Diane Blizzard, Associate Director of Rulemaking for the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, to Leave the Agency After 18 Years of Service

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Diane C. Blizzard, Associate Director of the agency’s Division of Investment Management, is planning to leave the agency at the end of May after 18 years of service.

Since 2012, Ms. Blizzard has led the Division’s rulemaking offices in developing policy recommendations and rule changes under the federal securities laws affecting investment companies and investment advisers. 

“Main Street investors are better off today because of Diane’s public service and commitment to enhancing and modernizing the regulatory landscape for the asset management industry,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. “She has a deep appreciation for the vital role that our securities laws and our capital markets play in the lives of investors across the country.”

“Throughout her distinguished career with the Commission, Diane has been a thoughtful and creative leader,” said Dalia Blass, Director of the Division of Investment Management. “Her legacy will be reflected not only in the initiatives that she has led, which include some of the Division’s most significant rules affecting the asset management industry and Main Street investors, but also in the remarkable team that she has developed and mentored.”

Ms. Blizzard previously served in a number of positions in the Division of Investment Management during two tours of duty, including Managing Executive of the Division, Senior Adviser to the Director, and Assistant Director of the Office of Regulatory Policy.  She rejoined the staff in 2007.  Notably, she was a member of the special task force that produced the 1992 staff report, Protecting Investors: A Half Century of Investment Company Regulation.  Later, as Assistant Director, Ms. Blizzard worked to gain Commission approval of a number of rules recommended in the report, including initiatives related to fund distribution, mutual fund advertising, multiple share classes, corporate governance, and “interval” funds. 

Ms. Blizzard most recently helped shape new regulations designed to enhance regulatory safeguards for the evolving $83 trillion asset management industry.  These included new rules and forms, adopted in 2016, that enhance and modernize data reporting by registered funds and require mutual funds and exchange traded funds to implement liquidity risk management programs.  Ms. Blizzard also played a key role in the SEC’s efforts to reform the regulation of money market funds and to implement rules mandated by the JOBS Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, including the Volcker Rule.

Ms. Blizzard said, “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve American investors as a staff member of this great agency.  I have been fortunate to work with an incredible group of talented professionals who support each other, share a deep commitment to public service and the Commission’s mission, and collaboratively work on some of the most important policy issues we face as regulators of financial products and services relied on by millions to save for their futures.”

Ms. Blizzard has received more than a dozen awards for her service, including the Distinguished Service Award, the SEC’s highest honor, in 2014, and the Chair’s Award for Distinguished Leadership and Vision, in 2016, in recognition of Ms. Blizzard’s achievements in developing strong teams and inspiring collaboration with internal colleagues, as well as with outside organizations.  From 1995-2002, Ms. Blizzard was associate counsel with ICI Mutual Insurance Company.  Before joining the SEC for the first time in 1987, she was in private practice in Washington, D.C.  She received her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Duke University and her law degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.