US Securities and Exchange Commission - VALIC

US SEC Appoints Austin Gerig as Chief Data Officer

SEC - Austin GerigThe Securities & Exchange Commission of USA, the primary regulatory body in US financial industry recently revealed the addition of new senior level executive to its team. As per statement released by the firm, it has promoted Dr. Austin Gerig to serve as its Chief Data Officer. Austin is currently serving as Assistant Director of the Office of Data Science in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis – DERA at US SEC and will take on his new role from 3rd February, 2019. In his new role as Chief Data Officer, Austin will be responsible for developing the watchdog’s data management strategy and priorities and is also in charge of enabling data analytics to support enforcement, examinations and policy making. Austin is also responsible for ensuring that agency collects the required data to fulfil its mission while maintaining security effectively.

Austin began his term with DERA’s office of data science in September of 2016 and has led a team which is made of data scientists, data engineers, financial economists and research associates. However, he has been with the US regulatory body for nearly than five years now having joined DERA as a financial economist. Since then he has held multiple roles namely – co-chair of SEC’s data management working group and SEC’s representative on the financial stability board’s analytical group on vulnerabilities and its financial innovation group. Before building a career in US SEC, Dr. Gerig was a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Said business school and did a post doctoral research fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney from 2008-2001. Prior to that, Austin did his PhD in Physics which he completed in 2007 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jay Clayton, SEC Chairman
Jay Clayton, SEC Chairman

Commenting on Austin’s promotion, Chairman Jay Clayton said, “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. He is well suited to further our efforts to ensure there is coherence between the information we collect and the information we need to carry out our mission. 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”.

Speaking on same topic, Kenneth Johnson COO at SEC added, “Dr. Gerig is already an important leader in the SEC’s data management initiatives. His demonstrated expertise and ability to collaborate make him the ideal choice to advance our data program, in service to America’s investors”.

Speaking about his new role, Austin said, “I’m honoured to serve the SEC in this newly established CDO role. I look forward to coordinating the efforts underway across the Commission in data management and analytics while also enhancing data security”.