SEC Enforcement Deputy Director Sam Waldon to Leave Agency
Another leader at the Securities and Exchange Commission is stepping down, months after the departure of Enforcement Division Director Margaret Ryan.
According to the commission, Enforcement Division Principal Deputy Director Sam Waldon will leave the agency at the end of this month after a lengthy tenure. In a statement, Chair Paul Atkins said he “personally benefitted from Sam’s wise counsel” and wished him well.
He will be succeeded as principal deputy director by Osman Nawaz, who previously served with the SEC from 2010 to 2024 before rejoining the agency last month.
Waldon began his tenure with the agency as a staff attorney before eventually becoming the Enforcement Division’s chief counsel from 2002 through 2024. In October 2024, he became an acting deputy director through January 2025. Notably, Waldon served as an interim Enforcement Division director after Judge Margaret Ryan resigned from the agency in March of this year.
In a statement, Waldon said he was “forever grateful” to Atkins, as well as current commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, “for the opportunity to work under their leadership and for their commitment to the agency and its mission.” Waldon also thanked the Enforcement Division staff.
An SEC spokesperson declined to comment further.
Waldon took over as interim Enforcement Division director from Ryan, who resigned from the position less than one year after Atkins appointed her to the role. Afterward, the commission faced pressure from Democratic lawmakers about Ryan’s resignation, citing news reports that she had “clashed with agency leadership” over cases in the Enforcement Division, including some tied to associates of President Donald Trump.
According to Reuters, Ryan wanted to be more “aggressive in pursuing charges for fraud and other misconduct,” including in cases like those against Justin Sun and Elon Musk, who both have ties to Trump or his family, but she “faced resistance” from Atkins and others at the commission.
Ryan was expected to bring a steady hand to the agency’s enforcement efforts amid what Atkins argued was a “necessary course correction” from the tenure of prior Chair Gary Gensler under Joe Biden’s presidential administration. But Ryan entered the role amid an allegedly demoralized workforce following budget cuts and staff reductions.
Waldon held the interim role until April, when David Woodcock, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, took over. In a statement, Woodcock said Waldon’s “positive impact at the SEC will endure for a long time.”
Between 2011 and 2015, Woodcock oversaw the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional offices before leaving to become a partner at Jones Day specializing in securities legislation. Woodcock then joined ExxonMobil as an assistant general counsel before joining Gibson Dunn, where he focused on internal investigations and SEC defenses, counseling advisors and private equity funds.
Woodcock’s appointment came the same week the agency released its Fiscal Year 2025 Enforcement Report, which showed a 22% year-over-year drop in enforcement actions.
In a statement on the report, the agency attributed the changes to the Biden administration, claiming “resources have been misapplied … to pursue media headlines and run up numbers.”
