A native of Baltimore, MD, Gensler graduated from Pikesville High School. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. He also received his MBA from the Wharton School, in 1979.

 

Following graduate school, Gensler joined Goldman Sachs (1979-1997), working first in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department. In 1984, he assumed responsibility for the firm’s efforts in advising media companies, and he was elected a partner in 1988, at age 30. Gensler subsequently joined the firm’s Fixed Income Division and directed their Fixed Income and Currency trading efforts in Tokyo. From 1995 to 1997, he was co-head of finance for Goldman Sachs worldwide.

 

Working at Goldman Sachs brought Gensler in touch with Robert Rubin, a former top executive at the firm who went on to serve as Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton. Rubin recruited Gensler in 1997 to join the department as an Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets, and he was promoted to Undersecretary for Domestic Finance in 1999. As the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for domestic finance, Gensler oversaw policies in the areas of US financial markets, debt management, financial services, and community development. He advocated for the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which exempted credit default swaps and other derivatives from regulation, earing it the nickname “The Enron Loophole.” He left the Treasury Department at the end of the Clinton administration in 2001.

 

Gensler then joined the staff of US Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) as a senior adviser. He helped draft the legislation that eventually became the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was passed in the wake of the Enron scandal to bring greater oversight to the accounting industry and reform of corporate governance.

 

In 2002, Gensler co-authored in the book, The Great Mutual Fund Trap: An Investment Recovery Plan, which presents investment advice for middle-income Americans.

 

Long active in national and Maryland Democratic politics, Gensler became treasurer of the Maryland Democratic Party in 2003. He subsequently sought the chairmanship, but pulled out when his wife, Francesca Danieli, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died in 2006. A major Democratic donor, Gensler has contributed more than $220,000 to Democratic party candidates and committees since 2002, including more than $72,000 in 2008.

 

During the 2008 presidential primary battle, Gensler served as senior economic advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Soon after Clinton’s campaign folded, he became an Obama fundraiser and adviser, and was in charge of the Obama transition team reviewing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

 

Gensler has served on the board of the for-profit university Strayer Education, Inc., The Bryn Mawr School, Enterprise Community Partners, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, WageWorks, Inc., and the Washington Hospital Center. Since 2001, he has been on the management advisory board of New Mountain Capital, LLC, including serving as chair of the audit committee.

 

Gensler has a twin brother, Robert, who works for T. Rowe Price as a vice president and is manager of the company’s Global Stock Fund.

 

Marylander Gensler to head Commodity Futures Trading Commission (by Paul West, Baltimore Sun)

Be Worldly: Robert Gensler (by Michael Maiello, Forbes)

1998 Press Release Announcing Treasury Appointment (Clinton White House)

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (AllGov)