Gary Gensler

Gary Gensler served as the 33rd Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from April 17, 2021, through January 20, 2025, after being nominated by President Joseph R. Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In that role, Chair Gensler led the agency through a robust rulemaking agenda to enhance efficiency, resiliency, and integrity in the U.S. capital markets. He also oversaw an enforcement program that held wrongdoers accountable and returned billions to harmed investors.

Under Chair Gensler’s leadership, the SEC adopted the most consequential reforms in a generation of the United States’ two largest markets – the equity markets and the Treasury markets. These reforms lower costs and risk while enhancing competition and market integrity. They include shortening the settlement cycle to one day for equities, corporate bonds, and other securities as well as promoting central clearing in the Treasury markets.

To better promote trust, transparency, and integrity in the capital markets, the SEC under Chair Gensler adopted a number of changes regarding corporate governance, including updating the rules for when corporate insiders can sell their shares, for when executives have to give back compensation based on erroneously reported financials, and for disclosure of executive pay versus performance. The agency also shortened the amount of time investors have to disclose that they have purchased more than 5 percent of a public company’s shares.

Additionally, during Chair Gensler’s term, the SEC met the demands of investors for greater disclosure around issuers’ material cyber and climate risks and promoted greater integrity in the market for special purpose acquisition companies. The Commission also reinvigorated the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which updated accounting standards and, for the first time, ensured that Chinese authorities would allow the PCAOB to inspect and investigate audit firms in China. Further, the agency for the first time required covered broker-dealers and investment advisers to notify customers of data breaches that might put personal information at risk.

With an eye on financial stability, the SEC under Chair Gensler’s leadership updated rules for the money market funds sector and the information the agency collects from the private funds sector. The SEC also set the stage for important debates regarding the growing use of artificial intelligence in the world of finance.

During Chair Gensler’s tenure, the Commission vigorously followed the facts and the law without fear or favor to ensure that market participants comply with the securities laws, whether it be regarding traditional financial products or more recent ones like crypto. The agency filed more than 2,700 enforcement actions and obtained approximately $21 billion in penalties and disgorgement orders. Between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, the agency returned more than $2.7 billion to harmed investors as a result of enforcement actions. Further, the SEC recovered more than $250 million for harmed investors through examination of investment advisers, investment companies, and broker dealers, among others.

The SEC was consistently rated among the best places to work in the federal government while Mr. Gensler was Chair. In his final two years, the agency was rated in the top three best places to work among mid-size government agencies.

Chair Gensler was formerly Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leading the Obama Administration’s reform of the $400 trillion swaps market. He also was senior advisor to U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes in writing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) and was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1997-2001. In recognition for his service, Chair Gensler was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Award, the U.S. Treasury’s highest honor. He is also a recipient of the 2014 Frankel Fiduciary Prize.

Immediately before joining the SEC, Chair Gensler was professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-director of MIT’s Fintech@CSAIL, and senior advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative. From 2017-2019, he served as Chair of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission.

Earlier in his career, Chair Gensler worked at Goldman Sachs, where he became a partner in the Mergers & Acquisition department, headed the firm’s Media Group, led fixed income & currency trading in Asia, and was co-head of Finance, responsible for the firm's worldwide Controllers and Treasury efforts.

A native of Baltimore, Md., Chair Gensler earned his undergraduate degree in economics in 1978 and his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, in 1979. He has three daughters.