Rick Fleming

Background

About Rick Fleming

After a career of advocating for investors and consumers, Rick Fleming became an ordained minister and now serves as Lead Pastor of Central Park Christian Church, a church located in a high-poverty neighborhood of Topeka, Kansas, with ministries to children and youth, the homeless, people in recovery from addiction, and the incarcerated or recently incarcerated. Prior to this role, he served eight years as the first director of the Office of the Investor Advocate at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As the Investor Advocate, he built a new office charged with substantial statutory responsibilities, implementing a comprehensive strategic vision to achieve long-term stability and become a respected voice for investors. He provided formal and informal recommendations to the Commission, FINRA, MSRB, PCAOB, FASB, and the stock exchanges on a wide range of complex topics, including technical accounting and auditing rules, equity market structure, ESG, cybersecurity, digital assets/cryptocurrencies, capital raising alternatives, and the effectiveness of disclosures. He conducted outreach tours to a wide range of investors throughout the United States and established an innovative research program to understand the needs of investors and support evidence-based policymaking. Core competencies: Consumer and investor advocacy; executive leadership in a high-profile role; entrepreneurial vision; gifted communicator; diplomatic relationship builder; diversity champion; deep understanding of consumer and investor behavior and the challenges facing institutional investors; extraordinary breadth and depth of technical knowledge related to capital markets and regulation; intellectual agility to analyze complex facts and identify key issues; pragmatic problem solver.