Lecturer Bios
Jeanette Wingler
Jeanette Wingler is Associate General Counsel in FINRA’s Office of the General Counsel. Ms. Wingler’s responsibilities involve a variety of regulatory areas, including recruitment practices, research analyst conflicts, Regulation S-P, and seniors and other vulnerable investors.
Prior to joining FINRA in 2014, Ms. Wingler was an associate at Dechert LLP, where she advised on regulatory and compliance matters for broker-dealers, investment advisers and investment companies. Ms. Wingler graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history. She has a law degree from Duke University School of Law.
Brooke Hickman
Brooke Hickman is Director of FINRA’s Vulnerable Adults and Seniors Team
(“VAST”). The mission of the Vulnerable Adults & Seniors Team is to deter, detect,
and investigate the financial exploitation and abuse of seniors and vulnerable adults.
Prior to joining VAST, Mrs. Hickman was a Cycle Examiner with FINRA’s Member
Regulation Department in the Boca Raton District Office. Before coming to FINRA,
she worked in the industry as a Financial Advisor and then in Operations at a large
mutual fund company. Mrs. Hickman has undergraduate and graduate degrees in
International Business.
Tom Mierswa
Tom Mierswa, is Executive Director in the Branch Advisory Group of the Legal and
Compliance Division of Morgan Stanley. He started his career on Wall Street as a
senior litigation counsel, later turning to retail advisory law, which is his practice
today.
A graduate of Williams College and American University’s Washington College
of Law, before joining Wall Street, Mr. Mierswa clerked on the District of Columbia
Court of Appeals and served as an Assistant District Attorney and Senior
Investigative Counsel in the New York County District Attorney’s Office under Robert
M. Morgenthau.
He has been an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University Law
School, sits periodically as a FINRA arbitrator, is an active member of SIFMA’s Senior
Investor’s Working Group and frequently presents on industry issues arising from the handling of accounts
of senior investors.
Joel Sauer
Joel Sauer joined Charles Schwab as the Director of Senior and Vulnerable Investor
(SVI) Investigations in 2019. He began his financial services career as an
Investigator and Assistant Director in Inspections and Compliance at the Texas State
Securities Board.
He then served as an Examiner and Examinations Branch Chief in
the Fort Worth Regional Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. Prior to joining Schwab, he was the Chief Compliance Officer for hedge
fund manager Hayman Capital Management and then for private equity firm Lone
Star Funds.
Jennifer Szaro
Jennifer Szaro is Chief Compliance Officer for XML Securities, LLC a fully disclosed
introducing broker/dealer and its affiliated investment advisory firm, XML Financial
Group. Ms. Szaro is responsible for managing both firms' compliance
infrastructures. Ms. Szaro joined the securities industry in 2000. She previously
worked in the technology sector where she had experience in ecommerce, website
hosting and product development. As the securities industry went through significant
changes with higher regulatory demands, she took on more compliance and
marketing related roles.
In 2011, she became a senior level executive and Chief
Compliance Officer of the broker dealer, then dually registered. In addition to her
current role as CCO, she is the AMLCO, and alternative FINOP. In 2012, she completed FINRA’s Certified
Regulatory and Compliance Professional Program (CRCP)®
. In 2018, she became a non-public FINRA
Dispute Resolution Arbitrator, having qualified through the National Arbitration and Mediation Committee.
In
2019, she was appointed to serve out a two-year term on the FINRA’s Small Firm Advisory Committee
(SFAC), serving as the 2020 Chair. She was re-appointed to serve a three-year term through 2023. Ms.
Szaro holds the following FINRA registrations; Compliance Officer (CR), Introducing Broker-Dealer Financial
and Operations Principal (FI), General Securities Principal (GP), General Securities Representative (GS),
Investment Company and Variable Contracts Products Representative (IR), Municipal Securities Principal
(MP), Municipal Securities Representative (MR), and Operations Professional (OS). Ms. Szaro is a graduate
from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Science
