Ex-Senate Banking Aide Named Chief of Staff to SEC's Schapiro

Didem A. Nisanci, former staff director of the Senate Banking Committee's securities subcommittee, has been named chief of staff to Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro, the SEC announced yesterday.

She will join the commission later this week.

"I am pleased Didem has agreed to bring her extensive background, knowledge, experience, and leadership skills to the SEC during this critical time," Schapiro said. "Didem has been vital to Senate oversight of the SEC during the past few years, and now she will help lead the agency as we work with other financial regulators and Congress to improve investor confidence in the markets."

Nisanci joined the securities subcommittee, which is chaired by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., in January 2007. She played a key role in ensuring that Congress increased the SEC's budget for fiscal 2009 to enhance its examination, enforcement, and risk management efforts.

She also served as a lead staff negotiator for key provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. She worked in Reed's office before that.

Earlier in her career, from 1998 through 2001, she was the Treasury Department's deputy to the assistant secretary of legislative affairs and public liaison. She received the Treasury Secretary's Award for Meritorious Service, the Treasury Secretary's Certificate for development of the administration's money laundering strategy and legislation, the Treasury Secretary's Certificate for the passage of financial modernization legislation, and the Treasury Secretary and Undersecretary Certificate for Debt Management.

Nisanci received a bachelor's degree in economics and government from Smith College in 1995.

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