Firms Elect Wendy Lanton as Small Firm Governor, Re-Elect Jim Nagengast as Large Firm Governor
WASHINGTON – FINRA announced today the results of its election of two Governors to its Board of Governors. At today’s Annual Meeting of FINRA firms, small firms elected Wendy Lanton, Chief Operations/Compliance Officer, Lantern Investments, Inc., as a Small Firm Governor. Large firms re-elected Jim Nagengast, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Securities America Financial Corporation Inc. and President of Securities America Inc., as a Large Firm Governor.
Lanton is a founding principal and the Chief Operations/Compliance Officer of Lantern Investments, which was established in 1993. In December 2015, she was appointed to the FINRA Small Firm Advisory Committee and served as its chairperson in 2018. Lanton graduated from George Washington University where she majored in International Finance.
Nagengast has served on FINRA’s Board since 2018, when he was elected by large firms via a special election to fill a Large Firm Governor vacancy. He currently serves on the Board’s Finance, Operations and Technology Committee, and its Regulatory Operations Oversight Committee. Nagengast joined Securities America—an Omaha, Neb.-based independent investment advisory and brokerage firm—in 1994, and served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer and President before being named CEO in 2010. He previously worked as an analyst for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and as a consultant for Marakon Associates in Greenwich, Conn. Nagengast is a former member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and has an A.B. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
“Congratulations to Wendy for her election to the FINRA Board, and to Jim for his re-election,” said FINRA CEO Robert W. Cook. “We look forward to working with Wendy and continuing to work alongside Jim in support of FINRA’s mission of protecting investors and ensuring integrity of the markets.”
As previously announced, effective today, Eileen Murray, former Co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, LP, begins her tenure as Chairperson of FINRA’s Board of Governors; and Maureen Jensen, former Chair and CEO of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), and Eric Noll, CEO of Context Capital Partners, also begin their appointments on the FINRA Board.
FINRA is overseen by a 24-member Board of Governors, the majority of whom are public members. The industry governors include three from large firms, one from medium-size firms, three from small firms, one floor member, one independent dealer/insurance affiliate and one investment company affiliate. FINRA Governors are appointed or elected to three-year terms and may not serve more than two consecutive terms.
About FINRA
FINRA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to investor protection and market integrity. It regulates one critical part of the securities industry – brokerage firms doing business with the public in the United States. FINRA, overseen by the SEC, writes rules, examines for and enforces compliance with FINRA rules and federal securities laws, registers broker-dealer personnel and offers them education and training, and informs the investing public. In addition, FINRA provides surveillance and other regulatory services for equities and options markets, as well as trade reporting and other industry utilities. FINRA also administers a dispute resolution forum for investors and brokerage firms and their registered employees. For more information, visit www.finra.org.