According to the SEC’s website, President Trump has designated Michael Piwowar Acting Chairman of the SEC. Piwowar joined the Commission in August 2013 after having served as chief economist to the Republican leadership on the Senate Banking Committee. Piwowar’s updated SEC biography indicates the designation occurred on January 23, 2017.
Piwowar, who is not a lawyer, once remarked in a speech that he believed he was just the third Ph.D. economist to serve as a member of the Commission. After completing his undergraduate work in foreign relations, Piwowar earned an M.B.A. from Georgetown University and a doctorate in Finance from Pennsylvania State University. Piwowar will temporarily lead an agency whose staff often has been led by attorneys.
Even with Piwowar’s designation, the Commission still has a total of three vacancies. Previously, then President-Elect Trump said he planned to nominate deal lawyer Jay Clayton to be SEC Chairman. An announcement last Friday from now President Trump indicated that Clayton’s nomination to be a member of the Commission had been sent to the Senate.