Two members of the Finra Board of Governors are facing challenges in elections to be held next month.
Incumbent Andrew Duff of Piper Jaffray & Co., an investment bank and asset manager headquartered in Minneapolis, will be defending his large firms seat from a challenge by Chris Flint of ProEquities Inc. in Birmingham, Ala., according to public notices by Finra.
Robert A. Muh, elected to the board’s small firms seat in 2016 and the CEO of Sutter Securities, will face a challenge from Linde Murphy, who is seeking a first term on the board, but who has has held numerous board appointments over the years.
The elections are scheduled for August 16. There are 174 big firms eligible to vote for Flint or Duff, and 3,261 eligible to vote for Muh or Murphy
Murphy, a chief compliance officer of M.E. Allison & Co., Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, and Flint are vying to unseat incumbents and fill three-year seats on the board.
Candidates seeking to run for the big firms board seat must be registered with a firm that employs at least 500 registered persons to qualify for the elected office, while those seeking to run for the small firms board seat must be registered with a firm that employs at least one to 150 registered persons.
Since Flint and Murphy, unlike Duff and Muh, did not receive the nomination of the nominating committee, each had to petition the board to run in the election. Flint obtained the required signatures of at least 10% of large firm Finra members and Murphy obtained at least 10% of small firm members.
Duff, a FINRA board governor since 2017, is the former chairman and CEO of Piper Jaffray Companies. He currently serves on the board of directors of Piper Jaffray & Co., the primary broker-dealer subsidiary for Piper Jaffray Companies. Duff joined Piper Jaffray in 1980.
Flint has over 23 years of experience in the financial services industry, working in sales technology, compliance, operations, and distribution. In addition to serving as president and CEO of ProEquities Inc., Flint is senior vice president for distribution companies for Protective Life Insurance Company.
Muh, with over 40 years of experience in the financial services industry, heads Sutter Securities, a 12-person broker-dealer he co-founded in San Francisco in 1992. He was elected to the board in 2016 and has served as chair of Finra's Small Firm Advisory Committee.