Craig M. Lewis was named chief economist at the SEC and director of a unit responsible for spotting threats to the financial system.
Mr. Lewis, currently a visiting scholar at the SEC, will assume the post next month, the agency said Friday in an e-mailed statement. He will replace Henry Hu, founding director of the Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation, who stepped down after just over a year in the post.
Mr. Lewis is a Vanderbilt University professor who has studied market volatility and herd behavior by equity analysts.
The division, the SEC’s first new unit in 37 years, was created by SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro in 2009 to act as the agency’s “think tank.” It includes the former Office of Economic Analysis, which has been without a chief economist since March 2010.
