Ellen McCarthy currently serves as Head of Compliance for Computershare USA. She is an accomplished C-level executive, attorney, and business partner with a proven track record of providing leadership, strategy, execution, and subject matter expertise in meeting regulatory requirements and mitigating risk across enterprises. Ellen has had a distinguished career implementing initiatives that have transformed organizations and ensured regulatory safety and soundness as well as operational excellence. Her prior roles include providing compliance and risk management advisory consulting services to the blockchain industry and top-tier financial services organizations worldwide, and providing in-house executive compliance and risk management leadership for a number of financial institutions in North America.
Ellen's deep regulatory compliance background has its genesis in leadership roles at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Ellen advanced through increasingly responsible Senior Counsel roles with NYSE/FINRA, holding key positions on several committees that drove continuous improvements through cross-functional collaborations with internal and external stakeholders and advanced the organization's diversity, inclusion, and educational initiatives. She planned and executed hundreds of high-impact investigations and prosecutions for NYSE/FINRA.
Enforcement regarding alternative investments, private placements, market timing, customer suitability and sales practice concerns, social media, complex structured products, initial public offerings (IPOs), anti-money laundering (AML), cyber security/protection of sensitive customer data, fraud, and financial/operational misconduct. Ellen earned a J.D. from St. John's University and a B.A., Summa Cum Laude from St. Joseph's College, where she was class Valedictorian. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and is a Bar Member of the State of New York. Ms. McCarthy received Working Mother Magazine's "Working Mother of the Year Award" in 2013. Born and raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY, she now resides in Breezy Point, NY with her husband and two sons. Active in her community, Ellen serves on the Lawyers and Hearing Committees of her residential cooperative, was Chair of the St. Matthias Catholic Academy Board, and is a past Board member of the Cobble Hill Health Center and Stella Maris High School.