Industry

Mark Schonfeld, the high-profile New York regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has left the SEC after 12 years of service to join Gibson Dunn as co-chair of the securities enforcement practice group. In this position, he will also work closely with the crisis management and white collar defense and investigations groups.

The top enforcement attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mark Schonfeld, is reportedly leaving next month to join a private law firm.

Financial services, insurance, and real estate businesses’ hiring plans for the fourth quarter are the weakest they have been in 16 years, as a result of a contracting banking sector and the slumping housing market, a survey by Manpower found.

With Japanese households worth more than $14 trillion, and half of that in cash or postal accounts, Manulife Financial Corp. has decided to enter the nation’s mutual fund market.

Anxious to do business in the world’s third-largest economy, where the population is aging, The Hartford is expanding into Germany.

Julian Pick, co-manager of two Janus Group international mutual funds, is leaving at the end of the month, Rocky Mountain News reports.

Social Investment Forum Recruits Two PR Execs

MINNEAPOLIS - Sen. John McCain is the better choice for the financial services industry not for what he would do as president, but rather for what he would refrain from doing, GOP lawmakers said here this week during the Republican National Convention.

Bob Tuszynski has joined UMB Fund Services as senior vice president and director of distribution services. One of his key responsibilities is to market “Total Distribution,” which helps fund companies pinpoint their most profitable sales intermediaries through customer relationship management. UMB also offers other marketing and sales distribution support services.

PIMCO has named Mohamed El-Erian chief executive officer, a position he currently shares as co-CEO with Bill Thompson, who will be retiring at the end of the year.