Diversity in Financial Markets

Christopher Brummer is a Georgetown University law professor and author, and he lectures widely on fintech, financial regulation, and global governance. In this capacity, he routinely provides analysis for multilateral institutions and participates in a range of global regulatory forums. His work has been featured in CNN, MarketWatch, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Yahoo! Money, Roll Call, Cointelegraph, and CoinDesk, among others. He is the host of the Fintech Beat podcast.

Sharon Bowen serves on the board of the Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), and the boards of certain of its affiliates, including the New York Stock Exchange and Bakkt. ICE is a Fortune 500 company that builds, operates, and advances global markets through information, technology, and expertise. It serves customers by operating exchanges, clearinghouses, and information services for them to invest, trade, and manage risks across the global financial and commodity markets.

Bowen also serves on the board of Neuberger Berman Group LLC and on its Audit Committee. Neuberger Berman is a private, 100% independent, employee-owned investment manager that manages a range of investment strategies on behalf of institutions, advisors, and individual investors globally.

Bowen is a partner at Seneca Women, a global leadership platform dedicated to connecting and advancing women in the economy. Its Seneca Connect app and Seneca Women Podcast Network amplify the voices of woman thought leaders. Bowen is a frequent speaker and advisor to corporations and financial institutions.

Bowen was the first African American to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and appointed by President Obama to be a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, President Obama and Congress charged the CFTC with reforming the unregulated swaps market with regulatory oversight of the $400 trillion swaps market.

Prior to her role at the CFTC, Commissioner Bowen was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and appointed by President Obama to serve as vice chair of the Securities Investor Protection Corporations, where she also served as acting chair. Previous to her work in the Obama administration, Commissioner Bowen had a renowned three-decade career in corporate and transactional law as an associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell and later as an associate and partner at Latham & Watkins.

Bowen is the recipient of numerous awards, a trailblazer for diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, and holder of leadership roles in numerous nonprofit organizations— including the board and emeritus board (as former chair) of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc.—as well as the boards of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning (PENCIL).

Bowen holds a BA in economics from the University of Virginia and a JD-MBA from Northwestern University.

De’Ana Dow is partner and general counsel at Capitol Counsel LLC. She is one of the most recognized experts on energy and financial markets issues with many years of senior-level experience in both technical and policy areas.

Prior to joining Capitol Counsel, Dow served as senior vice president with Ogilvy Government Relations, specializing in futures and derivatives markets covering all physical commodities, including energy, metals, and agricultural, as well as financial commodities. Prior to her time at Ogilvy, Dow served as managing director for government affairs at CME Group and as senior vice president and chief legislative counsel for the New York Mercantile Exchange. She also spent time as an associate vice president and counsel in the Market Regulation Department at NASD (now FINRA), where she developed and supervised the futures market regulatory program. Dow began her legal career at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she served in a number of capacities over 22 years, including supervisory roles in the Division of Trading and Markets, counsel to Chairman William Rainer during the Clinton administration, and special advisor to Chairman James Newsome under the Bush administration.

Dow is a public director on the board of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX). She chairs the DC Bar CFSL Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion in Business and Finance, and is founder and chairman of the board of the Financial Services Professionals—an organization of Black Americans in the financial services industry.

Dow is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the DC Bar and the American Bar Association.

Douglas Harris is a managing director in the New York office of Promontory Financial Group, LLC, where he advises on regulatory, compliance, and risk-management issues in derivatives, foreign exchange, and capital markets. Formerly he was the general counsel and chief operating officer of BrokerTec Futures Exchange, LLC, and BrokerTec Clearing Company, LLC. From 1993 to 1996 he held the position of senior deputy comptroller for capital markets at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Harris previously served as assistant general counsel of JPMorgan and general counsel of JPMorgan Futures, Inc., where he was counsel for JPMorgan’s global bullion, foreign exchange, and exchange-traded derivatives business.

Harris is also a public director of National Futures Association, the self-regulatory organization of the U.S. derivatives industry, where he serves on the Executive Committee, Audit Committee, and Compliance & Risk Committee.

Harris earned a JD from Harvard Law School in 1975 and an AB from Harvard College in 1972.

Petal Walker counsels banks, funds, brokers, commercial companies’ exchanges, and clearinghouses, as well as innovators in the digital space, in meeting compliance obligations in a complex web of regulatory requirements. She advises on futures and swaps compliance and regulation and works closely with attorneys in banking, corporate, and AML to deliver comprehensive, multifaceted legal advice to clients. Walker rejoined WilmerHale in 2017 after serving as chief counsel for Commissioner Sharon Bowen at the CFTC, where she advised on policy and enforcement issues and led the Market Risk Advisory Committee.

Walker also assists market participants by alerting them to the issues raised by—and helping them demonstrate compliance with—the requirements of the Dodd–Frank regulatory framework. Walker has rendered advice to CFTC registrants and end-users regarding the Dodd–Frank requirements in a number of areas, including reporting, mandatory clearing, product definition, segregation of customer funds, risk management, and financial resource requirements. She also has enforcement and litigation experience and has successfully assisted entities in responding to complex SEC and FINRA investigations.

As chief counsel for Commissioner Sharon Bowen at the CFTC, Walker advised the commissioner on a variety of significant derivatives-related issues concerning clearinghouses, exchanges, swap execution facilities, and swap data repositories (including CCP resilience, recovery, and resolution; equivalence; execution methods; algorithmic trading; and reporting requirements). She also advised her on issues involving intermediaries, such as clearing members, swap dealers, and asset managers (including portability, capital and margin, the de minimis requirement, and cross-border harmonization), and on issues pertaining to emerging technology market participants (including FMI registration and the clearing obligation).

Prior to her three years at the CFTC, Walker was a senior associate at WilmerHale.

Jacqueline Mesa joined the FIA in June 2013 to lead the FIA’s global policy work. In 2019 Mesa was appointed chief operating officer at FIA. As COO, Mesa advises the CEO on all strategy, policies, and operations of FIA and serves as a liaison with the FIA board.

In her role as SVP, global policy, Mesa is responsible for helping to develop, implement, and manage FIA’s global regulatory, government relations, and policy agenda. Mesa works with the FIA policy teams in the U.S., Europe, and Asia to implement consistent global policy positions for members worldwide and works with regulators and policymakers on cross-border policies that impact members. Mesa also leads FIA’s work on the Basel III capital requirements for cleared derivatives and clearinghouse risk.

Prior to joining FIA, Mesa served in various positions at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including as director of international affairs from 2006 to 2013. As director she was the principal advisor on international policy to the CFTC.

She also represented the CFTC in international groups, such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and in bilateral forums, such as the U.S.–EU Financial Markets Regulatory Dialogue (FMRD) and the U.S.–China Strategic Economic Dialogue. Mesa served as IOSCO’s chair for the Committee 7 on Commodity Derivatives Regulation and IOSCO’s chair for the Monitoring Group for the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information.