Q&A With Susan Pecaro, SEC Women’s Committee

The SEC's success in achieving its mission is due in large part to the agency’s ability to attract, hire, develop, and retain a high-quality, technically proficient, and diverse workforce. Any SEC employee can voluntarily participate in workplace affinity groups that plan educational and cultural programs and help facilitate inclusiveness throughout the agency.

The SEC periodically features a Q&A with an employee involved in one of its affinity groups to understand how they strengthen the agency's diversity and inclusion efforts. To commemorate Women’s History Month, Susan Pecaro shares her background, insights, and role with the agency’s Diversity Council, which advises the Commission on diversity in its management, employment, and business activities. Ms. Pecaro is an assistant director in the SEC’s Enforcement Division and serves on the SEC Women’s Committee, including as its representative on the Diversity Council.

Q: Can you share a little about your background and your path to the SEC?

A: I was raised in Chicago and went to Northwestern University School of Law, where I worked as executive editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology and indulged a passion for moot court. After graduation, I went to an antitrust litigation firm in Washington, D.C. A few years later, I interviewed with the SEC Division of Enforcement. Interestingly, I saw no women attorneys during my interview — not even in the hallways; just men in suspenders and bow ties, which was the fashion among securities lawyers at the time. I had an amazing interview with Gary Lynch, who at that time was an assistant director, and I left thinking that the SEC must be a great place to work. Nothing has changed my mind since!

I joined the Division of Enforcement as an investigative attorney in the Branch of Tender Offers, and in a couple of years became a branch chief in another area. A highlight was traveling to Zurich to obtain trading records pursuant to the first Memorandum of Understanding with Switzerland. Other memorable moments include unintentionally discovering the identity of the tipper of a major insider trading case and building a failure-to-supervise case against a major broker for unsuitable options trading.

After leaving the agency for several years, I returned to the SEC in 2012 in the Office of Distributions, where I now serve as an assistant director and learn something new every day about the intricacies of returning funds to harmed investors.

Q: You serve as the SEC Women’s Committee representative for the agency’s Diversity Council. Can you tell us about this role and what it entails?

A: As the Women’s Committee representative, I am one of the nine workplace affinity group members on the Diversity Council. The Diversity Council also includes members of the SEC’s regional office outreach coordinators, labor management members, and various advisors. Its purpose is to support the agency’s mission to promote diversity in the workforce and support the Commission in recognizing and developing the full potential of each individual in the workplace.

The Diversity Council meets bimonthly but much of its work goes on behind the scenes and in subcommittees. For example, the SEC’s mentoring program came out of a Diversity Council subcommittee. In the past, the affinity group’s subcommittee made many recommendations to the Chair with respect to increasing opportunities for advancement at the agency, improving the workplace culture at the SEC, and promoting disability inclusion.

Q: You created and currently lead the Diversity Council’s Re-Entry to the Workplace Subcommittee. What sparked this initiative, and what is its goal?

A: I had taken some time out of my career to raise my growing family at a time when there was no flexibility whatsoever for families at the SEC — no flex time, no telework, no Family and Medical Leave Act. When I sought to return to the SEC in 2012, I was told that the Enforcement Division would never hire an attorney who had taken time out of their career. Nonetheless, I applied through USAJOBS, and fortunately, a female assistant director and an all-female hiring panel thought differently, looked at my prior experience, and invited me to join the Office of Distributions.

Now, more than a decade later, I thought it might be time for a subcommittee to look at the Commission’s procedures and practices with respect to candidates who take a break in service from their careers. Among other reasons, employees might take a break from work due to their own illness, to raise children, to be caregivers for aging parents or ill family members, or to move with a spouse in the military. Although I think that the SEC is a great place to work and has been a leader in many areas with respect to issues in the workplace, there is always room for improvement.

The goal of the subcommittee is to make recommendations to foster a supportive, welcoming, inclusive, and fair work environment, which would include eliminating bias against the hiring of applicants for SEC employment who may have had a break in service or an employment gap in their resume. We should welcome and support candidates who re-enter the workforce.

Q: At the SEC, we emphasize the importance of mentorship, sponsorship and internships as conduits for creating personal and professional opportunities. Is there a person, experience or event that was pivotal to helping you get to where you are today?

A: Bill McLucas and Gary Lynch have been lifelong mentors. Both were SEC enforcement directors. From them, I learned a tremendous amount about how to be an effective attorney and engage in good legal practices, something you are not taught in law school. More importantly, they imparted to me what to do when faced with ethical dilemmas and how to do the right thing when faced with difficult choices. Several times, I observed them acting with integrity in stressful and intimidating circumstances and I’ve worked hard to internalize this quality in my own practice of law. Both stood by me when I sought to return to the Commission in 2012, providing sound advice and recommendations. I am so grateful to them for their insights and support and try to pay it forward whenever I am able.

My current supervisor, Nichola Timmons, Chief of the Office of Bankruptcy, Collections, Distributions, and Receiverships, also has provided me with invaluable knowledge and guidance as I navigated my second stint at the SEC. Her consistent trust in me and support through the years as we have tackled difficult challenges has been invaluable to my career.

Q: What barriers have you encountered on your career path, and what advice might you give to help others overcome similar barriers?

A: Whether it is because of gender, age, or my aversion to networking or navigating office politics, others have often initially underestimated my abilities. When I first meet people, they don’t perceive me as a force to be reckoned with. This was a significant advantage as a young investigative attorney as witnesses felt comfortable speaking freely with me during interviews and depositions.

The best advice I ever received about overcoming professional obstacles was from Ted Levine, my first associate director and another lifelong mentor. In response to my complaining to him about an incident of office politics, he said, “Just keep your head down, do your work and let your work speak for you.” That turned out to be a lightbulb moment and the key to my personal success. I often urge interns to let their work speak for them.

Another piece of advice I would give anyone facing barriers is to be inner-directed. In the end, it does not matter what others think of you. The important thing is that you are proud of the work you have produced. Looking back, I have always worked to meet my own expectations more than the expectations of others. This has been helpful because in the confines of my own office and in my mind, there are no barriers.

Q: If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

A: Without question, Nelson Mandela, who like other notable historical figures achieved change through patience and endurance. This fascinates me because patience is something I lack under the best of circumstances. At dinner, I would try and get a better understanding of what made Mandela such a unifying force. Was it his personal characteristics or was it the repeated torments and humiliations Mandela suffered on his journey that made people from such different ethnicities, cultures, and political opinions gravitate toward him?

I also would want to talk with him about courage. Was the courage he displayed the result of some inner strength or quality of fearlessness he possessed? Or was courage something completely out of his control that he exhibited when he had no choice but to move forward against terrible odds? Mandela’s “The Long Walk to Freedom,” co-written with Richard Stengel, is a remarkable autobiography. I had the luck to be in Johannesburg the summer after his passing and toured Soweto, where the street signs are mostly in the names of people who contributed to the end of Apartheid. Having grown up during that era, it was an incredibly moving experience to see and understand where and how Apartheid began and ended.