Washington, D.C. — Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam today announced the following leadership appointments as he begins his chairmanship. The personnel announced today will lead divisions, offices and other teams within the CFTC to execute the responsibilities in the CFTC governing statute and other issues facing the agency. Today’s announcement follows Chairman Behnam announcing his executive office staff and naming Tanisha Cole Edmonds as the CFTC’s first Chief Diversity Officer. Chairman Behnam plans to make additional staff and policy announcements very soon.

“These individuals have decades of experience with the Commodity Exchange Act and our governing regulations, bringing unmatched expertise to their roles,” said Chairman Behnam. “I am grateful to each for their service, and I am confident that they will strive every day to fulfill the agency’s mission and ensure our markets work for all.”

Amanda Olear, Market Participants Division Director

Amanda Olear has been appointed the Director of the Market Participants Division. In her role, she is responsible for the oversight of swap dealers, futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors, and their associated persons, and she has been working in an acting capacity for this past year. Previously, she served as Deputy Director for Registration and Compliance since 2018. Ms. Olear joined the CFTC in 2007 from Council, Baradel, Kosmerl & Nolan, P.A. in Annapolis, Maryland, where she focused on business entity formation and complex commercial litigation. Prior to that, Ms. Olear served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lynne A. Battaglia on the Maryland Court of Appeals. Coming from a long line of family farmers, she holds a JD, with honors, from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and a BA, summa cum laude, from McDaniel College.

Rob Schwartz, General Counsel

Rob Schwartz has been named General Counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In his role, Mr. Schwartz will lead the Legal Division and serve as chief legal advisor to the Commission. A 10-year veteran of the CFTC, Mr. Schwartz has been the agency’s Acting General Counsel since January 2021. Since joining the CFTC in 2011, Mr. Schwartz has served primarily as the CFTC’s chief litigator, in the position of Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, Enforcement and Adjudication. He has successfully represented the CFTC in numerous critically significant cases, including several lawsuits challenging the agency’s implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, many appeals in enforcement actions, and bankruptcies of registered entities. Mr. Schwartz joined the CFTC from private practice where he represented businesses and individuals in enforcement actions and investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and other government agencies, as well as in private civil actions at all levels of the federal judicial system covering a broad range of business issues. Prior to that, Mr. Schwartz served as a law clerk to the Honorable Amalya L. Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Schwartz holds a JD, magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law and a BA in Political Science from Tufts University.

Clark Hutchison, Clearing and Risk Division Director

Clark Hutchison will continue his role as the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR), which he has led since July 2019. In his role, Mr. Hutchison manages a team of 90 employees at the CFTC’s Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago offices that are responsible for the agency’s supervision of derivatives clearinghouses and their members, including oversight of clearing processes through risk assessment and surveillance. Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Hutchison spent more than three decades in top positions in large global financial institutions, where he specialized in clearing and risk management. In addition to his private sector experience, Mr. Hutchison has served as a special advisor to the board of directors of the Futures Industry Association, as a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Risk Committee, and as a member of the board of directors of NASDAQ Futures, Inc. Mr. Hutchison received a BA from Haverford College.

Tamara Roust, Data Division Director and Chief Data Officer

Dr. Tamara Roust will continue as the Director of the Division of Data and Chief Data Officer, a role she has had since October 2020. In her role, she is responsible for overseeing the agency’s enterprise data strategy and data governance approaches, including cloud migration, automation and artificial intelligence efforts and compliance with the Federal Data Strategy. Prior to rejoining the CFTC, Dr. Roust served as Chief Data Officer for the State of Illinois where she developed the state’s enterprise data strategy and was a part of the state’s COVID-19 taskforce. As part of that effort, she developed automated solutions for transferring data from 1970s era IBM DB2 systems to cloud-native systems for contact tracing, so that hundreds of local health departments could connect to data stored within the state’s systems. From 2011-2016, Dr. Roust served as a Risk Analyst in the CFTC’s Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR), and from 2016-2019, as an Associate Director within DCR’s Examinations Branch, where she revised CFTC Regulations 39.18 and 39.36 to improve information security at Derivatives Clearing Organizations (DCOs). She also has nearly a decade of experience in the financial services industry, holds several industry credentials, and worked as a senior engineer for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Roust holds several graduate degrees including a PhD in Management Information Systems from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Most recently, she earned a certificate in Machine Learning from Stanford.

Suyash G. Paliwal, International Affairs Office Director

Suyash G. Paliwal will continue as Director of the Office of International Affairs (OIA) at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In his role, Mr. Paliwal advises the CFTC Chairman on cross-border issues and leads the CFTC’s international regulatory initiatives. OIA represents the Commission in international fora such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), IOSCO’s joint work with the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and advises the Chairman on matters relating to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and IOSCO’s Financial Stability Engagement Group (FSEG). Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Paliwal served at the Federal Reserve Board, where he advised on FSB matters, represented the central bank in the International Association of Insurance Supervisors and bilateral forums, developed international and domestic policy for the supervision of systemically important financial institutions and certain financial conglomerates (insurance savings and loan holding companies), and oversaw the supervision of large financial institutions. He led a team of supervisors in Europe and Asia to develop international standards on governance and risk management, advised Federal Reserve Board leadership on strategic international engagement and market developments, and was lead author of a proposed capital rule. Prior to his government service, Mr. Paliwal worked in private practice at White & Case and Allen & Overy, where he advised clients on complex international legal issues and derivatives regulations. Before entering law school, he worked in the financial services industry at Ernst & Young and Verisk Analytics, Inc. He holds a JD from Columbia Law School (2010), an MBA, University of Pennsylvania and a BS, University of Pennsylvania.