RegStream

WASHINGTON, D. C. — Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham today announced CFTC leadership changes:

“I’m pleased to announce CFTC leadership changes with the beginning of the new Administration, and I want to recognize and thank former Chairman Behnam and his staff, as well as Steve Adamske, Director, Office of Public Affairs; Clark Hutchison, Director, Division of Clearing and Risk; Ian McGinley, Director, Division of Enforcement; Vince McGonagle, Director, Division of Market Oversight; Amanda Olear, Director, Market Participants Division; Suyash Paliwal, Director, Office of International Affairs; Rob Schwartz, General Counsel; and Ann Wright, Director, Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, who have been the CFTC’s executive leadership team over the past several years. I am grateful for their combined many decades of faithful service to the CFTC, and I appreciate our talented CFTC staff who will be assuming these roles on an interim basis,” Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham said.

Acting Chief of Staff: Harry Jung

Along with serving as Acting Chairman Pham’s top advisor, Harry will also lead the CFTC’s engagement on crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi), and other digital assets, building upon his work in this space as the Designated Federal Officer of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee. Harry joined the CFTC in 2023, where he served as then-Commissioner Pham’s Counselor and Senior Policy Advisor. Prior to joining the CFTC, Harry held positions at Citigroup in the Office of the CEO and Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). He also was the Capital Markets Regulatory Lead in Regulatory Strategy and Policy where he briefed executive management on key developments and implications. Harry also coordinated firm-wide working groups on emerging issues and global policy forums, as well as led the regulatory engagement regarding digital assets with U. S. prudential and capital markets regulators. Before that, he led various initiatives across businesses and functions in Regulatory Liaison and Exam Management in Compliance. Jung also held stints at Morgan Stanley and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Harry received his law degree from Michigan State University College of Law, a master’s degree from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College.

Acting General Counsel: Meghan Tente

Meghan has served in multiple leadership roles at the CFTC, including most recently as Chief of Staff to then-Commissioner Pham. Prior to that role, Meghan served as Acting Director of the CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight, where she led the agency division responsible for registering, examining, and overseeing U. S. derivatives exchanges, including the products they offer and their compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. Meghan has also led various teams of attorneys, economists, and data analysts in DMO as well as the CFTC’s Office of International Affairs. In 2019, Meghan was awarded the CFTC Chairman’s Award for Excellence in Management. In 2020, she was awarded the Chairman’s Award for Exceptional Service and was a team member for two Staff Excellence team awards.

Meghan joined the CFTC in the Division of Clearing and Risk in 2012. In her time at the Commission, Meghan has worked with exchanges, derivatives clearing organizations, swap data repositories, and market participants on issues ranging from registrations and data reporting to international standards and novel derivatives products. Meghan has also led engagement efforts with other U. S. financial regulators as well as the CFTC’s regulatory counterparts abroad.

Meghan graduated from Brown University and Cornell Law School.

Office of Public Affairs: Acting Director Taylor Foy

Taylor joined then-Commissioner Pham’s office in 2024 as Senior Advisor, focusing on public relations and external communications. Prior to joining the CFTC, Taylor spent nearly 14 years on Capitol Hill, where he served as the Communications Director for the influential Senate Judiciary, Senate Finance, and Senate Budget Committees. In these roles, he developed public messaging and communications strategies on a wide array of issues, including tax and trade policy, government spending and accountability, and federal law enforcement matters. He worked directly on policies to improve transparency in commodity markets and buttress the CFTC’s successful whistleblower program. He also led a team of communicators for several senior U. S. Senators and a member of Congress – all of whom were members of committees with direct oversight of the CFTC.

Taylor received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and studied Business Administration at Doane University.

Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs: Acting Director Nicholas Elliot

Nicholas served as then-Commissioner Pham’s Confidential Assistant and Policy Advisor and as the Alternate Designated Federal Officer of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee. Previously, Nicholas spent nearly four years working for U. S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn. ), first on his campaign for the U. S. Senate and then in his official office in Washington, D. C. On Capitol Hill, Nicholas worked on the Senator’s financial services and banking portfolio, where he advanced the Senator’s work on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, as well as assisted with Senator Hagerty’s legislative priorities. This included, among others, the Depositor Protection Act of 2023, the Digital Trading Clarity Act of 2022, and the Communist China’s Digital Currency – National Security Risks Act, which became law in 2022.

Nicholas is a graduate of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business where he received a BS in Business Administration with a major in Finance and a minor in Mandarin.

