Kara Stein

Kara Marlene Stein is an American attorney who currently serves as a board member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, known as PCAOB. Stein was sworn in on November 18, 2021, with a term through October 24, 2026.

Stein joined the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August 2013 and served until 2019. President Barack Obama nominated Stein in May 2013 to serve as a Democratic member of the Commission to succeed Elisse Walter. Stein was confirmed by the Senate and started tenure at the SEC in August 2013. During her tenure on the SEC (which was still evaluating its role in the 2008 financial crisis), Stein took strong positions to protect investors, from her early support of the Volcker Rule - which prevents banks with deposits insured by American taxpayers from making speculative trades on their own accounts - to her dissents to legal waivers granted to banks and other already-found-guilty corporate players.

Stein's written dissents won support afterwards from Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown, both of whom spoke and wrote at length about the potential damage to the US investor and the US economy from the waivers.

In early 2021, Stein was mentioned as a potential candidate to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).