The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed George Canellos as deputy director of the Division of Enforcement, effective June 4.

Since July 2009, Canellos has served as director of the SEC's New York Regional office, overseeing 400 professional staff of enforcement attorneys, accountants, investigators and compliance examiners involved in the investigation and prosecution of enforcement actions and the performance of compliance inspections in the New York region. The New York office has responsibility for the largest concentration of SEC-registered financial institutions including more than 4,000 investment banks, investment advisers, broker-dealers, mutual funds and hedge funds.

A former federal prosecutor, Canellos became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York in 1994. During his nine years there, Canellos served in a number of positions including chief of the Major Crimes Unit, senior trial counsel of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, and deputy chief appellate attorney.

Following his service at the U.S. Attorney's Office and immediately prior to assuming his position at the SEC, Canellos served more than six years as a litigation partner at the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. He began his legal career as a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Following Canellos' departure at the SEC's New York Regional office, Andrew Calamari will become acting director. Calamari currently is senior associate regional director and co-head of enforcement for the New York Regional Office and has served in that position since 2004.  Before coming to the SEC in 2000, Calamari worked in private law practice for nearly 15 years, including as a litigation partner at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine.