Lecturer Bios
Racquel Russell, Esq.
Racquel Russell is Senior Vice President and Director of Capital Markets in FINRA’s
Office of General Counsel (OGC). In this role, Ms. Russell oversees the Capital
Markets Office as it develops new policy initiatives, provides counsel to the
Department of Market Regulation and Transparency Services, and supports the fixed
income examinations of the Member Supervision Department. She also provides
expert guidance to the FINRA Board of Governors and senior management.
Ms. Russell joined OGC in 2008 and previously served as an Associate General
CounsFel and an Assistant General Counsel. Prior to joining FINRA, Ms. Russell was
a Vice President in the Legal and Compliance Department at J.P. Morgan, London,
UK. She also worked in a variety of legal roles at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including
as a Branch Chief for Trading Practices in the Division of Trading and Markets.
Ms. Russell earned a B.A.
in Psychology from Canisius College and J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the State University of New York at
Buffalo, School of Law and School of Management
Patrick Geraghty
Patrick Geraghty is Vice President, Fixed Income, Offerings and Customer Issues Group, in FINRA’s Market Regulation Department. In his current capacity, Mr. Geraghty oversees the fixed income groups, which conduct markup reviews and data-integrity surveillance for corporate, agency, asset-backed and municipal securities. He served in the same role at NASD before its 2007 consolidation with NYSE Member Regulation, which resulted in the formation of FINRA.
Previously, Mr. Geraghty managed the trading practices and customer issues sections, which conduct surveillance for best execution, limit order protection and ITS/CAES trade-throughs, along with providing secondary offering surveillance under Regulation M. Upon joining NASD in 1995, he worked in the real-time surveillance area, handling backing-away complaints, trade-reporting questions and locked/crossed market issues.
Mr. Geraghty also served as an advisor to the NASD Series 55 Committee during the development of the question bank for the exam. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University.
Dan Gray Esq.
Dan Gray is a Senior Special Counsel in the Office of Market Supervision, Division of Trading and Markets, SEC. Since 1999, he has worked on a variety of SEC market structure initiatives. These have included the Order Competition Rule Proposal (2022); Rescission of Effective-Upon-Filing Procedure for Proposed NMS Plan Amendments (2020); Research Note on Equity Market Volatility on August 24, 2015; Joint Staff Report: The U.S. Treasury Market on October 15, 2014; Findings Regarding the Market Events of May 6, 2010; Regulation NMS (2005); rules requiring disclosure of order execution quality and order routing practices (2001); and concept releases on Market Fragmentation (2000) and Market Information (1999).
Mr. Gray is a graduate of the Duke University School of Law and Trevecca Nazarene College.
Sapna C. Patel Esq.
Sapna C. Patel is the Head of Market Structure and Liquidity Strategy at Morgan Stanley for the Americas and is an Executive Director on the Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading desk. In her current role, Ms. Patel focuses on market structure issues, regulatory developments, order routing and liquidity strategies, as well as business development.
Prior to joining the desk in 2008, Ms. Patel spent three years as an institutional equities coverage attorney in the Morgan Stanley Legal and Compliance Division. Ms. Patel began her career at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Division of Trading and Markets (formerly the Division of Market Regulation) and held various positions during her five years at the agency.
Ms. Patel currently is the Chair of the SIFMA Equity Markets and Trading Committee and previously served as the Chair of the FINRA Market Regulation Committee. She also participates on the STA Market Structure Analyst Committee and on the Cboe Equity Advisory Committee, and is a member of the National Organization of Industry Professionals. Ms. Patel serves on the Markets Media Women in Finance Board and was the recipient of the Markets Media Women in Finance 2015 Excellence in Market Structure award.
Ms. Patel holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Maryland School of Law and Bachelor of Science degrees in Criminal Justice and Psychology from American University.
