US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Caroline Pham, the Republican commissioner who took over the agency when President Donald Trump returned to the White House, many of the agency’s top officials were fired under predecessor Rostin Behnam, the Democrat nominated by Joe Biden.
The staff changes — each departure replaced by interim officials appointed by Pham — will have cryptocurrency oversight implications for the US derivatives regulator poised to play a bigger role in the field.
Notably, Harry Jung, who joined the CFTC in 2023 as a senior policy advisor to Pham, will lead the agency’s engagement with the crypto industry. He has been tapped for a high-profile role as the CFTC’s new acting chief of staff.
Pham announced the departure of a broad list of senior officials, including the agency’s general council and the heads of its enforcement, public affairs, cleaning and risk, market supervision and divisions of participants in market. The head of the office of international affairs and the department that oversees legislative affairs will also appear – an important part for the agency because Congress will work on a crypto bill that could put the CFTC in a major role.
“I am pleased to announce changes to the leadership of the CFTC as the new administration begins,” Pham said in a statement. “I am grateful for their combined decades of dedicated service to the CFTC, and I appreciate our talented CFTC staff who will fill these roles on an interim basis.”
The new acting general counsel — the agency’s top legal officer — and Pham’s chief of staff and public-affairs director were removed from the ranks of staff from his commissioner’s office: Meghan Tente, Taylor Foy and Jung, respectively. . Running for the legislative office is Nicholas Elliot, who once advised him on policy.
The stand-in enforcement director is Briang Young, a former Department of Justice veteran who replaced the CFTC’s whistleblower officer last year.
