U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Schapiro to Receive Honorary Degree

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Schapiro to Receive Honorary Degree

PHILADELPHIA (June 7, 2011)—The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Mary L. Schapiro will receive an honorary degree at Drexel University’s 124th commencement. Appointed by President Barack Obama, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn into office in January 2009, Schapiro is the first woman to serve as the agency’s permanent chairman. She will be honored during the ceremony for the graduates of Drexel’s LeBow College of Business. The ceremony will be held on June 11 at 9 a.m.

Schapiro’s priorities at the SEC include shaping a more effective and responsive agency; better protecting investors by implementing financial reform legislation and enhancing the structure of America’s financial markets; and reinforcing the agency’s commitment to enforcement, transparency and disclosure,

Prior to becoming SEC chairman, Schapiro was CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the largest non-governmental regulator for securities firms doing business with the U.S. public. Schapiro joined the organization in 1996 as president of NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers) Regulation, and was named vice chairman in 2002. In 2006, she was named NASD’s chairman and CEO. The following year, she led the organization’s consolidation with NYSE Member Regulation to form FINRA, now the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States.

Schapiro previously served as a commissioner of the SEC from 1988 to 1994. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, reappointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 and named acting chairman by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She left the SEC when President Clinton appointed her chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she served until 1996.

Schapiro is an active member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions. She was chairman of the IOSCO SRO Consultative Committee from 2002 to 2006.

A 1977 graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, Schapiro earned her J.D. degree with honors from George Washington University in 1980. She was named the Financial Women’s Association Public Sector Woman of the Year in 2000. She received a Visionary Award from the National Council on Economic Education in 2008, honoring her as a “champion of economic empowerment.”

More than 5,000 students will receive a degree from Drexel this year. Drexel’s LeBow College is one of only 25 percent of U.S. business schools to be both accredited by the International Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and to be ranked. Its programs have been rated among the nation’s best by Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Princeton Review, Entrepreneur magazine and others. 

###

News media contact:

Niki Gianakaris, director, Media Relations, Office of University Communications
215-895-6741, 215-778-7752 (cell) or ngianakaris@drexel.edu