Compliance Outreach Program New York Regional Office

September 13, 2013

Speaker Bios

Dawn Blankenship is an Assistant Regional Director for the investment adviser and investment company examination program in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York Regional Office. Since joining the Commission in 1991, she has conducted and/or overseen numerous examinations of investment companies, investment advisers, and dually registered advisers/broker-dealers, managing various strategies involving derivatives, distressed/subprime assets, private equity, real estate, private placements, and structured products, among others. Dawn is a graduate of Rutgers University and holds a degree in Accounting.

George DeAngelis began his career with the Commission in 1997 in the New York Regional Office’s IA/IC Inspection Program. George has served as an ARD since 2011 and has participated in hundreds of examinations. George graduated from St. John’s University with a B.S. degree in Accounting.

William J. Delmage is an Assistant Regional Director in the SEC’s New York Regional Office’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company examination program. Bill started his career with the New York Regional Office as a Securities Compliance Examiner in 1990. Bill was promoted to Branch Chief in 1995 and to his current role in 2002. Bill has a BBA from Bernard M. Baruch – City University of New York in Finance & Investments.

Joseph P. DiMaria is an Assistant Regional Director in the SEC’s New York Regional Office’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company examination program. Joseph started his career with the New York Regional Office as a Securities Compliance Examiner in 1986. Joseph was promoted to Branch Chief in 1990 and to his current role in 1994. Joseph has supervised numerous examinations that have led to significant enforcement cases of investment advisers and investment companies. Joseph is a graduate of Hofstra University.

Kathleen Furey serves in the New York Regional Office’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company exam program as Senior Counsel. Prior to her role in the examination program, Kathleen spent three years on the Enforcement side working on both litigations and investigations, including insider trading, best execution, accounting fraud, and on a variety of matters concerning investment advisers.

Prior to joining the SEC, Kathleen worked in the asset management industry. Her roles included working in pension investment consulting, strategic planning for institutional investment management, and as Director of Marketing and Senior Vice President of Chase & MDSass Partners (“CMDSP”). CMDSP was a joint venture Kathleen helped to create between Chase Manhattan and MD Sass Partners, designed to serve institutional clients such as public entities, Fortune 500 clients and others. Kathleen has a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Fordham University and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Anthony P. Fiduccia, CFA is an Assistant Regional Director in the Investment Adviser/Investment Company Examination Program of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York Regional Office. Prior to becoming an Assistant Director, Mr. Fiduccia was an examiner and later a branch chief in the Commission’s examination program. Mr. Fiduccia received a B.S. in Finance from St. John’s University, New York and an MBA from Baruch College. Mr. Fiduccia is a CFA charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts.

Jennifer Grumbrecht is an Assistant Regional Director in the Broker-Dealer Examination Program in the New York Regional Office of the SEC. Ms. Grumbrecht’s responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of broker-dealer examinations, with some focus on larger institutions and dually registered broker-dealer and investment advisory firms. She has been employed with the Commission for approximately 17 years and has a BA, MBA and CPA.

Linda A. Heaphy began her career with New York Regional Office’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company exam program in 1993. She has been an Examination Manager in the Investment Adviser/Investment Company Program since 1999. Ms. Heaphy is a Certified Fraud Examiner and a graduate of Long Island University./p>

Jon Hertzke leads the Division of Investment Management’s Risk and Examinations Office (“REO”), which supports the Division’s regulation of the investment management industry by maintaining industry monitoring and policy examination programs. Prior to joining the Division, Mr. Hertzke served as an Assistant Director in the Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations where he spent several years developing other monitoring and examination programs. Mr. Hertzke has a B.S. in English from Utah State University, a J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law, and an LL.M. in Taxation from the New York University School of Law.

Jennifer Klein began her career with the Commission in 1997 in the New York Regional Office’s IA/IC Inspection program. Jennifer has served as an Exam Manager since 2003 and has participated in numerous investment company and investment advisory examinations. Jennifer graduated from Hofstra University with a B.B.A. in Management.

