Richard G. Ketchum 

RICHARD G. KETCHUM - 2009

ASECA is proud to announce that Richard G. Ketchum, former Director of the SEC Division of Market Regulation, has been selected as the seventeenth recipient of the William O. Douglas Award.  The Douglas Award, instituted by ASECA in 1992, is conferred annually on an SEC alumnus who has contributed to the development of the federal securities laws or served the financial and SEC community with distinction.

Mr. Ketchum currently serves as CEO, NYSE Regulation, Inc., and has primary responsibility for the regulatory oversight of NYSE Euronext's U.S. exchange subsidiaries. He is also Chairman of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Chairman of the Regulatory Committee of the World Federation of Exchanges. 

In 1975, fresh out of law school, Ketchum joined Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy.  Two years later, he was hired by the SEC and stayed for 14 years—eight as director of the Division of Market Regulation. He provided leadership in establishing the National Market System through his work on the creation of the Firm Quote Rule, trade reporting requirements for NASDAQ securities, and other market structure issues.  Mr. Ketchum was an author of the SEC’s Special Study of the Options Markets and an important participant in implementing the Shad-Johnson Accord that developed standards for the approval and oversight of new options and futures securities products.  After the October 1987 stock market crash, Ketchum led a study that resulted in the adoption of system-wide circuit breakers and steps to make clearance systems more resilient.  His leadership after the failure of Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1989—until recently the largest failure of an investment bank in U.S. history—resulted in legislation that gave the Commission its first reporting authority with respect to the activities of the holding companies of broker-dealers. 

In 1991, Mr. Ketchum joined the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) as Chief Operating Officer.  He was appointed President of NASD in 1998.  Two years later, he became President of NASDAQ.  In June 2003, Mr. Ketchum was selected as General Counsel of the Corporate and Investment Bank of Citigroup Inc., and a member of the unit’s planning group, Business Practices Committee, and Risk Management Committee. He became New York Stock Exchange’s first Chief Regulatory Officer in 2004 and later CEO of NYSE Regulation.

A 1972 graduate of Tufts University, Mr. Ketchum earned his Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law in 1975. He is a member of the bar in both New York and the District of Columbia.  He also serves on the boards of directors of Wall Street Rising and the Appleseed network.