Chief Information Officer Thomas Bayer to Leave SEC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2014-171
Washington D.C., Aug. 20, 2014

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that its Chief Information Officer Thomas Bayer is planning to leave the agency in October.

Mr. Bayer has led the SEC´s Office of Information Technology (OIT) since October 2010, overseeing strategy, application development, infrastructure operations and engineering, user support, program management, capital planning, information security, and enterprise architecture. 

Under Mr. Bayer´s leadership, the SEC leveraged cloud-based technologies, enhanced security, standardized its enterprise platforms and dramatically reduced the cost of IT systems while enhancing free public access to the SEC´s more than 21 million corporate filings and other documents. 

"Tom´s leadership and vision have had a tremendous impact that will continue to shape the SEC for years to come," said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.  "Tom´s legacy will be an SEC that increasingly leverages technology to protect investors and strengthen our markets."

Mr. Bayer said, "It has been incredibly rewarding to work with so many talented and dedicated professionals in an organization that values, encourages and supports innovation.  I am both proud and humbled to have been a part of this exceptional agency and to support its vital mission."

The technology improvements implemented by the Office of Information Technology during Mr. Bayer´s tenure significantly reduced operation and maintenance costs while enabling investors and market participants to access public company filings and other SEC information faster and more easily than ever before.  For example, the agency´s website now delivers documents three times faster and requires fewer resources to manage even as traffic more than doubled in the past two years to 35 million requests per day. 

Among key initiatives, Mr. Bayer launched a "Working Smarter" program that helped transform the efficiency and effectiveness of attorneys, accountants, analysts and other staff at the SEC by establishing innovative analytical systems along with automated workflow and data visualization tools.  Mr. Bayer also managed the technology development of the SEC´s Tips, Complaints and Referral (TCR) system and development of tools that put billions of records at the fingertips of SEC examiners, investigators, economists, analysts and other professionals.

In addition, Mr. Bayer established an IT Center of Excellence at the SEC to evaluate emerging technology trends in the capital markets and leverage these innovations to better serve investors. Mr. Bayer also led the implementation of an Enterprise Data Warehouse at the SEC to efficiently intake, store, and analyze 1,000 trillion bytes of data.

Before joining the SEC staff, Mr. Bayer was the Chief Executive Officer at Maris Technology Advisors, where he provided consulting services on technology strategy and program management to banking and financial services clients.  He also served as Chief Operations Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Brand Informatics, where he developed data collection, complex data analysis, and predictive data modeling for top financial services companies.  Mr. Bayer previously worked for CapitalOne, Inteliguard Corporation, and Citibank.

Mr. Bayer earned his bachelor´s degree in accounting, finance, and economics at Ohio State University.  He earned his master´s degree from Ohio State´s Fisher College of Business.