Andrew “Buddy” Donahue has been hired as the new director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, the post that Paul Roye vacated a year ago. Donahue, 55, is currently the Global General Counsel for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, where he oversees the firm’s legal and regulatory compliance functions for over $500 billion in assets including mutual funds, fixed-income funds, hedge funds, private equity, managed futures, and exchange funds. He is to be sworn in on May 15.

In announcing the appointment, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said Donahue has extensive knowledge of mutual fund regulation and compliance issues under the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act, “and he will work with others at the Commission to continue to improve the usability of disclosures by mutual funds, closed-end funds, UITs, ETFs, and other funds available to retail investors.” Cox also said that Donahue will “work closely with the Commission to expand the use of interactive data to make mutual fund disclosures more useful and to find and develop additional ways in which technology may improve the accessibility and utility of SEC-mandated information for investors.”