About the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis

May 3, 2024

The Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) advances the Commission’s statutory mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation through sound economic analysis and rigorous data analytics.

DERA engages across the entire range of the agency’s functions, including rulemaking, examination, and enforcement. Its multi-disciplinary analyses are informed by research insights, and they rely on the knowledge of institutions and practices when examining regulatory and risk-related matters. DERA assists the Commission in its efforts to identify, analyze, and respond to economic and market issues, including those related to new financial products, investment and trading strategies, systemic risk, and fraud. DERA’s data analytics work develops a variety of financial and market data-analysis tools, supplies economic statistics, and promotes data standards.

The activities of the Offices as a whole include:

  • providing detailed, high-quality economic and statistical analyses, and specific subject-matter expertise to the Commission and other Divisions/Offices
  • identifying and analyzing issues, trends, and innovations in the marketplace
  • developing customized, analytic tools and analyses to proactively detect market risks indicative of possible violations of the Federal securities laws. Using data, DERA staff create analytic programs designed to detect patterns identifying risks, enabling Commission divisions and offices to deploy scarce resources targeting possible misconduct
  • working with outside experts in academia and industry to strengthen the Commission’s foundation of market knowledge
  • managing and analyzing public and private data to support relevant initiatives and projects
  • creating knowledge through high-quality research and publication in peer-reviewed journals
  • participating in, and contributing to, academic and industry conferences

DERA Offices

Learn more about the offices within the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis.

Office of Asset Management

Provides economic and other interdisciplinary analysis in support of the Commission on issues related to the regulation of investment advisers, investment companies, hedge funds and other institutional investors. This Office will also analyze proposals for new financial products, particularly involving exchange traded funds.

OAM Staff

Office of Chief Counsel

Provides guidance and counsel to the Chief Economist and other division staff regarding legal issues implicated by the Division's broad mandate. The office coordinates the integration of the Division's economic analyses into Commission rulemakings and other Commission action, collaborating with staff from divisions and offices across the agency. The office also counsels staff in the division working in areas such as structured disclosure, risk assessment, and data analytics.

OCC Staff

  • Lauren Moore, Chief Counsel
  • Charles Woodworth, Deputy Chief Counsel
  • Andrew Glickman, Senior Special Counsel
  • Samantha Croffie, Special Counsel
  • Timothy Dodd, Special Counsel
  • Robert Girouard, Special Counsel
  • Rebecca Orban, Special Counsel
  • Joseph Otchin, Special Counsel
  • Caroline Schulte, Attorney-Advisor

Office of Corporate Finance

Provides analysis in support of the Commission on issues related to the regulation and examination of issuers of securities with a duty to register under the 1933 Securities Act and make periodic disclosures pursuant to the 1934 Exchange Act. Topical areas include initial public offerings, seasoned equity offerings, corporate mergers and acquisitions, executive compensation, corporate governance and voting, corporate and municipal debt offerings, and disclosures related to asset-backed securities. Related areas frequently addressed include-cross border finance and unregistered offerings.

OCF Staff

  • Lyndon Orton, Assistant Director
  • Evan Avila, Research Associate
  • Tara Bhandari, Principal Financial Economist
  • Maclean Gaulin, Financial Economist
  • Olga Itenberg, Principal Financial Economist
  • Vladimir Ivanov, Principal Financial Economist
  • Mengxin McLean, Senior Financial Economist
  • Mahdi Mohseni, Financial Economist
  • Mattias Nilsson, Principal Financial Economist
  • Michael Pessin, Research Associate
  • Mikhail Pevzner, Financial Economist
  • Albert W. Sheen, Senior Financial Economist
  • Phillip Sporrer, Research Associate
  • Ruoke Yang, Senior Financial Economist

Office of Data Science

The Office of Data Science leads initiatives to develop and support cutting-edge data analytics powered by artificial intelligence to support the needs of clients across the SEC. These analytical solutions can support a variety of use cases, including the extraction of valuable information from unstructured data resources to expand analytical capabilities, or improving operating efficiencies by automating certain manual tasks. Our solutions enable senior leaders to make data-driven, evidence-based decisions and enhance data accessibility and usability, including by less technical or non-technical staff.

ODS Staff

  • David Bobillot, Senior Quantitative Research Analyst
  • Charles Burton, Data Scientist
  • Marco Enriquez, Principal Data Scientist
  • Aixia Guo, Data Scientist
  • John Qiang Lu, Senior Mathematician
  • Dwi Sianto Mansjur, Senior Mathematician
  • Christopher Tran, Data Scientist
  • Daniel Vial, Data Scientist

Office of Economic Statistics

Provides data analyses in rulemaking economic analyses in corporate finance, financial intermediaries, and asset management, produces statistical reports and provides statistical consulting services to stakeholders across the agency, and serves as a centralized statistics repository to ensure quality and consistency in statistical production.

Office of Financial Intermediaries

Provides economic analysis on issues related to the regulation and examination of broker-dealers, financial institutions, analysts affiliated with broker-dealers or financial institutions, clearing agencies, and National Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs).

OFI Staff

Office of Litigation Economics

Provides support in all aspects of SEC enforcement and litigation, such as identifying evidence of liability, analyzing materiality, estimating ill-gotten gains and damages, providing and responding to expert testimony in the context of negotiations and litigation, and supporting the distribution of recovered funds to harmed investors.

OLE Staff

Office of Markets

Analyzes issues relating to the structure and regulation of markets including equity, bond, option, securities lending, securities-based swaps, and other OTC derivative markets. Provides assistance in such areas as Commission rulemaking, oversight of SRO rulemaking and surveillance, review of proposals for new financial products and services, responding to requests from market participants for interpretive guidance or rule exemptions, and monitoring and surveillance of markets.

OM Staff

  • Paul Barton, Assistant Director
  • Amy K. Edwards, Assistant Director
  • Kali Prasun Chowdhury, Research Associate
  • Claude Courbois, Financial Economist
  • Louis Craig, Supervisory Financial Economist
  • Peter Dixon, Senior Financial Economist
  • Erika Frost, Financial Economist
  • Hans G. Heidle, Principal Financial Economist
  • Paul Hughes, Research Associate
  • Patti Hutchens, Financial Analyst
  • Zachary Kiefer, Financial Economist
  • Benjamin Liebman, Financial Economist
  • Qiyu Liu, Financial Analyst
  • Benjamin Miller, Financial Economist
  • Parisa Mofakham, Financial Economist
  • Abdul Munasib, Financial Economist
  • Anastasia Polkovnichenko, Research Associate, Statistician
  • Ilia Rainer, Financial Economist
  • John Ritter, Financial Economist
  • Kevin Roshak, Financial Economist
  • Desmond Toohey, Financial Economist
  • Laura A. Tuttle, Senior Financial Economist
  • Seung Won Woo, Financial Economist
  • Sherry Wu, Financial Economist

Office of the Managing Executive

Robert Gunning, Managing Executive

Directs DERA’s business, operational, administrative, and support programs and activities. Its span of responsibilities reflects the mission support functions at the enterprise level including: human resources, financial management, contracting, information technology, and infrastructure support.

Office of Risk Assessment

Provides financial and risk modeling expertise to other offices and divisions to support supervisory, surveillance, and investigative programs related to corporate issuers, broker-dealers, investment advisers, OTCs, exchanges, and trading platforms. ORA also supports agency staff with examination planning, including providing guidance on the collection and analysis of data to help promote market risk and risk-based examination programs. Some of ORA deliverables include:

  1. The DERA Quarterly Economic and Risk Outlook, a quarterly publication on the status of the financial markets with a Research Spotlight.
  2. Supporting DERA and the SEC in international work, including in international bodies such as the FSB and IOSCO. ORA Financial Economists provide technical analyses to the Office of International Affairs that further the interests of the SEC.
  3. Empowering colleagues across the SEC in the Divisions of Enforcement, Trading and Markets, and Corporation Finance, and the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations in achieving the SEC’s mission using the latest empirical analyses and techniques.

ORA Staff

  • Christopher Arnold, Assistant Director (NYRO)
  • Gregory Allen, Financial Economist
  • Randis Brown, Research Associate
  • Tolga Ergun, Financial Economist
  • Giulio Girardi, Principal Financial Economist
  • Igor Kozhanov, Principal Financial Economist
  • Benito Lopez, Financial Analyst (MIRO)
  • Minyoung Pyo, Financial Economist
  • Jovan Stojkovic, Supervisory Financial Economist
  • Maciej Szefler, Financial Economist
  • Nadia Winn, Financial Economist

Office of Structured Disclosure

The Office of Structured Disclosure (OSD), within the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, supports the SEC's efforts to make data accessible and easy to use. OSD works closely with other SEC Divisions and Offices to design data structuring approaches for required disclosures, and supports the SEC’s data collections and data usage by designing taxonomies, validation rules, data quality assessments, and tools for conducting data analyses. OSD also works with investors, regulated entities, and the public to support the submission and use of structured data.

Last Reviewed or Updated: May 1, 2025