James Shipton named chair of Australian Securities and Investments Commission

James Shipton, the Executive Director of the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School, has been appointed the Chair to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for a five-year period. His term begins February 1, 2018.

ASIC is the independent Australian Government body with responsibility for regulating Australian companies, financial markets, financial services organizations and professionals.

Shipton joined PIFS after completing a three-year term as a commission member of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). He was executive director of the SFC’s Intermediaries Division that is responsible for licensing and ongoing supervision of capital market firms in Hong Kong. Prior to joining SFC, he worked for Goldman Sachs as a managing director in Goldman’s Asian Executive Office and, since 2009, as head of Government & Regulatory Affairs for Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong.

“James has done a great job for PIFS,” said Hal Scott, the Nomura Professor of International Financial Systems at HLS. “Our loss is Australia’s gain.”