Mary Jo White

Mary Jo White (born December 27, 1947) is the 31st and current Chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. She was the first woman to be United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002. On January 24, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated White to replace Elisse B. Walter as Chairwoman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She was confirmed by the Senate on April 8, 2013 and was sworn into office on April 10, 2013. As of 2014, she is listed as the 73rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Life and career

White was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in McLean, Virginia. She received a B.A. from the College of William & Mary in 1970. She earned an M.A. in psychology in 1971 from The New School for Social Research and a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1974, where she was a Writing & Research Editor of the Columbia Law Review.

White became Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York in December 1992, and in March 1993 was appointed by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District. She is noted for having overseen prosecutions of John Gotti and the terrorists responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, chief among them Ramzi Yousef.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American academic and politician, who is the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and was previously a Harvard Law School professor specializing in bankruptcy law. A prominent legal scholar, Warren is among the most cited in the field of commercial law. She is an active consumer protection advocate whose scholarship led to the conception and establishment of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren has written a number of academic and popular works, and is a frequent subject of media interviews regarding the American economy and personal finance.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). She later served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama. During the late 2000s, she was recognized by publications such as the National Law Journal and the Time 100 as an increasingly influential public policy figure.