| Gary Gensler | |
|---|---|
| Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office May 26, 2009 |
|
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Walter Lukken (Acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
Gary Gensler is the chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Barack Obama.
Gensler was Undersecretary of the Treasury (1999-2001) and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (1997-1999) in the United States. Barack Obama selected him to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has jurisdiction over $5 trillion in trades.[1] Gensler was sworn in on May 26, 2009.
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After receiving a BS and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Gary Gensler spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs, making partner when he was 30, becoming head of the company’s fixed income and currency trading operations in Tokyo by the mid-’90s, and eventually the company’s co-head of finance.[2] Questions as to whether there are conflicts of interests relating to Gensler's former employment have been raised, as has been the case in any number of former Goldman employees that go on to hold pivotal positions in the US Treasury, Federal Reserve, or as regulators. Gensler has the reputation in the market though as a politically ambitious man who is more likely to squash than accommodate speculation.
Subsequent to his time at the Treasury he acted as a Senior Adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes, one of the authors of legislation that eventually became the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, designed to bring greater oversight to the accounting industry and reform of corporate governance.
As the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for domestic finance in the last two years of the Clinton administration, Gensler found himself in the position of overseeing policies in the areas of U.S. financial markets, debt management, financial services, and community development. Gensler advocated the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which exempted credit default swaps and other derivatives from regulation. The Senate was expected to examine his views on derivatives regulation during the Senate confirmation hearings.[3]
In March 2009, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attempted to block his nomination to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A statement from Sanders’ office said that Gensler “had worked with Sen. Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation, which led to the collapse of AIG and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in US history.” He also accused Gensler of working to deregulate electronic energy trading, which led to the downfall of Enron, and supporting the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allowed American banks to become “too big to fail.”[4]
In early November, 2011, Gensler stepped aside from the CFTC's investigation of the giant derivatives broker MF Global because of his longstanding ties to Jon Corzine, the CEO of MF Global, for whom Gensler had worked while both were at Goldman Sachs.
In late November, 2011, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), head of the House Financial Services oversight subcommittee investigating MF Global's collapse, asked Gensler in a letter to explain his personal involvement in supervising MF Global. Neugebauer noted that Corzine reportedly personally lobbied Gensler and his staff this year in opposition to a possible CFTC rule that would have affected MF Global. Neugebauer asked Gensler why he didn't remove himself earlier from MF Global matters, so Corzine wouldn't have been able to lobby him.[5]
Gensler is the co-author of a book (with Greg Baer), The Great Mutual Fund Trap. The thrust of the book is that active trading and investing is an inefficient strategy for individual investors, and that individuals should stick with index and exchange traded funds. In November of 2011, Gensler was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people. [6]
Gensler was also a senior adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign and, after the Democratic Primary, the Obama campaign.
Gensler has a sister Barbra (Gensler) Skarzynski, brothers Kenny Gensler and David Gensler and twin brother Robert Gensler who runs an actively-managed fund for T. Rowe Price. Gensler has three daughters, Anna 21, Lee 20, and Isabel 14, and currently lives in Baltimore, MD. His wife, Francesca Danieli, died of breast cancer in June, 2006.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Walter Lukken Acting |
Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission 2009–present |
Incumbent |