Ken C. Joseph, Esq. is the Associate Director in charge of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company Examination Program in the New York Regional Office. Ken joined the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) in July 2012 after almost sixteen years with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, serving most recently as an Assistant Director in the Asset Management Unit.

Ken joined Commission in 1996 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. Ken also holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a MBA in Marketing Management, and a post-MBA Advanced Professional Certificate in International Finance from St. John’s University, New York. He worked previously as an Associate Dean at St. John’s, a project manager in the financial services industry, and as a unit leader in the municipal bond department of a Wall Street firm.

During his tenure with the Division of Enforcement, Ken was responsible for investigations or enforcement actions involving financial fraud, auction rate securities, subprime securities, credit default swaps, reinsurance transactions, hedge funds, private equity funds, ponzi schemes, special purpose entities, auditors, investment advisers, investment companies, self-regulatory organizations, transfer agents, and broker-dealers, among others.

In his current role, Ken leads a staff of approximately 100 examiners, accountants, attorneys and support staff involved in the examination of investment companies and investment advisers in New York and New Jersey.

Ken O’Connor is Branch Chief in the Division of Investment Management’s Risk and Examinations Office (“REO”). Ken manages one of REO’s branches, which is focused on examination-related projects that inform policy-making decisions across the Division, while also continuing to build the group’s examination program and its relationship with OCIE. Ken started his career with the SEC in 1999 working in the New York Regional Office with OCIE’s IA/IC Examination Program as a Staff Accountant until 2007. In 2008, after a year in the private sector, Ken returned to the same group as a Branch Chief. While in the private sector, Ken worked at Ivy Asset Management, LLC as the Head of US Regulatory Compliance. Ken graduated from Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus in 1999 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.

Alpa Patel serves as Senior Counsel in the Private Funds Branch of the Investment Adviser Regulation Office, a unit of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management in Washington, DC. The Private Funds Branch focuses on regulations affecting private fund advisers. Prior to joining the SEC, she was an associate at Dechert LLP, where she advised clients on the structuring, formation, and private offering requirements of private funds and provided counsel to investment advisers and boards of directors in regulatory, compliance, and corporate matters.  Ms. Patel received a J.D. from George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC and a B.B.A. from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Raymond J. Slezak is an Assistant Regional Director in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York Regional Office where he helps oversee the region’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company Examination Program. Since joining the Commission in July 1989, he has also held the positions of Securities Compliance Examiner, Staff Accountant, and Branch Chief. Ray has supervised numerous examinations that have led to significant enforcement cases related to investment advisers and investment companies. He is a graduate of the New York Institute of Technology.

Nell Spekman is a Staff Accountant in the SEC’s New York Regional Office’s Investment Adviser/Investment Company examination program. Nell started her career with the New York Regional Office as a Securities Compliance Examiner in 1999. Nell has conducted numerous examinations, including significant enforcement cases of investment advisers, hedge funds, and investment companies. Nell has an undergraduate degree from City University of New York at Baruch College and her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. She is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

Valerie A. Szczepanik is an Assistant Director in the Asset Management Unit of the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Prior to that, she was a Senior Trial Counsel at the SEC, responsible for litigating civil court actions and administrative proceedings, including the Galleon and certain expert network insider trading cases. She also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Ms. Szczepanik clerked for federal judges on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Prior to clerking, she practiced patent law. Ms. Szczepanik received her JD from Georgetown University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Marc Wyatt, CFA joined the SEC in 2012 as a senior specialized examiner focused on private funds. Prior to joining the SEC, Marc was a Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager at Stark Investments (a global multi-strat hedge fund) where he served as the co-head of the London office and was responsible for all aspects of the London office’s activities, including asset allocation, risk management, marketing, operations, and compliance. Prior to working in the hedge fund industry, Marc served as a senior investment banker at Merrill Lynch and Alex. Brown and as an analyst at Fitch and Lehman. Marc earned a BS in Economics from University of Delaware and a MBA from Duke University.