Douglas Scheidt, Associate Director and Chief Counsel in the Division of Investment Management, to Leave Agency After 32 Years of Public Service

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that Douglas Scheidt, an Associate Director and the Chief Counsel in the Division of Investment Management, will retire from the SEC at the end of September.

Mr. Scheidt has led the Division’s Chief Counsel’s Office for over 21 years.  During his tenure, Mr. Scheidt has provided legal and policy guidance for the $82 trillion asset management industry on a wide variety of matters, with a focus on regulatory compliance and the duties of fund directors and investment advisers, including valuation, distribution, fiduciary duty, fund governance, affiliated transactions and portfolio management, under the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act.  He has provided critical counsel and assistance on numerous SEC rulemakings, technical assistance to Congress on legislation, and has managed the Division’s international program and its dealings with foreign regulators.  He also directed the Division’s responses to the financial crisis and the late trading and market timing scandals.  Since 2014, he has overseen the Division’s exemptive application program, which issues orders granting exemptive relief under the Acts.  And, for the past 27 years, he has directed the Division’s enforcement liaison program, providing insightful analytical guidance and assistance to the Division of Enforcement on many investigations and enforcement actions involving funds and investment advisers.

“Doug has been an insightful and innovative leader, and his contributions will have lasting positive impact on our markets and our Main Street investors,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.  “He has consistently crafted regulatory solutions that are grounded in investor protection and respond to the needs of our ever changing markets.”

“Doug is widely known and trusted throughout the Commission not only for his insights and thoughtful creativity in finding solutions to thorny problems, but also for the generosity with which he shares his talents with his colleagues across the SEC,” said Dalia Blass, Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management.  “Staff across the Commission have benefitted from Doug’s ability to provide lucid and concise explanations of even the most complex legal matters.

Mr. Scheidt said, “I have great regard for the SEC, where I have spent the most rewarding years of my career.  The work has been immensely interesting, and my colleagues have been exceptional.”

Mr. Scheidt has been an Associate Director and the Chief Counsel of the Division of Investment Management since 1997.  Mr. Scheidt previously served as an Associate Director (Compliance, Financial Analysis, Public Utilities and Investment Company Regulation) and as the Assistant Director of the Office of Enforcement Liaison.  He also has been a Lecturer at Howard University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.

In 2017, Mr. Scheidt received the Philp A. Loomis, Jr. Award for outstanding legal scholarship, analysis and draftsmanship, and over the years received six Law and Policy Awards, the Chair’s Award for Excellence, the Capital Markets Award, the Excellence in Information Technology Award, the Labor-Management Relations Award, and the Supervisory Excellence Award.

Before joining the Division of Investment Management in 1991, Mr. Scheidt served as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at The Boston Company Advisors, Inc., and as an attorney in private practice.  He also served as an attorney and Special Counsel in the SEC’s Office of the General Counsel.  Mr. Scheidt began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Martin D. Van Oosterhout of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  He earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University (cum laude) and his J.D. from Drake University Law School (Order of the Coif).