Hear from Michelle Oroschakoff and Scott Kursman

The SIFMA C&L Society recently welcomed our new president, Scott Kursman, Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. & Citibank, N.A. Swap Dealer. Scott sat down with Michelle Oroschakoff, our outgoing president who recently announced her retirement from LPL Financial after serving as Chief Legal Officer for the past ten years. Watch their discussion to learn about the strides we’ve made and how we’re planning to build upon that success.

Q&A with Michelle and Scott

Michelle: Hi, I’m Michelle Oroschakoff, Chief Legal Officer for LPL Financial and President of the SIFMA Compliance & Legal Society. After 30 years in the industry, I’m going to be retiring in the fourth quarter and I’ve turned over the reins of the Society to my friend and colleague, Scott Kursman.

Scott: Thanks, Michelle. It’s a privilege to follow in your footsteps. We’ve known each other for many years, but I was hoping to ask you on a personal level: what has the C&L Society meant to you?

Michelle: It’s been a real privilege to be a member representing my prior firm as well as my current firm, LPL Financial. I like to say that I can chart my professional career by my participation at SIFMA. It’s been a great measuring stick for me and I’m sure for many others as well. It’s also been a great experience from a professional development and a networking perspective and also from a personal perspective. I’ve met lots and lots of interesting people, some of whom have become friends, and that’s all because of my work with the Society.

It’s also given me the privilege of a platform to work with others, to help to shape the dialogue around really what matters in our industry.

Scott: The C&L Society has grown so much under your leadership. Looking back, can you tell us what accomplishments are most important to you?

Michelle: We have done a lot and it’s a group effort. We call ourselves a working committee, and that’s what we are. Everybody’s pitching in to do a lot of really important stuff.

From my tenure as the president, I’m most proud of a couple of things. First, we really lived into our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. This is both with respect to the educational programs that we put on, our Regional Seminars, and our big Annual with respect to the panelists and the moderators. We’ve built on prior success and we’ve continued to build on that in a way that’s become quite noticeable. We’ve also expanded our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on the Executive Committee itself, where we continued to push to diversify not only in the areas of gender and race, but also with respect to business model and type of firm.

Second, I’m proud of how we’ve changed our monthly meetings to include more timely topics and expert speakers from member firms, law firms and regulatory bodies. I think that’s really enhanced the value that being on the Society brings to the Executive Committee members.

Scott, to ask you, looking into the future, where do you want to see the Society evolve next?

Scott: First, I want to make sure that we continue to enhance the general welfare of the profession with our educational and networking events and by promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within its ranks.

I’d also like to see if we can provide more resources to the Future Leaders group so they can be creative in engaging the next generation of legal and compliance professionals.

And finally, I’d like to develop some programming focusing on some of the nuts-and-bolts activities of financial services firms, which could benefit all practitioners, whether they’re in-house, law firms or at regulatory agencies.

Michelle: That sounds like a great and ambitious agenda. I can’t wait to see what you do in those areas. I’ve got a final question. How can people connect with us?

Scott: Great question, Michelle. We have Regional Seminars, we have our Future Leaders program, we have all the information about the Annual Seminar, breakfasts, lunches and other opportunities for connecting. That information can be found on the www.sifma.org/cl website.

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To receive our monthly C&L Society Update and more, please manage your profile here. To view upcoming events for compliance and legal professionals in the financial industry, please visit www.sifma.org/events.

 

Michelle Oroschakoff 
Chief Legal Officer, LPL Financial
President Emeritus, SIFMA C&L Society

 

 

 

Scott Kursman
Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. & Citibank, N.A. Swap Dealer
President, SIFMA C&L Society

 

 

 

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