People: You’re fired! US agency rejig, new CROs at ING, StanChart, and more

Latest job changes across the industry

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Michael Selig

The change in political winds prompted year-end departures in US supervision, as the second Trump Administration edged out more long-standing agency appointees and kept headcounts lean. 

At the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Michael Selig was officially sworn in as chairman on December 22, ending acting chairman Caroline Pham’s three-year tenure, and replacing her as sole commissioner on what is more often a bipartisan bench of five. 

Selig tapped Amir Zaidi as his chief of staff. Zaidi previously worked at the Commission from 2010 to 2019, including as director of the division of market oversight. 

Photo: CFTC

Caroline Pham

December departures from the Securities and Exchange Commission include commissioner Caroline Crenshaw; deputy director of the division of corporation finance, Cicely LaMothe; and deputy director of the division of enforcement in the southeast, Nekia Hackworth Jones. 

Crenshaw, a 2020 Trump appointee, was the SEC’s sole remaining Democrat; it’s reported the Senate Banking Committee cancelled her renomination hearing in the face of crypto industry opposition. Former acting director LaMothe, who spent 24 years overseeing regulation in the division of corporation finance, announced her retirement on December 29. Hackworth Jones left only days earlier and has since joined Jones Day’s investigations practice as a partner.

Photo: SEC

Caroline Crenshaw

Other notable end-of-year departures include Antonia Apps, deputy director of the northeast enforcement division; Lori Schock, director of the office of investor education and assistance; and Cristina Martin Firvida, director of the office of investor advocate.

Joshua White meanwhile returns as chief economist and director of the division of economic risk analysis. He replaces acting chief economist Robert Fisher, who remains in the division. Russell McGranahan has been named SEC general counsel, after a three-month stint as adviser to its chairman.

Paul Tzur and David Morrell have been named deputy directors of enforcement, overseeing southeast and northeast regional offices. Tzur was previously a partner at law firm Blank Rome, where he defended clients against SEC actions, says an archived copy of his firm profile. Morrell was a partner at Jones Day, where he advised clients facing Department of Justice and CFTC investigations, his LinkedIn bio shows.

In April last year,  the SEC announced a 15% headcount reduction under Trump 2.0, as well as a shake-up of its enforcement and examinations division; the CFTC has seen a similar reduction in staff.

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Photo: Societe Generale

Jamie Gavin

Jamie Gavin, head of prime brokerage clearing for Europe the Middle East and Africa at Societe Generale, has left the bank to work as an external consultant for the London Stock Exchange Group’s SwapAgent platform, as reported by Risk.net. Gavin reports to Annabel Harrison, head of agent services for LSEG’s post-trade solutions division. He left SocGen in December, having joined the French bank as head of over-the-counter prime brokerage and clearing in 2014. He was previously global head of change for listed derivatives and OTC clearing at Morgan Stanley and, according to his LinkedIn profile, began his career at Goldman Sachs. He took up his new role earlier this month, an LSEG spokesperson confirmed. SwapAgent was launched in 2017 with the aim of bringing many of the processing, margining and settlement efficiencies of the cleared world to non-cleared derivatives.

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Julieta Susara

ING has hired Julieta Susara as chief risk officer for the UK. The 20-year risk management veteran joins from Nomura, where she was global head of financial institutions and regulated funds. She had held multiple leadership roles over 16 years, including deputy head of credit risk management for Emea, and global head of credit for Nomura subsidiary Instinet. At ING, she becomes a member of the UK, European and global risk management teams. She will oversee the bank’s risk management framework in the UK and will focus on strategic initiatives to strengthen risk culture and regulatory compliance across the firm. She reports to Rein Graat, ING’s head of risk, and to Alexandra MacMahon, UK country head.

The bank has also promoted David Leech to global head of FX trading in London, succeeding Gary Prince, who becomes head of financial markets for Emea. Leech joined the Dutch financial firm in 2013 as a senior FX forwards trader and was promoted in 2023 to head of FX in the UK. He will oversee ING’s FX trading activities worldwide, reporting to Prince and to Niall Carton, global head of financial markets trading.

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Jason Forrester has been promoted to group chief risk officer at Standard Chartered in London, where he will lead the risk and compliance, financial crime and conduct risk functions, according to his LinkedIn profile. He replaces Sadia Ricke, who has retired from the position and takes up a new role on the firm’s US risk committee, per her own LinkedIn announcement. Ricke was hired as group CRO in February 2023, following a 25-year tenure in risk management at Societe Generale.

Forrester has worked at the British bank for five years and was most recently head of enterprise risk management and deputy CRO. He previously spent 20 years at Credit Suisse, where he departed as head of enterprise, operational and liquidity risk management, and head of CRO change.

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Craig Robertson

Craig Robertson, head of the New York-based prime derivatives services and global quant prime unit at Barclays, has left the British bank for Carbon Point, a trading firm in Connecticut, as reported earlier on Risk.net. Although unable to discuss his precise role, Robertson confirmed he started earlier this month at the trading, risk, operations and financial engineering outfit. He left Barclays after seven years in its investment banking arm and following a four-year stint in the prime services business at Societe Generale in New York.

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Kenneth Pregnell has joined Citadel Securities in a senior risk management role in London, as reported this month on Risk.net. Pregnell stepped into the newly created role leading Citadel Securities’ risk team, reporting to Joanna Welsh, chief risk officer for both Citadel and Citadel Securities. Pregnell left his role as CRO of Eisler Capital, a multi-strategy hedge fund based in London, when it shuttered at the end of 2025. His four-year stint at Eisler followed four years at Capula Investment Management, where he held roles that included co-head of market risk and portfolio manager specialising in equities and foreign exchange volatility.

Pregnell isn’t the only Eisler employee to successfully jump ship. Quantitative strategist Tibor Kucs started at Balyasny Asset Management this month as a senior quantitative researcher, per his LinkedIn profile. He leads a team of quantitative researchers focused on multi-asset equity derivatives strategies. Portfolio manager Alexander Alekseev also left Eisler in September last year for a similar role at Balyasny, also according to LinkedIn. Both worked at Eisler for less than three years. Former Goldman Sachs employee Ed Eisler founded the eponymous hedge fund a decade ago and decided to close its doors in September of last year, citing rising costs and growing losses.

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Sam De Sheng Cai, Danske Bank’s former head of operational risk and control framework and implementation, has founded his own consultancy, Nordic Meridian Advisory. The outfit will help banks in the Nordic region translate regulatory requirements on operational risk and resilience into practical frameworks, governance and measurable outcomes across risk, IT and operations.

De Sheng Cai left Danske in June 2025, and his role straddling first and second line of defence has not been replaced. Instead, Dhruti Joshi was appointed head of framework development and governance for non-financial risk in the second line. Karoline Trier Findstrup is filling the role during Joshi’s maternity leave.

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Eric Van Nostrand

Lazard Asset Management has promoted Eric Van Nostrand to the newly created role of chief investment officer in New York. There, he will oversee Lazard’s global investment platform, including oversight of investment processes and review of strategies and risk frameworks. Van Nostrand most recently served as global head of markets and chief economist at the firm, which he joined in April 2025. He was previously acting assistant secretary for economic policy at the US Treasury, which he joined in August 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile, prior to which he spent more than six years at BlackRock. He is a former special assistant to the chairman and staff economist for the White House council of economic advisers.

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Tobias Paulun

The European Energy Exchange has appointed Tobias Paulun to be its new chief executive officer, beginning in August. Paulun takes over from Peter Reitz, who will end his 15-year tenure as CEO of EEX on July 31. Paulun will simultaneously step down from his current role as chief executive officer of European Commodity Clearing, the exchange’s clearing house, which he has held since April 2023. He first joined EEX Group’s product development team in 2009, later heading the company’s strategy department before spending several years as its board’s chief strategy officer. Paulun is currently a member of the supervisory boards of EEX subsidiaries European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT and US power exchange Nodal. Reitz chairs the boards of EPEX SPOT and Nodal and will remain on the boards of both companies.

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Panayiotis Dionysopoulos has started a new role as global head of financial and enterprise risk at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, where he has served for 11 years, most recently as director of risk and capital and head of capital.

 

Additional reporting by Philip Alexander, Joe Parsons and Rebekah Tunstead

Editing by Louise Marshall