OCC, the worlds largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced that John P. Davidson, a long-time senior executive with more than 35 years of experience in the global financial services industry, has agreed to join the organization as President and Chief Operating Officer, effective May 8th. Davidson will report to OCC Chairman and CEO Craig Donohue, and he replaces Michael McClain, Chief Operating Officer, who left OCC on March 31st for personal reasons.
"John brings to OCC extensive experience in clearinghouse financial risk management, along with broader knowledge in operations, IT management, enterprise risk management, and compliance," said Donohue. "He is a very forward-looking, results-oriented leader who will help us deliver on our responsibilities as a SIFMU, including the work we are doing on covered clearing agency rules and SEC Regulation SCI. John also has earned a strong and positive reputation in our industry and among regulators, which will help OCC better serve market participants in its role as the foundation for secure markets."
Davidson joins OCC from Citigroup, where he worked from 2008 to 2017, most recently as Chief Compliance Officer. In this role, he led the global 2,400-person, 87-country compliance organization, which is responsible for proactively identifying, evaluating, mitigating and reporting on compliance, regulatory and reputation risks across Citi. He previously had served at Citi as their Risk Divisions Chief Administrative Officer, where he was responsible for Infrastructure Risk Management, and then as Head of Enterprise Risk Management, where he was responsible for managing Citis operational risk across businesses and geographies. Davidson built the enterprise risk management team, focusing on managing operational risk through strengthened governance, assessment, mitigation and recovery efforts.
Prior to Citi, Davidson spent 12 years at Morgan Stanley, serving as Managing Director and Operations Officer for the firms Global Operations and Services Division, where he was responsible for overseeing the integration of systems and processing services to combine the firms previously separate institutional, retail and investment management divisions into a single integrated global securities business. He rebuilt the firms global institutional processing system and opened new processing centers on four continents, away from major financial centers.
Early in his career, Davidson worked for 10 years as head of the CME Clearing House. Among other accomplishments, he was instrumental in developing and implementing the Standardized Portfolio Analysis of Risk margining system, and the design of CME Clearing 21®, which is viewed as the premier derivatives clearing system in the world.
Speaking about the departure of Mike McClain, Donohue noted, "Mike McClain made an impact at OCC on many levels. He effectively presented to market participants and policymakers about how our company performed and the value we bring every day to the financial markets. Due to his long tenure at OCC, Mike also was sought for his guidance and his ability to interact with so many of our colleagues. For these reasons, he will be missed, and we wish him well on the next phase of his life."
Donohue also announced the appointment of Adi Agrawal, currently OCCs Chief Audit Executive, to a new role of Chief Business Transformation Officer. "Successfully executing on our SEC Regulation SCI mandate is one of our highest priorities this year," said Donohue. "To make sure we achieve this goal, I have asked Adi Agrawal to lead this critically important effort.
"The purpose of this function will be to work with OCCs first line management to strengthen our existing business processes while implementing effective controls, with the goal of improving OCCs compliance posture. Adi has the right background and experience to take on this challenge, and I have every confidence in his ability to lead our team to a successful execution of this initiative."
An internationally recognized and experienced assurance and risk executive with more than 25 years of experience leading information technology, process re-engineering, risk and strategy, Agrawal joined OCC in 2015 as First Vice President, Internal Audit. Hugo Mugica, First Vice President of Internal Audit, will become Acting Head, Internal Audit.