Stacy A. Puente

Stacy A. Puente currently serves as the Ombuds of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that role, she is responsible for evaluating the effects of proposed SEC and self-regulatory organization (SRO) rules on retail investors, acting as a confidential liaison between retail investors, other federal financial regulators and the SEC, and reporting to Congress about issues affecting retail investor protection. Prior to this, Ms. Puente served as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets, where she primarily worked on the drafting and implementation of Commission rules, and evaluating SRO rules for compliance with the federal securities laws.

Before joining the SEC in 2015, Ms. Puente worked in private practice at law firms in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, where she specialized in securities litigation defense, large-scale internal investigations, and representing clients in arbitration proceedings. She received her law degree from Stanford Law School and her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude with highest university honors, from the University of Texas at Austin.