WASHINGTON – Attorney Robert W. Cook has been tapped by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's board of governors to become chief executive officer of FINRA during the second half of the year.
Cook, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission's trading and markets division, will replace Richard Ketchum who has been FINRA CEO and chairman since 2009.
FINRA said in a release that its board will name a new chairman in the coming months. FINRA enforces Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules, along with the SEC.
Cook has been a partner in Cleary Gottlieb's Washington, D.C. office since June 2013 where he focuses on the regulation of securities markets and market intermediaries, including broker-dealers, exchanges, alternative trading systems and clearing agencies.
He joined the law firm in 1992, became partner in 2001, left for the SEC in 2009 and returned to the firm in 2013.
Cook was head of the SEC division from 2010 to 2013 where he directed 250 SEC professionals responsible for regulatory policy and oversight of securities market participants. He directed the staff's review of the structure of the equity market as well as its analysis of the Flash Crash of May 6, 2010.
"Robert has a deep understanding of the securities markets and investors will greatly benefit from his broad regulatory expertise developed as director of the SEC's trading and markets division where he led the organization in establishing and maintaining standards for fair, orderly and efficient markets," said FINRA lead Governor Jack Brennan, former CEO of Vanguard Group. "We thank Rick for his terrific leadership as FINRA's chairman and CEO, and express our gratitude on behalf of all investors for his decades of service."
Ketchum, who joined FINRA in 2009 after serving as chief executive of regulation at the New York Stock Exchange and before that, as president of both NASD and Nasdaq, announced last October that he planned to retire in during the second half of 2016.
