Lido Advisors taps former SEC leader Elena Ro as new compliance chief

Lido Advisors, the Los Angeles-based national RIA with more than $30 billion in assets under management, has named Elena Ro as its new chief compliance officer and special counsel.

The move comes as the private capital-backed firm continues to expand its executive team and strengthen regulatory and operational oversight amid a period of rapid growth. 

With more than 40 offices across the United States, Lido Advisors has positioned itself as a serious contender in the evolving wealth management landscape with an emphasis in risk mitigation, alternative investments, and comprehensive planning.

Ro joins Lido after a 22-year career at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. She most recently served as associate regional director in the San Francisco office. In that role, she led the Division of Examinations’ regional program, overseeing compliance for RIAs, broker-dealers, and other investment entities.

Earlier in her SEC tenure, Ro held leadership roles in operations, managing areas such as human resources, technology resources for investigations and litigation, and legal risk.

She also served as a senior attorney in the Division of Enforcement, including as a member of the Market Abuse Unit. That unit focuses on complex insider trading, market manipulation, and cyber-related trading schemes. 

“Elena is a strategic and thoughtful leader with deep regulatory expertise and rare operational insight,” Jason Lee, chief legal officer at Lido Advisors, said in a Thursday statement announcing her hiring.

He added that Ro “successfully ran one of the SEC’s most respected regional programs and brings practical experience running complex operations. Lido was built on integrity and our commitment to clients and Elena’s arrival only reinforces these core values.”

Ro’s appointment comes as Lido Advisors pursues a national growth strategy.

In recent months, the firm has entered a strategic partnership with HPS Investment Partners, a global alternative investment manager with about $150 billion in assets. The partnership, expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, is designed to support Lido’s long-term expansion, while enhancing the firm’s ability to deliver a family office-style experience to high-net-worth clients. 

Lido has also been fairly acquisitive so far in 2025, most recently snapping up a Michigan-based RIA, Exchange Capital Management in June. Before that, it announced strategic partnerships with Copperwynd Fynancial in Arizona and BluePointe Capital Management in Menlo Park, California.

Lido’s CEO, Jason Ozur, said the partnership “marks an exciting new chapter” for the firm, which has scaled significantly in the past four years while maintaining a client-first focus. 

Ro, who holds a law degree from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s in history from Yale, has also been active in public engagements and conferences. She has addressed topics such as cybersecurity, fiduciary responsibilities, and investor protection.

“I’m pleased to join Lido Advisors as the firm continues its thoughtful growth,” Ro said in the announcement. She added that Lido’s “integrated approach to wealth management, grounded in trust, transparency, and forward-thinking leadership, closely aligns with my values.”