Yesterday, the SEC announced that Professor Renee Jones had been hired as the Director for the Division of Corporation Finance (here is Renee’s bio at Boston College Law School). She replaces John Coates who had been hired as “Acting” Director a few months ago. John now moves over to serve as the General Counsel of the SEC.

A few notables:

  1. Renee becomes the first Director who isn’t white – and the third woman to hold the job.
  2. I had always thought it was strange that John had “Acting” in front of his title, as that is quite unusual for that role when someone is hired from outside the SEC. Now we know the reason for it.
  3. Here is a list of Corp Fin Directors over the years that I created when I worked at TheCorporateCounsel.net. It actually took a lot of work to sleuth together the time frames – and to ascertain the order in which the Directors have served – as that information wasn’t readily available elsewhere. Since I created that list, Keith Higgins, Bill Hinman and John Coates have graced Corp Fin’s halls…
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Photo of Broc Romanek Broc Romanek

As a strategist for the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, Broc Romanek has a deep understanding of the regulatory and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Broc served as editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and DealLawyers.com, where he oversaw…

As a strategist for the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, Broc Romanek has a deep understanding of the regulatory and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Broc served as editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and DealLawyers.com, where he oversaw and managed coverage on issues related to ESG, corporate governance, executive pay, deals, and market trends and analysis.

In addition to his nearly two decades of working as a journalist and publisher, Broc served as assistant general counsel at a Fortune 50 company, worked in the Office of Chief Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance, was a counselor to former SEC Commissioner Laura Unger, and worked in private practice. He also is the author, or co-author, of four legal treatises, and has authored several books focused on the legal industry.