Michael Piwowar is the Executive Vice President of Milken Institute Finance. He is also a member of Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy advisory board and a Program Fellow at Columbia Law School’s Program in the Law and Economics and Capital Markets. Before joining the Milken Institute, Dr. Piwowar was nominated by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate to serve as a Commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He was designated Acting Chairman of the Commission by President Trump. He was previously chief economist for the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. During the global financial crisis and its immediate aftermath, Dr. Piwowar served at the White House as a senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in both the Bush and Obama Administrations. Before joining the White House, Dr. Piwowar worked as a Principal at the Securities Litigation and Consulting Group, as a visiting academic scholar and senior financial economist at the SEC, and as an assistant professor of finance at Iowa State University. He received a BA in Foreign Service and International Politics from the Pennsylvania State University, an MBA from Georgetown University, and a PhD in Finance from the Pennsylvania State University.