Gary Gensler is the current chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He previously worked as a banker, and was also a lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He oversaw the Agency Review Team during the Biden-Harris transition. As of 2022, Gary Gensler has a net worth of $119 million.
Early Life
On October 18, 1957, Gary was born with an identical twin named Robert. They grew up in a Jewish family of five children in Baltimore, Maryland. Their father, Sam, was a pinball machine and cigarette vendor.
Gary matriculated from Pikesville High School in 1975 and was later honored as a Distinguished Alumnus. He and his twin brother went to the University of Pennsylvania.
After three years at the university’s Wharton School, Gensler received a summa cum laude degree in economics. He earned an MBA from the same institution the following year.
Business Career
Gensler landed his first job at Goldman Sachs in 1979 and worked there for 18 years. At the age of 30, he became one of the firm’s youngest partners at the time.
In the 1980s, he worked as a senior mergers and acquisitions banker at Goldman Sachs, where he was in charge of the firm’s media advisory efforts. He then moved to Tokyo, where he worked in trade and finance.
He led a group that assisted the National Football League in securing the then-most valuable television agreement in history. For his last position at Goldman Sachs, he was co-head of finance, where he was in charge of global controls and treasury.
Government Roles
When President Bill Clinton proposed, and the U.S. Senate approved, Gary Gensler for the position of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, he left his business career.
From 1997 to 2001, Gensler worked as the Treasury’s Undersecretary for Domestic Finance and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. He headed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration.
Gensler was selected as a voluntary representative of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team in November 2020. As the new chairman of the SEC, he supervises securities regulations, banking, and the Federal Reserve.
Net Worth and Salary
With his principal roles in the U.S. government, it is estimated that Gary Gensler earns approximately $32,000 every month. That’s $384,000 annually. However, Gensler also has other income sources.
He is a co-author of The Great Mutual Fund Trap. Gary is also a Practice Professor of Global Economics and Management. He lectured at the MIT Sloan School of Management, teaching a course on blockchain technology and money.
Recent Pursuits
Because he has conducted thorough research on cryptocurrency, Gensler isn’t entirely against them. However, as the SEC chairman, he supports the plan of the U.S. Congress to impose crypto regulations. He implies that it is to avoid frauds that are common in digital currencies.
Personal Life
Gensler was married to Francesca Danieli, a cinematographer and photographer. They were together from 1986 until Francesca’s passing due to breast cancer in 2006. The couple had three daughters named Isabel, Lee, and Anna.
