Ellyn Brown is an experienced corporate and securities lawyer who, since her retirement from active law practice, has served as an independent director of several public companies and key financial services organizations, and as an advisor to entities seeking creative business growth or reorganization. Her previous legal and consulting work focused on operations, regulatory, and governance services, principally with financial services industry clients and other businesses operating in heavily regulated or high-scrutiny environments, and also to entities undergoing fundamental corporate transformation, restructuring or review of business governance and practices. She subsequently has brought this experience to bear in her board and advisory work.

In 2005, Ms. Brown joined the newly-reorganized board of the New York Stock Exchange immediately prior to its transition from a member-owned association to a public company. She served on NYSE’s board through its subsequent merger with Euronext and until late 2013, when NYX was acquired by the Intercontinental Exchange. Ms. Brown also chaired NYSE Regulation, Inc., the independent NYSE subsidiary responsible for regulatory oversight of the members and operations of all NYSE-owned exchanges, through 2014. She served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA), the principal securities industry self-regulatory organization in the U.S, from its 2005 formation through the consolidation of several financial SROs, through 2013, and was a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), the parent of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB, which is responsible for US GAAP standard setting) and its governmental counterpart, the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

Currently, Ellyn serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Brinker Capital Destinations Trust, an investment adviser and investment management entity that was organized in 2017 as a “manager of managers” entity (+/-$24B AUM). She also is a director, and chair of the Governance Committee, of CNO Financial, Inc. (NYSE:CNO), an insurance holding company whose operating companies focus on the underserved middle-market consumer.

Ms. Brown has taught business and securities law at Villanova University and the University of Maryland and served as Maryland’s securities commissioner. She has been a member of the boards of several national professional organizations in the financial services area, and a number of civic and educational institutions.

Ms. Brown is a graduate of Vassar College. She holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins and a law degree from the University of Maryland.

Ellyn is a Marine Mom, an Army Corps of Engineers daughter and granddaughter, a Navy niece and aunt, and an Air Force cousin. She joined Spirit of America’s Advisory Board in April 2019.