Key Aide to FINRA CEO Gets a Promotion

Nathaniel Stankard has been promoted to executive vice president and chief of staff to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority CEO Robert Cook for Regulatory Operations. He had been a senior advisor to Cook.

In this newly created position, Stankard will spearhead integrating FINRA’s regulatory operations as well as advancing FINRA’s unified approach to regulatory policy.

Stankard will work closely with FINRA’s chief legal officer and the heads of FINRA’s Member Supervision, Market Regulation and Transparency Services, and Enforcement departments to enhance FINRA’s regulatory operations, further develop FINRA’s integrated regulatory program and prepare FINRA for industry and market developments that may require a regulatory response, the broker-dealer self-regulator said.

Stankard will also continue to provide strategic and policy advice to Cook on other aspects of FINRA’s regulatory mission.

“Achieving FINRA’s mission of investor protection and market integrity depends on coordinated, comprehensive responses to the risks facing investors and markets across all of our operations,” Cook said in a statement. ”Nathaniel’s proven leadership abilities, collaborative approach and deep experience across regulatory operations, policy and the securities industry make him ideally suited to take on this newly created position.”

Stankard joined FINRA in 2017. Prior to that, he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission for seven years, serving as counsel to the director of the Division of Trading and Markets and later as the deputy chief of staff for policy in the office of former SEC Chair Mary Jo White.

He received a B.A. in economics from Oberlin College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

“I am proud of what our regulatory operations do every day to safeguard investors and ensure market integrity,” Stankard said, “and I look forward to working with my colleagues across FINRA to further strengthen our ability to advance that mission as one unified team.”