Brad Ahrens

Brad Ahrens, Senior Vice President, Regulatory Operations Risk & Intelligence, oversees FINRA’s genAI and analytics strategy and implementations—including machine learning, natural language processing, graph, generative AI, and data visualization—to further enable investor protection and safeguard the financial markets. He also leads FINRA’s Blockchain Lab and the Crypto Asset Team focused on assessing industry innovation and identifying solutions to support FINRA’s mission within an evolving landscape. In addition, Brad leads the Model Risk team providing ongoing guidance to internal teams and FINRA’s members. He also chairs FINRA’s Generative AI Governance Committee (AIGC) and its Industry & Investor Working Group that brings together subject matter expertise from across FINRA to ensure ongoing governance internally and identify opportunities, risks, and challenges in the adoption of generative AI within FINRA and across the industry.

Before joining FINRA, Mr. Ahrens spent more than 20 years at Charles Schwab, last as Vice President, working in Compliance and Enterprise Risk Management with a focus on surveillance, analytics, sales practice, AML, and regulatory programs. Throughout his career he has been focused on building collaborative partnerships to bridge the gaps between compliance, regulation, and technology. Mr. Ahrens is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.