five years.
SEC Chair Mary Jo White remarked at how valuable Flannery will be to the SEC, a federal government body that enforces securities laws and regulating the securities industry.
“Professor Flannery is a widely respected economist with extensive experience in many areas relevant to the SEC’s mission, including the regulation of financial institutions, corporate finance, private funds, and credit ratings agencies,” said White in a statement. “His decades of research experience in the field of financial economics, as well as his work with other financial regulators, will be valuable assets as he leads the Commission’s strong team of economists.”
Wealth Management reports that SEC Republican Commissioner Mike Piwowar welcomed the latest appointment to the arm of the SEC.
DERA has been described as an economic think tank for the SEC as its staff members opine on an array of important economic problems, including economics, risk analysis, finance, law, mathematics and statistics.
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