SIFMA Board Of Directors Elects Officers - Blythe Masters Elected SIFMA Chairman, Douglas Edwards Named Chair-Elect, Bernard Beal And Michael Ryan Elected Vice-Chairs, John Gidman Appointed Treasurer

The board of directors of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) yesterday elected Blythe Masters as the trade association’s chairman for 2008. Masters is head of global commodities for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Masters succeeds Edward C. Forst, global co-head of Goldman Sachs International’s Investment Management Division.

Douglas G. Edwards, president and CEO of Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., will serve as chairman-elect. Bernard B. Beal, CEO of M.R. Beal & Company, and Michael Ryan, head of institutional securities at Credit Suisse, will serve as vice-chairs, and John R. Gidman, executive vice president and director of Loomis, Sayles & Company, L.P., will serve as treasurer.

SIFMA member-firms elect the board of directors, from which the chairman and other officers are elected at a board meeting during the association’s Annual Meeting, which concludes on Friday, November 9.