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Jay Clayton

Jay Clayton

Adjunct Professor of Law

Jay Clayton served as the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from May 2017 to December 2020. He is a Senior Policy Advisor and Of Counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, advising companies on strategic, crisis management and corporate governance matters.

He also is the Non-Executive Chair and Lead Independent Director of Apollo Global Management and an Adjunct Professor at both the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Mr. Clayton served as a Lecturer in Law and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School from 2009 - 2017. In addition, he has advisory roles with several privately held companies and non-profit organizations.

As Chairman of the SEC, Mr. Clayton focused on modernizing the regulation and oversight of our equity and fixed income markets, concentrating on the interests of long-term investors. Under his leadership, the SEC updated dozens of rules and regulations, many that had not been revised in decades. The SEC also addressed various market developments and emerging risks, including the digitization of assets and financial transactions, the COVID-19 economic shock, the Brexit and LIBOR transitions, and various cybersecurity matters. Mr. Clayton testified before Senate and House Committees on various occasions and regularly met and corresponded with members of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees. He was an active member of the Financial Stability Board, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.

Prior to Mr. Clayton’s time at the SEC, he was a member of Sullivan & Cromwell’s management committee, co-managing partner of its General Practice Group and co-head of its Cybersecurity Group. Over his career Jay has been the lead lawyer in an array of complex M&A and capital markets transactions, as well as regulatory and governance matters, in the financial, telecoms, energy, transportation and ecommerce sectors. Mr. Clayton also advised a number of individuals, families and closely-held companies in connection with their public and private investments as well as succession planning matters.

Mr. Clayton earned a BS in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude), a BA and MA in Economics from The University of Cambridge (Kings College; Thouron Scholar) and a JD from The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (cum laude; Order of the Coif).