The Securities and Exchange Commission’s director of the Division of Corporation Finance Meredith B. Cross will leave the agency at the end of the year to return to the private sector, SEC officials announced today.
Cross has served as the division’s director since June 2009. She joined Chairman Mary Schapiro’s leadership team in the wake of the financial crisis and played a role in the chairman’s initiatives to rebuild the agency’s credibility, improve overall operations at the SEC, and build a more resilient, integrated program designed to foresee and reduce the likelihood of future financial crises in the securities markets.
As director, Cross led initiatives designed to improve investor protections and restore investor confidence in the securities markets, address gaps in regulations highlighted by the financial crisis, and enhance the impact of the division’s review of prospectuses, annual reports and other company filings.
Cross previously was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C., from 1998 to 2009, advising clients on corporate and securities matters.