Tag Archive for: women powering the future

Powering the Future: Jamila Piracci, Founder of Roos Innovations

Jamila Piracci

By Jessica Darmoni

“Historically, much of the derivatives business has been passed down through oral tradition,” says Jamila Piracci. “People learned through mentorship or by being in the right place at the right time. While this helped some people, we need to make sure as an industry that we formalize an information sharing process and purposefully strategize succession.”

The Glass Hammer was first introduced to Jamila Piracci when she was the Vice President of Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives at the National Futures Association (NFA) where she led a team in designing one of the most significant regulatory frameworks in modern derivatives markets.

Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, Piracci was hired by NFA to establish its swaps regulatory program. The effort required coordinating within the well established futures industry self regulatory body to create processes, recruit staff, and develop oversight mechanisms for swaps market participants. By the time she left NFA to relocate to Texas with her family, the swaps program had approximately 120 professionals, including examiners, risk specialists, auditors, and quantitative experts.

The experience gave Piracci a front-row seat to one of the largest regulatory transformations in derivatives history. Her experience with swaps oversight at NFA, combined with her past roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and ISDA, provided a particularly valuable perspective as the markets evolved. She has a unique ability to help firms understand not only the technical requirements but the spirit of U.S. regulatory frameworks. For emerging leaders entering the futures industry, understanding both the structure of these markets and the policy forces shaping them can be daunting without a formal information sharing process.

Building the Future Workforce

Piracci is working to fix that with work grounded in education. As part of her involvement with the Futures Industry Association (FIA), she contributes to industry development initiatives designed to cultivate expertise across derivatives professionals.

Piracci serves on the FIA Board and is a member of the board’s Membership and Market Structure Advisory Committees. She also instructs a virtual “Swaps 101” course through the organization’s training programs. The course introduces newcomers to the fundamentals of swaps markets—an essential area of modern derivatives trading.

“FIA’s educational initiatives aim to build expertise from the ground up, ensuring a steady pipeline of knowledgeable professionals in the industry,” she explained.

Her own entry into the swaps world reflected a different dynamic. Early in her career, she was handed the 1999 ISDA Credit Derivatives Definitions booklet and told that if she wanted to understand the field, she should read it from start to finish.

“I learned a lot from that experience,” she recalls. “But I also had mentors along the way. That was partly because of where I worked. However, I started wondering what happens to talented people who don’t have access to those same networks?”

Programs like FIA’s educational initiatives aim to answer that challenge by making industry knowledge accessible to anyone interested in learning about derivatives markets.

Democratizing Knowledge

Piracci believes that education and transparency are essential for the long-term sustainability of financial markets.

The concept resonates with broader developments in financial technology, particularly in digital assets. One of the central ideas in that space is democratizing access to financial opportunities and reducing barriers to participation. Piracci sees similarities with education.

“Information should always be democratized,” she says. “The more people understand how these markets work, the more people can participate responsibly.”

By creating structured learning opportunities, the industry can attract new talent and reduce a reliance on informal knowledge transfers. She credits this mindset to her time at NFA, which has become a foundation for her later career values.

“I was responsible not just for recruiting the staff but I also had to ensure they were trained. We built a training program partly based on my experience and partly on NFA’s existing new staff training program,” she said. “I am most proud that the staff became beneficiaries and later leaders of the training structure that we built together methodically over time.”

A Passion for Public Interest

Longevity is a theme that runs through Piracci’s current work too. Today, at Roos Innovations she works with federal regulators, commodity and energy market participants as well as trade associations to help firms build responsibly and endure transitions. Her work also extends to financial services firms seeking registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). These engagements often involve creating healthy dialogue and, in some cases, building the pillars necessary for firms to function as regulated entities.

“Many companies today want to become U.S. regulated market participants, ” she says. “This includes commodities firms, as well as digital asset firms and prediction market companies, some of which come from overseas and want insight into how to work with U.S. regulators.”

She also believes that financial markets ultimately serve a broader purpose.

“Transparent, well-regulated markets protect participants but also ensure broader economic growth, which is essential for long-term societal health,” she said.

That philosophy extends into her public service roles. For the past two years, Jamila has served on the CFTC’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee, where she was appointed by former CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger. The advisory committees provide recommendations and insights to the Commission, helping regulators understand market developments and stakeholder perspectives.

Jamila’s commitment to the public interest also includes extensive work with industry organizations such as Life:Powered, a nonprofit dedicated to improving America’s energy literacy, and the Committee of Chief Risk Officers. Through research and written analysis, she contributes insights on how policy decisions affect consumers and energy markets as well as how they impact risk management choices that have become increasingly more complex.

Skills for the Next Generation

Looking ahead, Jamila believes the most important skill for emerging leaders will be adaptability.

“The ability to learn new things matters more than simply amassing new facts,” she says. “The real skill is learning how to learn differently.”

In a world defined by technological innovation, regulatory change, and evolving market structures, professionals must be able to pivot quickly.

She describes this not merely as managing change but managing volatility.

“This requires a recognition that change is constant and must be embraced rather than resisted,” she says.

A Mission to Share Knowledge

Throughout her career, Jamila has worked at institutions central to the derivatives ecosystem, including regulatory bodies and an industry association. Those experiences gave her insights into how markets function at both policy and transactional levels.

Rather than keeping that knowledge within a small circle, she sees sharing it as a responsibility.
Whether advising firms, supporting industry groups, or sharing knowledge with other professionals, Piracci’s work reflects a commitment to adaptability, education and a talent pipeline that will guide the markets of tomorrow.

