California Governor Newsom announced the appointment of Clothilde "Cloey" Hewlett as the next Commissioner of the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI). She will start after Thanksgiving, when she will take over for the Acting Commissioner, Christopher Shultz. Hewlett is the current Executive Director and Chief Legal Officer for the Cal Alumni Association, and previously served as Undersecretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency and Interim Director of the Department of General Services. She also has extensive enforcement experience, previously serving as an Assistant District Attorney for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, Criminal Investigator with the City and County of San Francisco, and Director of Moral Character Determinations for the State Bar of California. Ms. Hewlett's appointment is subject to confirmation by the California Senate within one year.
Putting Into Practice: Ms. Hewlett's appointments come during a time when the DFPI increasingly sets the benchmark and cutting edge initiatives when it comes to the regulation and enforcement of consumer protection laws (we previously discussed the DFPI in earlier Consumer Finance & FinTech Blog posts here). As Ms. Hewlett takes the helm of the DFPI, companies conducting business with California consumers ought to file this latest news under their "know your regulator" compliance to-do list.
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