Fishkin has been vice president of firmwide risk at Fidelity Investments. He will become director of the 15-person SEC risk office later this month.

The selection of Fishkin followed a long search by the SEC. The risk office was created as part of SEC Chairman William Donaldson's plan, announced in November, for the agency to anticipate and manage emerging risks and market trends rather than only acting after securities laws had been violated or investors defrauded.

Based on evaluations by the risk office, the SEC already has conducted several inspection "sweeps" of groups of companies, brokerage firms and mutual funds in recent months.

Fishkin, 44, who has lectured and consulted on risk management, also was an executive at Bankers Trust. He has a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Chicago.