Investor Advisory Committee Members Full Biographies

Officers

Andrea Seidt, Vice Chair
Ohio Securities Commissioner | Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Securities

Andrea Seidt is the Ohio Securities Commissioner with the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Securities. The Division has administrative, civil, and criminal authority to prosecute violations of the Ohio Securities Act and oversees one of the country’s largest securities licensee populations with more than 225,000 registered investment firms and professionals. Seidt actively represents the Division and investors throughout the state of Ohio through her service with the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). Seidt is former President of NASAA and is currently serving her second term on NASAA’s Board of Directors, where she has focused on policies related to investment adviser and broker-dealer regulation and state enforcement involving exempt and unregistered offerings. Seidt works closely with her federal peers at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), having served on FINRA’s CRD/IARD Steering Committee and the SEC’s Small Business Advisory Committee. Prior to her appointment as Commissioner in 2008, Seidt worked at the Jones Day law firm and also served as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Office of the Ohio Attorney General. Commissioner Seidt received both her undergraduate and law degrees from The Ohio State University.

Amy C. McGarrity, Secretary
Chief Investment Officer/Chief Operating Officer | Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association

Amy C. McGarrity was named Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in 2017, Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2022, and served as Interim Executive Director from June 2023 to May 2024.

As CIO and COO, Ms. McGarrity is responsible for managing an investment portfolio of $61.5 billion for the defined benefit plans and $5.9 billion for the defined contribution plans in accordance with the Board of Trustees’ policies and state statutes. She oversees portfolio and risk management for global equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity, and alternatives. Ms. McGarrity recommends investment policy to the Board of Trustees and contributes to organizational strategic planning. She also oversees relationships with the custodial bank and investment consultants and represents Colorado PERA to legislative bodies and other external entities.

While at PERA, Ms. McGarrity previously worked as a Senior Investment Officer, and then as the Deputy Chief Investment Officer. She has also held investment positions at William Blair Investment Management, Buck Consultants, Prima Capital Holding, William M. Mercer Investment Consulting, and Caxton Associates.

Ms. McGarrity holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Wyoming, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Rider University. She is the co-chair of the Investor Advisory Group for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, serves as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, on the Healthy Markets Association Board, and the University of Wyoming Foundation’s Board of Directors. She has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and serves on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee for the CFA Institute.

John Gulliver, Assistant Secretary
Executive Director, Committee on Capital Markets Regulations and Program on International Financial Systems

John Gulliver develops and seeks to implement policy reforms to the regulation of securities markets and financial institutions. In doing so, Mr. Gulliver works closely with the Committee’s members and meets with regulators and policymakers on Capitol Hill. 
Mr. Gulliver also manages the Committee’s research team.

John Gulliver is also the Executive Director of the Harvard Law School – Program on International Financial Systems.

Prior to joining the Committee, Mr. Gulliver was a research associate for the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, where his work focused on the development of a market-based approach to bank capital requirements. Mr. Gulliver also worked as an Associate for ACA Compliance Group, where he supported the General Counsel. Mr. Gulliver is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Manitoba.
 

Members

C. Rodney Comegys
Global Head | Equity Investment Group at Vanguard

Rodney Comegys is the global head of Vanguard Equity Index Group. He oversees the investment professionals responsible for more than 200 U.S. and international equity index funds and ETFs, representing more than $7 trillion in indexed assets. Previously, he was global head of Risk Management for Vanguard Investment Management Group.

Since joining the investment management team in 2008, Mr. Comegys helped Vanguard expand its international business, launch new exchange-traded funds, and build processes and technology for the company’s equity management and trading systems.

His past roles at Vanguard include head of investments, Asia Pacific, and head of Equity Index Group, Asia Pacific. He has headed the Index Analysis and ETF Trading teams, as well as the Global Broker Relations team. He has also handled risk analysis oversight for the Fixed Income and Equity Investment Groups, Six Sigma program management, leadership of Vanguard’s retail business in Arizona, and retirement plan operations.

Before joining Vanguard in 1999, Mr. Comegys was a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine officer. He earned a B.S. in engineering and an M.Sc. in regional science economics, both from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

James R. Copland
 

James R. Copland is a senior fellow with and director of legal policy for the Manhattan Institute. His research has centered on securities regulation, civil litigation, and regulatory criminal enforcement. He was appointed to the SEC Investor Advisory Committee in September 2025.

Mr. Copland has written many policy briefs, book chapters, academic articles, and opinion pieces; and a book, The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America (2020). He has testified multiple times before both Houses of Congress, as well as other legislative and administrative bodies, and he has submitted multiple comment letters for rulemakings by the SEC and other federal agencies. He was named multiple times to the National Association of Corporate Directors “Directorship 100” list.

Mr. Copland holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Yale, an M.Sc. in the politics of the world economy from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar. Prior to joining the Manhattan Institute, Mr. Copland worked with McKinsey and Company and as a law clerk for Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Sergio G. Rodriguera Jr.
Co-Founder | Straylight Systems, Inc.

Sergio Rodriguera Jr. is Co-Founder at Straylight Systems, a Multimodal Artificial Intelligence (AI) company building sensor fusion and workflow automation for commercial and government customers, across financial services, industrial, energy, and military. Also, he is Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at General Radar, a venture backed dual-use technology company building advanced radars for aerospace and defense customers. He sits at the nexus between national security and financial innovation building solutions to transform data and create liquidity and growth from AI and blockchain enabled platforms.
Prior to building his startups, he was Senior Consultant for AI at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston supporting the development of FedNOW. He previously was a Professional Staff Member on the Financial Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives serving on the Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee. He is a former Special Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Department of Treasury.
Mr. Rodriguera is a former U.S. Navy Intelligence Officer and combat veteran serving on a yearlong deployment to Kabul, Afghanistan where he was Executive Officer of the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell. He is a Limited Partner at Mendoza Ventures, a Boston based venture capital firm investing in early-stage AI and FinTech startups.

Alvin Velazquez 
Associate Professor of Law | Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Alvin Velazquez is an Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. His scholarship sits at the intersection of labor, bankruptcy law, and corporate law. He has had work published (or forthcoming) in peer-reviewed, faculty-edited, and student-edited journals including: the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Chicago-Kent Law Review, and the Saint Louis Law Journal.

Prior to arriving at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Professor Velazquez served as an Associate General Counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where his practice focused on corporate governance, public sector bankruptcy, and emerging technologies. During his career at SEIU, Alvin served as chair of the Unsecured Creditors Committee for the Puerto Rico bankruptcy. He also testified before Congress, provided numerous Congressional briefings, and has had extensive experience advocating before various administrative agencies. Prior to SEIU, Professor Velazquez worked as an associate at several large law firms as a business litigator. Professor Velazquez previously taught classes at the Georgetown University Law Center as an adjunct professor. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.