The top regulator of the mutual fund industry is preparing to step down.

Dalia Osman Blass U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Director of the Division of Investment Management

Yesterday Jay Clayton, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirmed that Dalia Blass, the director of the SEC's division of investment management, will leave the regulatory agency in January (the same month of the expected U.S. presidential transition). Sarah ten Siethoff, a 12-year veteran of the division who rose in 2018 to associate director, will rise to acting director of the division.

"Both quantitatively and qualitatively, the work advanced by the Division of Investment Management over the last three years is a testament to Dalia's leadership, extensive experience within the agency, and commitment to America's investors," Clayton states. "Her experience and deep knowledge of the industry and the federal securities laws have been invaluable as we've modernized outdated regulations and navigated a global pandemic, all while seeking to increase the industry's resiliency and accommodate investor-oriented innovation."

For her part, Blass describes her time atop the division as "the honor of a lifetime."

The revelation of Blass' impending departure comes a month after Clayton himself confirmed that he will leave the SEC next week.

Clayton hired Blass in 2017 to take over the division of investment management, only a few months after Clayton himself took over the SEC. Prior to that, Blass worked at Ropes & Gray and Shearman & Sterling, and she also spent a dozen years at the SEC earlier on, eventually rising to assistant chief counsel for the division of investment management. She is an alumna of Columbia and of American University.

Ten Siethoff, an alumna of Yale and of UVA, worked at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton before joining the SEC's division of investment management in 2008. 

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