SEC COO to depart in February

The announcement of Jeffery Heslop’s departure from the agency follows several others, including chairman Mary Jo White and enforcement director Andrew Ceresney.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday its chief operating officer Jeffery Heslop will depart the regulator next month.

It was unclear where he would head to after his current position ends.

The SEC chief financial officer, Kenneth Johnson, will become acting COO, according to a statement from the SEC.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Johnson's deputy CFO, Caryn Kauffman, will become the acting CFO. 

Heslop, who joined the SEC in 2010 as the agency’s first COO, oversaw human capital management, business processes, internal functions and technology infrastructure, the statement said.

He was responsible for the operations of the SEC’s offices of human resources, acquisitions, information technology, strategic initiatives, financial management and support operations.

According to the statement, Heslop initiated and implemented a strategy to fix outdated technology infrastructure and business processes, and played a leadership role in transitioning the agency from paper-based operations to automated and cost-effective techniques.

Heslop’s departure follows several others that were announced after the November 8 US presidential election.

Among the most notable of those announcements were SEC chairman Mary Jo White, who planned to leave the agency at the end of the Obama administration, and SEC enforcement director Andrew Ceresney, who left at the end of 2016.

Heslop came to SEC from Capital One, where he was the managing vice president of information risk management. Prior to joining Capital One in 1998, he was a battalion commander and professor of military science at the University of Richmond, an assistant director of the Army Pentagon staff and a lieutenant colonel in the US Army.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment.