When Haima Marlier joined the SEC in 2010, she was six years out of law school with a two-year-old child. The decision to join the agency was a big one – she was nervous about not getting enough opportunities as a working mother and woman of color.

Little did she know at the time, that a newly-created federal mandate would address those very concerns.

The Dodd-Frank Act required all federal financial agencies, including the SEC, to establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) to oversee all matters relating to diversity in management, employment and business activities. Pamela Gibbs was hired in early 2012 as the SEC’s inaugural OMWI director.

To celebrate the SEC’s OMWI surpassing the 10-year milestone, the SEC Historical Society and Howard University School of Law hosted a panel featuring Gibbs and three former SEC leaders who chaired the agency during the first decade of OMWI's operations: Mary Schapiro, Mary Jo White and Jay Clayton.

Marlier, who gave the program’s opening remarks, said working at the SEC ended up being a great experience, in large part due to the agency leaders’ commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Gibbs led the panel, recounting OMWI’s origin, goals, challenges, and successes over the last 10 years.

The Beginning

President Barack Obama appointed Schapiro as Chairman of the SEC a week after Bernie Madoff was arrested for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. She had her work cut out for her. Morale was low, and there were a lot of vacancies, she said. Schapiro focused on hiring, reorganizing and providing the agency with the tools needed to respond to the financial crisis. In addition, she was responsible for implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, which included establishing OMWI.

Schapiro hired Gibbs as the new director of OMWI in 2012. Together, they worked to provide leadership and guidance for all of the agency’s diversity and inclusion efforts. These efforts included not only creating a more diverse workforce at the SEC, but also increasing participation of minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the agency’s programs and contracts, and assessing the diversity policies and practices of entities regulated by the SEC.

Challenges and Successes

Over the next several years, Schapiro, along with White and Clayton, did their part to advance the agency’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Schapiro often raised the issue of trying to get company boards to disclose how they were nominating their members. “Our goal was to force boards to confront the issue of diversity,” she said.

White said, “We had many conversations on how to improve diversity. There’s empirical research that diversity makes a better workforce.” In 2014, she reestablished the SEC Diversity Council, which included representatives from the SEC’s chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union as well as OMWI and SEC regional offices. Clayton ended up leading the council when he became Chairman a few years later.

Schapiro, White and Clayton all served as a sponsor to one or more of the SEC’s employee affinity groups. They all engaged with external and minority organizations to promote the value of diversity, and they participated in outreach with high schools to boost financial literacy.

When asked what they could have done better if they had more time, White said she wished she could have hired more diverse leaders, while Schapiro said she could have moved faster and done more to connect with HBCUs to build a pipeline of workers to the SEC. Clayton said he could have done more to advance financial literacy.

However, he also noted, “I think we’ve made some progress, and I think we should recognize that. Those numbers, they’re better than they were two decades ago. But we still have work to do.”

Looking Ahead

In 2012, minorities represented 32 percent of the agency’s workforce. That number increased to 36 percent in 2022. On the leadership level, the percentage of minority senior officers was 14 percent in 2012 and nearly doubled to 26 percent in 2022. Female representation at the agency hovered in the 40 percent range throughout the last 10 years.

“How do we sustain our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts?” Gibbs asked the panelists. “How does a leader exercise sustainable change in DEI?”

“I think you have to talk about it, and talk about it all the time,” said Schapiro. “I also think you have to do it.”

White agreed. “You have to walk the walk, to talk the talk. I think you have to push progress to have sustainability.” We need to think more about acclimating broader areas of the community about financial literacy and what the SEC does, she said.

There also should be a stronger push for the voluntary self-assessments of diversity, said Schapiro. White suggested identifying leaders to help leverage this.

“If everyone has responsibility, nothing gets done,” said Clayton. “But if everyone has individual responsibility, then things will get done.”

A recording of this program is available on the SEC Historical Society’s website.