Division of Market Oversight: Acting Director Amanda Olear

Amanda joined the CFTC in 2007 and has served in various leadership capacities, including most recently as the Director of the Market Participants Division since 2021. Amanda began her tenure at the CFTC as an attorney-advisor in the then Division of Clearing and Intermediary Oversight with a focus on CPOs and CTAs. In 2013, she took on the role of Associate Director of the Managed Funds Section in the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight and served as the Deputy Director of Registration and Compliance from 2017 to 2021.

Amanda has a JD with honors from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and a BA from McDaniel College in Westminster, Md. , where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Division of Clearing and Risk: Acting Director Richard Haynes

Richard has served as the Deputy Director of the CFTC’s Risk Surveillance Branch since the summer of 2021. While in that role, he has focused on: 1) monitoring the systemic risk of cleared derivatives, including analysis published in the most recent Supervisory Stress Test Report, 2) helping develop updated international policy recommendations for transparency in margined markets, and 3) developing sophisticated tools and interactive dashboards for cleared derivatives oversight. In prior CFTC roles, he co-authored multiple papers analyzing the intersection of market structure and regulatory policy, including those published in the Journal of Futures Markets, the Journal of Commodity Markets, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He has been at the CFTC for a total of 10 years.

Prior to his time at the CFTC, Richard worked as a trader and quant in New York and Hong Kong. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Chicago.

Market Participants Division: Acting Director Tom Smith

Tom has served as a CFTC Deputy Director for nearly two decades, including most recently as a Deputy Director in the Market Participants Division, where his primary responsibilities included, capital, margin, segregation of customer funds, and financial reporting requirements for futures commission merchants, swap dealers, major swap participants, and introducing brokers. Tom joined the Commission in 1992 and has worked in various capacities including as an Attorney Advisor in the Office of Proceedings where he worked on adjudicatory matters, and as a Special Counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets where he worked on issues concerning clearing organizations and contract markets.

Prior to joining the Commission, Tom spent six years with a public accounting firm. Tom graduated with a degree in accounting from Manhattan College and a J. D. from George Mason University.

Division of Enforcement: Acting Director Brian Young 

Brian joined the CFTC in 2024 as the Director of the Whistleblower Office following nearly 20 years at the Department of Justice. His most recent role at DOJ was as the Acting Director of Litigation for the Antitrust Division, where he served as the highest-ranking career official in the Antitrust Division’s litigation program. There, he oversaw criminal prosecutions brought under the Sherman Act as well as civil merger and antitrust conduct litigation. Before his time at the Antitrust Division, Brian served in various roles in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division, culminating in his appointment as Chief of the Fraud Section’s Litigation Unit. While at the Fraud Section, Brian tried several of the most significant white collar crime matters in the past decade, including trial convictions of the first individuals tried in the United States for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a benchmark interest rate to which hundreds of trillions of dollars in financial productions were tied; a conviction of the former head of HSBC Bank’s Foreign Exchange (FX) desk in connection with a scheme to “frontrun” a client on a $3. 5 billion FX trade; and the conviction of two former London and Singapore-based Deutsche Bank precious metals traders arising from a scheme to “spoof” the futures markets by placing over $1 billion in non-bona fide orders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Brian began his career at DOJ as an Attorney General’s Honors Program Attorney assigned to the Fraud Section of the Civil Division, where he worked on civil False Claims Act matters. During his time at DOJ, Brian tried 12 multi-week fraud jury trials and spearheaded numerous criminal and civil corporate resolutions. Immediately following law school, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Alice M. Batchelder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Office of International Affairs: Acting Director Mauricio Melara 

Mauricio joined the CFTC’s Office of International Affairs in 2012, where he’s worked to provide advice, specialized knowledge, and practical expertise regarding international affairs and foreign legal and regulatory systems, enabling the CFTC to navigate cross-border issues and international developments that impact the CFTC’s mission. Prior to this role, Mauricio served as Special Counsel in the Division of Market Oversight beginning in 2010. In that role, he advised the Division and other CFTC staff regarding requirements and standards applicable to trading facilities.

Prior to joining the CFTC, Mauricio was an associate at Winston & Strawn LLP from 2008 to 2010, an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP from 2005 to 2008, and a trading officer at Sumitomo Trust & Banking, Co. from 1999 to 2002. He received his JD from Fordham University School of Law in 2005, and his BS from the New York University Stern School of Business in 1999.