Kudos to Mary L. Schapiro, CEO of the newly created Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA - http://www.finra.org/), the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA oversees over 5,000 brokerage firms, about 172,000 branch offices and more than 676,000 registered securities representatives.
Created in July 2007 through the consolidation of NASD and the member regulation, enforcement and arbitration functions of the New York Stock Exchange, FINRA has about 3,000 employees in Washington, DC, and New York, NY and 15 District Offices around the country.

“FINRA believes investor protection begins with education. Using the internet, the media and public forums, we help investors build their financial knowledge and provide them with essential tools to better understand the markets and basic principles of saving and investing. “

“In addition, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation (http://www.finrafoundation.org/) is the largest foundation in the United States dedicated to investor education. As of June 2007, the Foundation had approved $10.4 million in grants and an additional $10.2 million in direct investor education programming.”

For more information about Mary Schapiro and her professional credentials, see:
http://www.finra.org/AboutFINRA/CorporateInformation/FINRALeadership/p009733

Impressive.