New Hire Roundup: Senate Confirms Social Security Advisory Board Members

This week in personnel announcements and new hires, the Securities and Exchange Commission named Brent Fields to lead the office of the secretary and brought in Victor Valdez as COO of the enforcement division; Eugene Oppo joined Sibson Consulting; Mike DiCenso went to Mesirow Financial; Aequitas Capital hired Thomas Goila; and deVere Group opened an office in San Francisco.

Also, Peter Charrington was named global head of Citi Private Bank; Mercer added four senior hires; Brian Weinstein joined Blue Elephant Capital Management; and the Senate confirmed three new members of the Social Security Advisory Board.

Senate Confirms Social Security Advisory Board Members

The Senate has confirmed Henry Aaron, Lanhee Chen and Alan Cohen to the Social Security Advisory Board. Aaron will serve as chairman of the board.

Aaron is the Bruce and Virginia MacLaury senior fellow in the Brookings Institution economic studies program, which he directed from 1990 through 1996. He chaired the 1979 advisory council on Social Security and was a founding member, vice president, and board chairman of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has been vice president and member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association, was president of the Association of Public Policy and Management, and has been a member of the boards of directors of the College Retirement Equity Fund and Georgetown University.

Chen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, lecturer in public policy at Stanford University, and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School. Previously, he was the policy director for the Romney-Ryan presidential campaign, Romney’s chief policy adviser, and a senior strategist on the campaign. He also served as domestic policy director of Romney’s first presidential campaign in 2008.

Cohen is a senior fellow working on Social Security issues at the Center for American Progress. Formerly, he was senior budget advisor and chief counselor for Social Security for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance from 2001 to 2012. From 1993 to 2001, he served as senior advisor for budget and economics to the secretary of the Treasury. During this period, from 1999 to 2000, he was detailed to be a budget advisor in the domestic policy office in the office of the vice president. Prior to this position, he was the budget economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and was assistant director of budget priorities for the Senate Budget Committee from 1983 to 1992.

SEC Appoints Fields, Welcomes Valdez

The SEC has announced that Brent Fields will be the agency’s secretary, responsible for overseeing the administrative aspects of SEC meetings, rulemakings and procedures, and Victor Valdez will be joining as chief operating officer and managing executive of the agency’s enforcement division. Fields succeeds Elizabeth Murphy, who left the secretary post to become associate director (legal) in the agency’s division of corporation finance. Valdez will begin his new post on Sept. 22.

Fields, an 18-year SEC veteran, has served over the last nine years as an assistant director leading an office that reviews the disclosures of investment companies and as the assistant director leading a disclosure rulemaking office. He began working in the division of enforcement in April 1996, and moved to the division of investment management later the following year. From 2002 to 2004, he served as a counsel to then-SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins. He worked as an associate at the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. in Washington, D.C., prior to joining the SEC staff. Earlier, he clerked for Judge Anthony Alaimo in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

Valdez comes to the SEC from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), where he is the deputy director of strategic planning and corporate programs for FDIC’s Corporate University. He previously served as the deputy director of strategic planning and resource management in FDIC’s division of risk management supervision. Earlier, he was an officer of the senior national intelligence service with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He served with the ODNI as chief of staff for the national counterintelligence executive and chief of staff for the deputy director for operations support, National Counterterrorism Center. He also served for over 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.

Oppo Joins Sibson Consulting

Benefits and HR consulting firm The Segal Group, parent of Sibson Consulting, has announced that Eugene Oppo has joined Sibson Consulting’s New York corporate benefits team as senior vice president. He reports to Dan Fries and is working out of the New York office.

Oppo spent the majority of his career as a worldwide partner with Mercer HR Consulting. He also held consulting positions with several other consulting firms.

DiCenso Goes to Mesirow Financial

Mesirow Financial has announced that Mike DiCenso has joined as managing director and head of national sales in its investment strategies division. He reports to Mike Annin, senior managing director of Mesirow Financial Investment Strategies.

DiCenso brings more than 27 years of experience in executive-level business development, sales and marketing roles in the institutional retirement services market. Prior to joining, he was president at Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors. Earlier, he was EVP of sales and marketing with RSM McGladrey.

Aequitas Adds Goila