SEC Regional Directors Panel Discussion

Eric Werner is the Regional Director of the SEC's Fort Worth Office. Mr. Werner was previously the Acting Co-Regional Director and served as the Associate Regional Director of Enforcement in the Fort Worth office since 2018.
Mr. Werner has worked at the Commission for 26 years, including the last 18 years in the Fort Worth office. As Regional Director, Mr. Werner oversees more than 100 personnel, including attorneys, accountants, investigators, and securities compliance examiners who focus on enforcement actions and compliance examinations across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas.
Prior to joining the Fort Worth office, Mr. Werner worked in the Division of Enforcement's Home Office as an investigative attorney and later in the Office of Chief Counsel. Mr. Werner’s has worked with the Complex Financial Instruments Unit, the Public Finance Abuse Unit, the Distributed Ledger Technology Working Group, and the Dark Web Monitoring Group. He holds a law degree from Washington University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Occidental College.

Jim Lundy is a partner and litigator within the Securities Enforcement & Litigation Practice Group at Foley & Lardner LLP, based in the firm’s Chicago office. Jim successfully resolves high-stakes enforcement matters by drawing on his deep technical insights and emotional intelligence.
Jim seeks to protect the reputations and stakeholder relationships of his clients under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory bodies, leveraging his experience working in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement for almost a decade. Jim spent the last several years of his service with the SEC helping lead the Division of Examinations program for the Midwest region. His clients include public companies and their boards of directors, investment advisers, broker-dealers, hedge and private equity funds, investment banks, futures trading firms, and the leaders of these organizations. He has helped clients resolve high-stakes SEC and other regulatory investigations with no charges filed, and he has lowered enforcement settlement demands by hundreds of millions of dollars. Jim also leads internal investigations; serves as an independent monitor; provides counsel on governance, compliance, and policy issues; handles cybersecurity regulatory investigations; defends clients in complex financial services litigation; and serves as an independent monitor.

Nicholas P. Grippo is Regional Director of the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office, where he leads a staff of more than 150 attorneys, accountants, investigators, securities compliance examiners, and other personnel involved in the prosecution of enforcement actions and performance of compliance examinations across the mid-Atlantic.
Previously, Mr. Grippo served as Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, where he supervised approximately 120 prosecutors and support staff.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Grippo was an attorney in the Litigation Department of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Joseph L. Yannotti of the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division. Mr. Grippo earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law.

Daniel Gregus is the Regional Director of the SEC's Chicago Office.
Mr. Gregus is a 28-year veteran of the SEC and has held leadership roles in both the Division of Enforcement and the Division of Examinations. He has most recently served as the Associate Director of the National Clearance and Settlement Examination Program as well as the Associate Regional Director for the Broker-Dealer and Exchange Examination Program in the Chicago Regional Office.
Mr. Gregus began working in the Enforcement Division in the Chicago office in 1993. He served as an Assistant Regional Director for Enforcement from 1998 to 2007, and then he joined the Broker-Dealer and Exchange Examination Program. Mr. Gregus served as an Assistant Regional Director of that program until 2015, when he was named Associate Regional Director. He became the acting Associate Director for both the National Transfer Examination Program and the National Clearance and Settlement Examination Program in 2016, and became the permanent Associate Director for the Clearance and Settlement Examination Program in 2018.
Mr. Gregus graduated with highest honors from the University of Illinois, where he was captain of the varsity football team and a three-time Academic All-American. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law and spent seven years in private practice in Chicago before joining the SEC.

Most recently, from 2017-2022, Merri Jo served as Deputy General Counsel for The Jones Financial Companies -- which includes Edward Jones, a broker-dealer and investment advisor serving retail investors throughout the US and Canada. She worked closely with the most senior officers of the firm, while also leading a number of teams responsible for regulatory, enforcement and corporate law matters.
From 2013-2017, she joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as co-leader of the firm’s national Securities Enforcement and Litigation practice, where she represented public companies, registered securities firms and their senior executive officers, in investigations and litigation before the SEC, FINRA, state securities regulators and the DOJ.
From 2004-2013 (9 years), she served as Regional Director of the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office, where she led all enforcement and examination programs, as well as serving in a number of national leadership roles for the SEC.
From 1986-2004 (18 years), she held a number of roles in the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office, including overseeing all SEC enforcement investigations and litigation in the Mid-Atlantic region.
She has been a thought leader and frequent public speaker on a wide range of securities law and practice issues throughout her career.

Tracy S. Combs, Esq. is the Director of the Salt Lake Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In this role, Ms. Combs oversees the Salt Lake Regional Office’s enforcement program, supervising the office’s investigative and trial unit staff, as well as regional operations, examinations, and other staff resident in the office. Ms. Combs joined the SEC in 2015 as a staff attorney and member of the Cyber Unit in the Division of Enforcement for the San Francisco Regional Office, where she worked on many high-profile insider trading, cybersecurity, and other cases, and then served as both a staff and trial attorney in the Salt Lake Regional Office. From September 2021 through January 2022, she served as counsel to Gurbir Grewal, the Director of Enforcement. Prior to joining the SEC, Ms. Combs was in private practice and served a one-year judicial clerkship in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She received her bachelor’s degree from Colby College and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Jason Burt is the Regional Director of the SEC's Denver Office.As Regional Director, leads a staff of more than 100 accountants, attorneys, investigators, litigators, securities compliance examiners, and other personnel involved in the investigation and prosecution of enforcement actions and the performance of compliance examinations focusing on Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Previously, Mr. Burt served as Acting Co-Director of the Denver Office.
Mr. Burt also previously served as the Office’s Associate Regional Director, overseeing the region’s enforcement program beginning in 2019. During his 18-year tenure with the Commission, Mr. Burt has served at both the SEC headquarters and in the Denver Office. Mr. Burt has spent the majority of his SEC career with Enforcement, where he was responsible for investigating and prosecuting many complex and significant enforcement actions including managing the Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative, a self-reporting initiative designed by the Asset Management Unit to return money quickly to investors harmed by inadequate fee disclosures. He also spent time in the Examinations Division.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Burt worked as an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobsen LLP. He earned his bachelor’s magna cum laude from James Madison University and his law degree with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law.