Panelists at SEC's Staff Roundtable on Emerging Markets

Carson Block is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Muddy Waters Capital LLC, which is a manager of private funds focused on activist investing. Since 2010, research published by Muddy Waters and its predecessor firm has identified seven emerging markets-based companies that were subsequently de-listed by various regulators. Mr. Block was named to the Bloomberg BusinessWeek “50 Most Influential in Global Finance” list in 2011. Prior to Muddy Waters, he started the first self-storage business in Mainland China, co-authored “Doing Business in China for Dummies,” and practiced law with Jones Day in Shanghai, PRC. He received a Juris Doctorate from the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2005, and a BS in Business in 1998 from a large university in California.

Noriko Honda Chen is an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group. She also serves on the Capital Group Management Committee. She has 29 years of investment experience and has been with Capital Group for 21 years. Earlier in her career, as an equity investment analyst at Capital, Noriko covered Asian infrastructure, building materials and construction companies, as well as oil, gas and refining companies.

Rodney Comegys is a Vanguard principal and 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 $3 trillion in indexed assets. Previously, he was global head of Risk Management for Vanguard Investment Management Group.

William D. Duhnke III is the Chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a position he has held since January 2018. Prior to serving as PCAOB Chairman, he was the majority staff director and general counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration under the leadership of Chairman Richard C. Shelby, twice served as staff director and general counsel to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and served as staff director and general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Earlier in his career, Chairman Duhnke served in the U.S. Navy, including as a Lieutenant in the White House.

Paul Gillis is a Professor of Practice at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. A certified public accountant from the United States, he is a leading expert on accounting and auditing issues in China. He is also a director and audit committee chairman for Mercurity Fintech Holding, Inc., a PRC-based public company listed in the United States. Before joining Peking University, Professor Gillis was a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in the United States, Singapore, and China for 28 years.

Ryan LaFond is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Algert Global, an investment firm focused on managing global absolute return and active long-only strategies for both institutional and private investors. Prior to rejoining Algert Global, Mr. LaFond was Head of Research for the Asia Pacific and Emerging Markets Equity group within BlackRock’s Scientific Active Equity team. Mr. LaFond began his career as an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. Mr. LaFond earned a BBA degree and Ph.D. with a concentration in Accounting, both from the University of Wisconsin.

Sebastien Lieblich is Managing Director and Global Head of Index Solutions within the Research & Product Development team at MSCI. He has specialized over the years in index construction and maintenance methodologies with a special focus on index rebalancing and market classification. He is also the chair of the MSCI Equity Index Committee and a regular member of MSCI Index Policy Committee.

Julie Bell Lindsay is the Executive Director of the Center for Audit Quality, a position she has held since May 2019. Previously, Ms. Lindsay served as a Managing Director and Deputy Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Citigroup. Earlier in her career, Ms. Lindsay served as counsel to former Commissioner Cynthia Glassman at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and worked in private practice at law firms in both Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto, California.

John May is a Partner in PwC’s National office where he leads the National SEC Services Group. He is a member of the Center for Audit Quality’s SEC Regulations Committee and served as the committee’s chair from 2015-2016. He is also a principal editor and author of a number of PwC publications including PwC’s SEC Volume – a comprehensive manual for SEC registration and reporting.

Amy C. McGarrity rejoined Colorado PERA as Chief Investment Officer in March 2017 after serving as Global Equity Product Specialist at William Blair & Co. She joined Colorado PERA in 2010 as Senior Investment Officer, then Deputy Chief Investment Officer. A CFA charterholder, she is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Colorado, and serves on the SEC Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee and the Healthy Markets Association Board.

Sarah Payne is a Partner at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and is co-head of the Capital Markets Group and Technology M&A and Finance Group. She has a broad-based corporate practice advising clients on a wide range of transactions, focusing on public and private securities offerings and public and private company mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Payne is active in the firm’s corporate governance practice and advises clients on their continuing reporting obligations, Sarbanes-Oxley processes and other general corporate matters.

Roger Robinson Roger Robinson is President & CEO of RWR Advisory Group, a research, analysis, and advisory firm that specializes in tracking and assessing the risk and threat implications of foreign state-owned or state-controlled enterprises. Previously, Mr. Robinson was Vice President in the International Department of the Chase Manhattan Bank and later served on the National Security Council (NSC) as Senior Director of International Economic Affairs. At NSC, Mr. Robinson had responsibility for all economic, financial, trade, technology and energy relationships of the United States worldwide. He worked at the White House from March 1982 until September 1985. Mr. Robinson served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Congressionally-mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission from 2001 to 2006. He Co-Founded and presently Chairs the Prague Security Studies Institute. He has published extensively on security-related risk in the global capital markets and East-West economic and financial relations. He has served as an expert witness on numerous occasions before both Senate and House Committees and has appeared on major media outlets for over three decades.

Cheryl J. Scarboro is a Partner at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. Previously, she was an Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and the first Chief of the SEC’s FCPA Unit. Ms. Scarboro represents corporations, financial institutions and individuals in SEC and other regulatory enforcement proceedings, and conducts internal investigations and counsels clients on FCPA compliance programs, SEC reporting, disclosure and corporate governance requirements.

John Tuttle is Vice Chairman and Chief Commercial Officer at NYSE Group Inc. He leads the commercial outreach and business development of NYSE Group. In this role, he oversees NYSE’s Global Listings, Capital Markets, and Exchange Traded Products businesses and is responsible for managing the Exchange’s relationships with more than 2,200 NYSE-listed companies and overseeing the creation of new offerings in emerging and growing sectors of the economy.

Jill Walker is the Senior Vice President, Corporate Financial Services, and Chief Accounting Officer at Starbucks Corporation, and is responsible for overseeing business integration and improvement activities, developing expertise through shared services and ensuring the integrity of internal and external financial reporting. She began her career at Starbucks in 2000 in the Accounting organization and has held a number of accounting, financial reporting and finance roles for corporate, retail and supply chain functions. Ms. Walker was an audit manager with KPMG LLP prior to joining Starbucks.

John A. Zecca is Executive Vice President and Global Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer at Nasdaq. He is responsible for providing legal counsel to senior management and for overseeing the quality of legal services across the global organization. John is also responsible for market regulation and the Office of Corporate Secretary. He most recently served as Nasdaq’s General Counsel North America and Chief Regulatory Officer.

Robert Zink is Chief of the Fraud Section at the Department of Justice, which investigates and prosecutes complex white collar crime cases and sophisticated fraud schemes throughout the country. He has held this position since July 2019 and before that was the acting chief. Mr. Zink is a career prosecutor who has served in the Department of Justice in various roles, joining the Fraud Section in 2010 where he has prosecuted numerous high-profile financial and securities fraud cases. Earlier in his career, Mr. Zink worked at a private law firm in Washington, D.C. and served as a law clerk for Eighth Circuit Judge, Donald Lay.