Lecturer Bios
Christopher B. Stone
Christopher B. Stone is Vice President of FINRA’s Transparency Services Department. He is responsible for business and strategic initiatives related to the department’s equity and fixed income market transparency facilities (TRACE, ADF, ORF and the TRF’s). He also represents FINRA on National Market System Plan policy committees and industry working groups. Prior to working at FINRA, he served as the Senior Special Counsel to Division Director Annette Nazareth in the SEC’s Division of Market Regulation. In that role, he supported the Director in connection with major Division initiatives and rulemakings, including Reg NMS, Reg SRO, Reg SHO, and the SRO Structure Concept Release. Mr. Stone previously was a Special Counsel in the Division of Market Regulation’s Office of Market Supervision where he primarily focused on National Market System Plan issues and market structure reform. Before joining the SEC, Mr. Stone worked at a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm focusing on transactional matters. He received his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and his B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Eric Kriftcher
Eric Kriftcher is Managing Director and Associate General Counsel at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he is primarily responsible for providing legal coverage to the sales and trading businesses within Global Mortgages, Credit and Rates Products. He also is a legal advisor to PriceServe, an independent fixed income pricing service established by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Previously, Mr. Kriftcher worked in various legal and compliance capacities at Nomura Securities International, Inc. and Lehman Brothers Inc. Mr. Kriftcher was a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett prior to joining Lehman and began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Gerard L. Goettel of the federal district court in New York. Mr. Kriftcher is a member of FINRA’s Fixed Income Committee and an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School. He is a cum laude graduate of St. John’s University School of Law and received his B.A. degree from Wesleyan University.
Elliot Levine
Elliot Levine is Associate Vice President, Chief Counsel and Senior Advisor, Transparency Services at FINRA. In his role as Chief Counsel, he provides legal guidance on various aspects of debt and equity market structure and regulation in connection with FINRA’s operation of TRACE, ADF and the OTCBB. In addition, Mr. Levine has advised several foreign regulators regarding equity and bond market structure and regulation. Before joining FINRA, Mr. Levine held senior, in-house counsel positions including as assistant general counsel at CIBC World Markets and as equity trading and capital markets counsel at Bear Stearns & Co. In his capacity as in-house counsel, he participated extensively on various FINRA, SIA and BMA committees, including SIA’s Capital Markets Committee and as Chair of the BMA’s Corporate Bond Legal Advisory Committee. Mr. Levine has extensive regulatory experience, as he has held staff attorney positions in the Division of Market Regulation at the Securities and Exchange Commission and in the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Mr. Levine attended Trinity College in Hartford, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history, and American University, Washington College of Law, where he received his law degree.
Craig Noble
Craig Noble was named Director and Head of Capital Markets Trading for Wells Fargo. In this capacity, he is responsible for all taxable, tax-exempt trading and Capital Market Services. He serves on the firm’s New Deal and New Product Review committees. Prior to this, he was an executive vice president and co-director of the Municipal Securities Group of the Tax-Exempt Fixed Income Sales and Trading department at EVEREN. Preceding his time with EVEREN, Mr. Noble was with Lehman Brothers from 1991 to 1993 where he was First Vice President and Manager of the retail sales liaisons of the western region. During his 11-year career at Shearson Lehman Hutton, he served as manager of several of the firm's municipal bond and trading liaison desks. Mr. Noble began his career in the securities brokerage industry in 1981 as an investment broker for E.F. Hutton. In addition to the aforementioned, Mr. Noble is currently on the MSRB Board of Directors and on FINRA’s Fixed Income Committee. Mr. Noble was the past Chairman of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Regional Advisory Committee and was on their Municipal Executive Committee. He was also the Vice Chairman of the board of the Bond Dealers of America. He is Series 7, 9/10, 24, 53, 99 and 63 registered.