The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has named Thomas M. Piccone to lead the National Exam Program in the Denver Regional Office.
Mr. Piccone joined the SEC’s Denver office staff in 1997 and ascended to become the assistant director for the office’s examination program overseeing investment advisers and investment companies. As associate regional director for examinations, he will now oversee examinations of broker-dealers and transfer agents as well as investment advisers and investment companies throughout an eight-state region.
“Tom has served investors and his SEC colleagues with total dedication and professionalism for the last 17 years,” said Andrew Bowden, director of the SEC’s National Exam Program. “We commend him on his well-deserved promotion and look forward to his continued contributions in the future.”
Julie Lutz, director of the Denver Regional Office, added, “Tom’s diverse skills and depth of experience have elevated the performance of the exam team in Denver, and he is highly respected throughout the office for his energetic leadership and effective collaboration with enforcement staff.”
Mr. Piccone began as an enforcement attorney and later held positions of branch chief, trial counsel, and special counsel before transitioning to the examination program. While leading the Denver office’s investment adviser and investment company examination program, his group has referred examination findings that led to several significant enforcement actions, including a compliance and disclosure failures case against mutual fund trustees and other gatekeepers, a case against a portfolio manager for forging documents and misleading a chief compliance officer, sanctions against a Nebraska-based investment adviser for best execution failures in selecting mutual fund share classes, and a case earlier this summer against the president of an investment advisory firm who was charged with failing to implement compliance procedures to monitor personal trading by firm employees.
“It’s an honor to be part of the SEC’s national examination program and the agency’s critical mission of protecting investors in a complex and challenging environment,” said Mr. Piccone. “I’m looking forward to continuing to serve alongside the tremendously talented and dedicated examination staff in the Denver office.”
Prior to joining the SEC staff, Mr. Piccone practiced law with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where his practice area involved accounting and securities. He previously served as a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Alfred A. Arraj, and prior to law school he was employed as a member of the management information consulting division of Arthur Andersen & Co. He became a certified public accountant in Colorado (currently inactive) in 1988.
Mr. Piccone received his bachelor’s degree in business (accounting) magna cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1983. He received his law degree from the University of Colorado Law School in 1987 and was awarded the Order of the Coif.
