Lecturer Bios
Amy C. Sochard
Amy C. Sochard is the Senior Director in FINRA’s Advertising Regulation Department. The department protects investors by ensuring broker-dealer members of FINRA use advertisements and other sales communications that are fair, balanced and not misleading. Ms. Sochard leads the department’s investigative and targeted examination activities. She also serves as liaison to other FINRA departments involved in examinations, including the departments of Enforcement and Member Regulation.
In addition, Ms. Sochard oversees staff dedicated to the routine review of advertisements and other sales communications filed with the department by broker-dealers. Ms. Sochard assists in the development of rules and interpretations for communications with the public and social media, and she routinely speaks at industry events on these topics. Prior to joining FINRA’s predecessor (NASD),
Ms. Sochard worked with a real estate syndication firm in Washington, DC. She received a bachelor’s degree with distinction in English from the University of Virginia and studied poetry writing at Columbia University.
Shayna Beck, Esq.
Head of Retail Advertising and Communications at Vanguard Past Associate Counsel/Manager at Vanguard, Compliance Analyst at Vanguard, Actuarial Manager at Vanguard Education Widener University School of Law, Pennsylvania State University
Alexander C. Gavis, Esq.
Alexander C. Gavis is Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel in the Corporate Legal Department of FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, one of the largest brokerage and mutual fund companies in the United States and the leading provider of workplace retirement savings plans. He manages a team of attorneys and professionals and is responsible for providing legal services to the firm's retail brokerage, college savings, stock plan and workplace retirement businesses. He also oversees and manages legal services for Fidelity's businesses involved in electronic and mobile commerce, start-up innovation, and social media. Mr. Gavis also oversees legal advice on all of Fidelity’s national advertising and marketing initiatives. He serves as chair of the firm’s Social Media and E-Communications Legal Practice Group.
Prior to joining Fidelity in 1997, Mr. Gavis served as Assistant Counsel at the Investment Company Institute and as Senior Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, both in Washington, DC. He also served as a judicial law clerk for The Honorable William T. Allen, Chancellor of the Court of Chancery for the State of Delaware. He has worked in investment banking in New York at Salomon Brothers Inc, handling mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Gavis received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and his bachelor’s degree, with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa, from Swarthmore College.
Mr. Gavis served as Chair of FINRA’s Social Media Task Force and on its Membership Committee, and he is an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School and the Stanford Design School. He has served as President and a board member of the Wellesley Free Library Foundation.
Thomas A. Pappas
Thomas A. Pappas is Vice President of the FINRA Advertising Regulation Department, which regulates the advertisements, sales literature and correspondence used by FINRA member firms. His responsibilities include rule development, management of the filing and surveillance programs and related enforcement activities. He served in the same role at NASD before its 2007 consolidation with NYSE Member Regulation, which resulted in the formation of FINRA. He was previously registered with Davenport & Company LLC. He received a bachelor’s degree from The University of Richmond and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University.
