President Obama is naming Mary Jo White, a former United States attorney turned white collar defense lawyer, to be the next chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a White House official.
Mr. Obama will announce the nomination at the White House on Thursday at 2:30 pm, the official said. As part of the event, he will also re-nominate Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role that he has held for the last year as a recess appointment.
In appointing Ms. White and Mr. Cordray, the White House is sending a signal about the importance of holding Wall Street accountable for wrongdoing. Both are former prosecutors.
Regulatory chiefs are often market experts or academics. But Ms. White, now a partner at Debevoise and Plimpton, spent nearly a decade the United States Attorney in New York, the first woman named to this post. Among her prominent cases, she oversaw the prosecution of John Gotti, the mafia boss, as well as the individuals respnsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
As the attorney general of Ohio, Mr. Cordray made a name for himself suing Wall Street companies in the wake of the financial crisis.
The White House expects Ms. White and Mr. Cordray to draw on their prosecutorial backgrounds while carrying out a broad regulatory overhaul that Congress enacted in response to the crisis.
“The President will name two individuals to serve in top enforcement roles in his administration to help ensure we are effectively implementing these reforms so that Wall Street is held accountable and middle class Americans never again are harmed by the abuses of a few,†the official said.
The decision to appoint Ms. White was widely expected after her name emerged as the likely pick in news reports last week. Ms. White will replace Elisse Walter, a longtime S.E.C. official, who took over as chairwoman after Mary L. Schapiro stepped down as the agency’s leader in November.
