SEC’s Best Takes Leave Again to ‘Focus on His Health’

Richard Best, the director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations, will take leave from the agency to “focus on his health,” the regulator announced in a statement. The SEC named the division’s deputy director, Keith Cassidy, as acting director.

“I wish Rich well as he takes time to focus on his health,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement. “I thank Keith for stepping in again to lead the Division of Examinations.”

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The announcement was made almost exactly one year after the SEC’s July 2023 announcement that Best was taking an extended medical leave; at the time, Cassidy and Natasha Vij Greiner were named interim acting co-directors of the division. Greiner was named director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management in March.

Cassidy is also the national associate director of the Examination Division’s Technology Controls Program, which oversees tech-focused examinations and manages the SEC’s CyberWatch program and Cybersecurity Program Office. Cassidy was previously the director of the SEC’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs and chief of staff and counsel at the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

Best has been the director of the SEC’s Examinations Division since May 2022, following a two-month period as its acting director. He joined the regulator in 2015 as the regional director of the SEC’s Salt Lake regional office. He was named regional director of the Atlanta office in 2018 and then regional director of the New York office in 2020 before being tapped to head the examinations unit.