Former Chief of S.E.C. to Leave Consulting Job

Mary L. Schapiro spent four years as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her next act was far shorter.

Just nine months after joining the Promontory Financial Group, a consulting firm that straddles the worlds of Wall Street and Washington, Ms. Schapiro is planning to leave her full-time role there. Ms. Schapiro, a managing director and chairwoman of the governance and markets practice at Promontory, will instead become the vice chairwoman of the firm’s advisory board.

In a statement, a Promontory spokesman attributed Ms. Schapiro’s decision to “her desire to devote more time to her outside activities.” The spokesman, Christopher Winans, added that “Mary Schapiro is a public figure who is in high demand around the world.”

Ms. Schapiro said on Thursday that she had an array of university lectures, speaking engagements and corporate board work ahead of her. Her last day as a Promontory employee is Friday.

“Promontory is a great firm but I’ve learned over the last nine months that there are lots of things I’m interested in doing and this move frees me up to do them,” she said.

Even so, the abrupt departure capped a rare wrong turn through Washington’s revolving door.

Like many S.E.C. officials before her, Ms. Schapiro spun her government résumé into a lucrative private sector role at Promontory, which has advised some of the world’s most powerful corporations and banks, including Morgan Stanley and the Vatican Bank. At first, representing such companies would seem to suit her sweet spot. During her nine-month stint, she advised corporate clients on structuring their boards and managing risk.

But Ms. Schapiro pledged never to represent a Promontory client before a government agency, saying that she was loath to trade on the secrets of an agency she helped overhaul after the financial crisis. That restriction exceeded her legal obligation. Under executive order, President Obama barred all his appointees from formally lobbying his administration after leaving it, a ban that would expire once he left office.

The harsher, self-imposed restriction limited Ms. Schapiro’s role at Promontory, people close to her say. And after spending her entire career as a regulator â€" at the S.E.C., the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s self-regulatory group â€" Ms. Schapiro privately remarked to friends that consulting work was not the right fit.

“There’s so much money to spin through the revolving door that it’s almost irresistible,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen whose report “A Matter of Trust” laid the groundwork for Mr. Obama’s executive order. “After appearing to have taken advantage of this, it now appears that Mary is resisting that very powerful temptation, and I applaud her for that.”

Still, Ms. Schapiro will keep a foot in the private sector. She will continue to earn about $250,000 annually as a director at General Electric.

Ms. Schapiro â€" who left Finra after 13 years with a payout of roughly $7 million that included pension and deferred compensation â€" will also collect compensation for serving on Promontory’s advisory board. She will join a who’s who of former regulators, including Alan S. Blinder, the former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Arthur Levitt, one of Ms. Schapiro’s predecessors at the S.E.C.