The SEC announced that Brian Daly will be the new Director of the Investment Management Division, effective July 8, and that Jamie Selway will serve as Director of the Trading & Markets Division, a role he will assume on June 17. The regulator also reported that Kurt Hohl was appointed Chief Accountant and that Erik Hotmire is returning to the SEC as Chief External Affairs Officer. All announcements were made on Friday, June 13.
Daly has advised on cryptocurrencies, and Selway briefly worked at Blockchain.com, so their appointments are seen as a more crypto-friendly approach by the regulator, driven by President Donald Trump.
Brian Daly brings decades of experience in senior roles at global law firms and investment management companies, advising fund managers and sponsors on regulatory compliance.
For the past four years, he has been a partner in the investment management practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in New York, where he advised investment advisers and other clients on legal and compliance programs, policies and procedures, and provided guidance on fund and management company formation, operational and business matters, enforcement issues, and management company transactions, the SEC said in a statement.
“Brian’s deep knowledge across all levels of the investment management industry will be of great value, and I look forward to working with him to achieve smart and effective oversight of the industry and its relationships with investors,” said SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. “I look forward to collaborating with Brian on common-sense regulation that does not impose unnecessary burdens and truly respects the public comment process,” he added.
Daly stated: “I have always respected and valued the SEC’s commitment to regulatory oversight while advising clients on compliance and providing public comments from the investment management perspective during the agency’s rulemaking process. I am optimistic about this new chapter at the SEC and eager to work with Chairman Atkins and my new colleagues to ensure regulatory compliance by investment advisers and fund managers, while tailoring regulation to our legal authority.”
Before joining Akin, Daly spent nearly a decade as a partner in the investment management group at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, advising investment advisers and fund managers on legal, compliance, and operational issues. He was also a founding partner at Kepos Capital, a quantitative investment management firm, where he served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Among other past roles, he was General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Millennium Partners (a liquid markets fund manager under the Carlyle Group) and at Raptor Capital Management. Additionally, he taught legal ethics at Yale Law School and served on the board of the Managed Funds Association.
Jamie Selway, for his part, is a prominent leader in financial markets. “I want to welcome Jamie to the SEC,” said Paul Atkins. “He brings decades of experience in market structure and across multiple asset classes, which is essential for this role. I look forward to working with him to protect our markets and ensure that the agency’s regulations strike the right balance between costs and benefits,” he added.
Selway most recently was a partner at Sophron Advisors, where he advised clients on capital markets issues. He was also a board member at Protego Holdings, board chair at AllofUs Financial and Skew, and an advisor to several fintech companies.
Previously, he was Managing Director and Head of Electronic Brokerage at Investment Technology Group, a global institutional brokerage firm. He co-founded institutional brokerage firm White Cap Trading, where he served as Managing Director and President. Early in his career, he was Chief Economist at Archipelago, worked in equity derivatives research at Goldman Sachs, and was Associate Director of Research at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), which later became FINRA.
The appointments indicate that the SEC is shifting its stance on the digital space since Chairman Atkins took office in April. Under his leadership, the regulator has withdrawn or suspended several major lawsuits against cryptocurrency companies. The agency dropped cases against Coinbase, Cumberland DRW, and Richard Heart, founder of Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX. In March, the SEC held its inaugural roundtable of the crypto task force to discuss future regulation of digital assets, signaling what appears to be a new era under the Trump administration.
