Finra board elects William Heyman chairman

William H. Heyman, vice chairman and chief investment officer of The Travelers Companies, has been elected chairman of Finra, effective July 18. He served as a member of the Finra board from January 2004 through September 2016. Mr. Heyman succeeds John J. "Jack" Brennan, former chairman of Vanguard, who became chairman of Finra last year after serving as its board's lead governor since 2011. Mr. Brennan joined the board of the National Association of Securities Dealers in 2002 and remained on the board after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. was created through the merger of the NASD and New York Stock Exchange Regulation in 2007. During his time on the Finra board, Mr. Heyman chaired and served on several committees, the organization said in a release. He also served as director of the division of market regulation (now trading and markets) at the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1991 to 1993. Prior to his current role at Travelers, he was chairman of Citigroup Investments, a subsidiary of Citigroup that managed much of Citigroup's proprietary portfolio, including private equity, real estate and alternative investments. He began his career in the securities business in 1979, when he co-founded Mercury Securities, a small broker-dealer specializing in merger arbitrage. Prior to that, he was a securities lawyer, principally with Cravath, Swaine & Moore.