SEC names Daly to replace Greiner at DIM

The SEC has named a new director of the Division of Investment Management (DIM) just three days after announcing the impending departure of the last one.

The speed with which the agency announced her replacement – and the simultaneous announcement of several other key appointments – makes clear that the departure of current DIM director Natasha Vij Greiner was the first part of an effort by new SEC chair Paul Atkins to replace much of the agency’s senior leadership with a team of his own choosing.

Greiner, a 23-year veteran of the Enforcement and Examination divisions as well as the DIM, will leave the agency July 4, according to a June 10 announcement from the SEC.

Of the new appointments, the most critical to fund advisers and directors is the new DIM director Brian T. Daly, an Akin Gump partner and former investment-company executive who will take over from Greiner July 8, according to a June 13 announcement from the SEC.

Before his role in the investment management practice of Akin Gump, Daly was a founding partner of quantitative investment firm Kepos Capital and advised funds and fund boards as a lawyer at Schulte Roth & Zabel. He also served as a compliance officer at Millennium Partners, worked as a liquid-markets fund manager for the Carlyle Group and Raptor Capital Management, taught ethics at Yale Law School and served on the board of directors of the Managed Funds Association, according to the SEC.

Atkins’ new leadership crew

The SEC also announced several other key appointments that, collectively, make clear that new SEC chair Paul Atkins is clearing out much of the agency’s senior leadership to put together a team more amenable to his specific policy goals.

In addition to Daly, the new team includes Sophron Advisors partner Jamie Selway, who will take over as director of the Division of Trading and Markets on June 17.

Corallium Advisors founder, longtime Ernst & Young partner, and Atkins colleague Kurt Hohl will also join the team as the SEC’s new chief accountant as of July 7. He will replace SEC acting chief accountant Ryan Wolfe, who will return to his previous role as chief accountant for the SEC’s Enforcement Division to make room for Wolfe.

The team’s new public spokesperson, Erik Hotmire – a veteran of the agency’s Enforcement Division who served as senior advisor and spokesperson to former SEC chair Christopher Cox – will take over as chief external affairs officer and director of the Office of Public Affairs as of June 16.

The addition of Daly and Selway, especially, represents a shift away from a focus on SEC leaders with deep experience in the details and dynamics of market regulation and toward those whose experience comes exclusively from companies that are part of a regulated industry.

Both are known as advocates for technical and strategic innovation, both of which are high priorities for Atkins, who has promised to revisit regulations on digital and alternative assets, fund disclosure, transparency, investor protection, and barriers between mutual-fund and ETF investments in private-market assets.