In closing, she is reminded of the quote by American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler, “the illiterate of the future will be those who can’t learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

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Powering the Future: Laura Magyar, Patomak Global Partners

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Laura Magyar

By Jessica Darmoni

“You should always ask,” says Laura Magyar, Partner at Patomak Global Partners, as she talked about her time at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She asked and was subsequently approved to spend a year abroad working at the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) during her tenure. “You don’t lose anything by asking.”

In an era defined by rapid financial innovation and shifting regulatory landscapes, Magyar’s career stands as a testament to courage, adaptability, and vision. Her journey, from a young professional in Chicago to a global leader shaping the securities industry, offers more than an inspiring success story. It provides a blueprint for future generations navigating industries where change is the only constant.

Redirection, not Rejection

Magyar’s career began in Chicago at one of Merrill Lynch’s top-producing offices. As a Series 7 registered sales assistant, she gained early exposure to the inner workings of financial markets and developed a deep understanding of client relationships and revenue targets.

“During my time at Merril Lynch, the Financial Consultant that I worked with was considering moving to management, and we discussed having me take over his book of business. However, as time went on, it became clear that he was not going to transition to another role, and I needed to decide if I wanted to be on the financial advisor track or pivot.”

She chose to move in another direction. While working full-time, she attended law school at night. Her initial goal was to become a defense trial attorney, but financial realities reshaped that ambition. She recognized that her industry experience was not a detour, but an asset. Instead of abandoning finance, she deepened her expertise in it.

“Many of my professors worked at the SEC, and I was encouraged by them to apply for a role there,” she says. At the time that I was applying for a position, the SEC was receiving hundreds of resumes for positions, and unless you knew someone working there, the chances of someone reviewing your resume and calling you for an interview were slim.”

Many would have interpreted that as a closed door, but Magyar treated it as a delay.

She joined a Chicago law firm as an associate. While most of her work focused on securities litigation matters, she also handled CFTC-related matters. Looking back, she recalls that many of the engagements she worked on as a consultant after leaving the SEC were CFTC rules and regulation matters.

Protecting the Integrity of the System

Finally, on a frigid Valentine’s Day weekend, she flew to Washington, D.C. to interview for an attorney role in the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections, and Examinations. She got the job, and that opportunity became a 15-year tenure that would define her leadership style and influence.

In Washington, she rose to Branch Manager, working on high-profile issues. Her work intersected with significant market events, including investigations related to the Flash Crash and the Knight Capital (KCG) trading incident. These were moments that tested the resilience of financial markets and demanded accountability. Through them and countless other market events and investigations, she saw firsthand how regulation is about protecting the integrity of the system. Working on these matters also evidenced the strong collaboration across SEC Divisions (e.g., enforcement, Trading and Markets, Exams).

While at the SEC, Magyar created a program to examine SEC-registered foreign-domiciled broker-dealers. She led her teams in examining firms outside the U.S. for compliance with SEC rules and regulations. It also sparked her desire to work internationally, and she boldly asked the Division Director if she could spend a year at the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the SEC, the FCA. There was no stipend. No housing support. No financial incentive. She had to fund the move herself and find a place to live when the exchange rate was nearly 2:1.

“In addition to the cultural differences, I was able to experience firsthand the differences in regulatory approaches.”

Magyar worked for six months in the Division of Supervision and six months in Enforcement, gaining a comparative lens that would later shape her strategic thinking.

A Proactive Pursuit of Opportunity

When she returned to Washington, leadership had changed. The Division Director who had approved her Secondment had left, and both new and existing leadership did not see the benefit of this opportunity or the knowledge she brought back.

“Not only did I feel I had to prove that my year abroad had been worthwhile, but I faced the reality of government career progression,” she explains. “Positions open only when someone leaves, and even then, advancement is uncertain.”

Rather than wait indefinitely, she made another bold move into the private sector, joining Promontory Financial Group (now owned by IBM). There, she learned the intensity of consulting, which included short deadlines, strong personalities, constant pressure to secure projects, and managing billable hours.

“Networking became essential,” she said. “It was up to me to build relationships so that I always had a pipeline of work. Significantly challenging, while my experience was in securities, I did a lot of work related to commodities/CFTC and banking. So, I learned a lot, and this further expanded my toolbox.”

When IBM acquired Promontory, she transitioned again, joining Patomak Global Partners, founded by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins. The firm’s securities focus aligned perfectly with her background. Ironically, her first major project centered on swap dealers regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which required her to get up to speed on the relevant rules, regulations, and best practices quickly.

While she now leads the firm’s Securities Compliance Practice, she learned to build complementary teams, bringing in specialists when necessary and eventually hiring in-house talent to preserve both expertise and revenue. Regulation, she realized, is never static. It demands continuous learning, humility, and the courage to admit when new voices are needed.

That philosophy is central to how her work will impact future generations.

“Adaptability is a leadership superpower. The next generation of financial leaders will not thrive by mastering one static domain,” she says. “They will need flexibility, openness to change, and the willingness to evolve alongside the markets.”

The Responsibility of Leadership

Though Magyar never formally had coaching, she recognizes the huge value in mentoring and finds opportunities to mentor junior staff and share feedback. She understands that experience has compounding value—and that the responsibility of leadership is not merely to perform, but to prepare others.

Magyar’s story is about one woman’s ascent in finance and law, but also about reshaping the relationship between innovation and regulation. It is also about proving that integrity and ambition are not opposing forces and showing future generations, especially young women in finance and law, that courage, curiosity, and conviction can open doors once thought closed.

Her legacy will not be measured solely by the cases she handled, the practices she built, or the revenue she generated. It will be measured by the relationships she builds, the young leaders she supports, and by the generations who learn that asking boldly and embracing change are not risks—they are necessities for shaping the future and a successful career.

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