SEC Taps First Chief Data Officer
Austin Gerig will help the agency use data analytics to support enforcement and exams, as well as to protect investor data.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said that it has named Austin Gerig its first chief data officer, a position that will help the securities regulator, among other measures, use data analytics to support enforcement and examinations.
Gerig, the assistant director of the SEC’s Office of Data Science in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA), will assume his new position on Feb. 3. He began his SEC career in June 2014 as a financial economist in DERA.
“I am pleased that Dr. Gerig has agreed to bring his broad experience in data strategy and management to this important new role for the Commission,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, in a statement.
“He is well suited to further our efforts to ensure there is a coherence between the information we collect and the information we need to carry out our mission,” Clayton added. “My colleagues at the Commission and I look forward to working with Austin as we strive to better both our use and our protection of data.”
The Chief Data Officer will help develop the SEC’s data management strategy and priorities and ensure that the agency collects only the data it needs to fulfill its mission and can effectively secure.
Gerig has headed DERA’s Office of Data Science since September 2016, managing a team of data scientists, data engineers, financial economists, and research associates.
He co-chairs the SEC’s Data Management Working Group and has served as the SEC’s representative on the Financial Stability Board’s Analytical Group on Vulnerabilities and its Financial Innovation Group.
“I’m honored to serve the SEC in this newly established CDO role,” added Gerig. “I look forward to coordinating the efforts underway across the Commission in data management and analytics while also enhancing data security.”
Before coming to the SEC, Gerig was a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. From 2008 to June 2011, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney.
Gerig received his doctorate in physics in 2007 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he previously was awarded a master’s degree in physics and a master’s in finance. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in physics.
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