Rep. Baker to Lead Hedge Fund Association

Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) will become CEO of the Managed Funds Association (MFA), the primary trade association of the hedge fund industry. He will succeed John. Gaine, who will move into a special advisor role and undertake the expansion of MFA’s global outreach with regulators, policy makers and market participants.

Congressman Baker has been a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and one of the most respected voices in Congress on financial services and capital markets issues. When the Republicans controlled the House, Rep, Baker served as chair of the Capital Markets Subcommittee. While chair, he made investor protection the cornerstone of the subcommittee’s agenda, calling it the most critical component for healthy capital markets.

In that capacity, he introduced mutual fund reform legislation that passed the House by a bi-partisan vote of 418-2, but died in the Senate. The Mutual Funds Integrity and Fee Transparency Act, H.R. 2420, would have provided for greater transparency of fund fees, costs, expenses, and operations so that investors could make better informed decisions and help market forces drive fees down for fund investors. It was also designed to strengthen fund management, particularly the board's independent directors, and curb trading abuses. The bill also required all mutual funds to abide by the same audit committee standards required of exchange-listed companies under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.