Lecturer Bios
Steven Polansky
Steven Polansky is a Senior Director in FINRA’s Shared Services Department. In this capacity, he leads special national initiatives. These have included FINRA’s 2013 Report on Conflicts of Interest and 2015 Report on Cybersecurity Practices. Previously, Mr. Polansky worked in FINRA’s International Department where he was responsible leading FINRA’s relationships with select financial regulators in Europe and Asia as well as international financial institutions. In addition, he led advisory projects in a number of jurisdictions related to, among other things, risk-based supervision and market surveillance. Prior to joining FINRA, Mr. Polansky was a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and he served for seven years as a Professional Staff Member on the Committee on Foreign Relations in the United States Senate. Mr. Polansky received his MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, his MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and his BA in history from Colgate University.
Scott A. Cook, Esq.
Scott A. Cook is Senior Vice President and the Chief Compliance Officer of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., and has been with Schwab for 18 years. Prior to joining Schwab, Mr. Cook was a branch chief with the Division of Enforcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a graduate of the Boston University School of Law and received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Cook is a member of the SIFMA Compliance and Regulatory Policy Committee and a member of the FINRA Compliance Advisory Committee.
John Ivan, Esq.
John Ivan was recently hired in January 2016 as Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Raymond James & Associates based in St Petersburg, Florida. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch covering its GWIM Global Wealth and Retirement Services business. From 2004 to 2012 he was General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. Mr. Ivan also served in senior Compliance and Legal Roles at Goldman Sachs in New York and at Wells Fargo Advisors predecessor firms in Richmond, Virginia. He started his career at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a graduate of University of Virginia and University of Richmond Law School.
Hardeep Walia
Hardeep Walia is founder and CEO of Motif, a next-generation online broker whose mission is to simplify complex investment products and make them universally accessible. The company’s flagship product allows individual investors to act intuitively on their insights by turning them into a “motif” of stocks. Mr. Walia also serves as CEO of Motif Capital, an institutional investment advisor that develops thematic models for clients such as Goldman Sachs, Global Atlantic, and US Bank’s UHNW arm Ascent Private Capital Management. Prior to Motif, Mr. Walia spent more than six years at Microsoft, where he was General Manager of the company's enterprise services business. He also served as Director of Corporate Development and Strategy, helping to oversee Microsoft's investments and acquisitions. He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Walia holds a BS in Economics and Engineering from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. He holds Series 7, 24 and 63 licenses in the securities industry. He serves on FINRA's Technology Advisory Committee and is on the Advisory Boards of Ascent Private Capital and real-estate startup PeerStreet. He is a featured contributor for LinkedIn, and a frequent guest on CNBC.