The Securities Industry Association today named three industry executives to fill vacancies on its board of directors.

Stephen Lessing, managing director, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., who is currently on the board, will assume the vice chairmanship, which was vacated by E. Stanley O’Neal, president and COO, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

David Denison, president of the Institutional Brokerage Group at Fidelity Investments is joining the board, as is James Gorman, executive vice president and president U.S. Private Client Group at Merrill Lynch.

Denison joined Fidelity in November 1995 as chief operations officer for Fidelity Canada, where he oversaw areas such as transfer agency operations and control, information systems, finance and legal services, treasury, human resources, fund accounting, distribution services, and facilities. He was named president of Fidelity Canada in April 1998, and was responsible for all activities of Fidelity’s mutual fund distribution and service operations in Canada. He became president of Fidelity’s Institutional Brokerage Group in November 2000.

Gorman is a member of Merrill’s executive management committee. He joined Merrill Lynch in July 1999 as chief marketing officer, in May 2000 was named head of the client relationship group for U.S. Private Client, and in September 2001 was named president of the group.

Seth Waugh, CEO corporate and investment banking for the Americas at Deutsche Bank Securities is taking a board seat for the term concluding in 2003. Waugh joined Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Inc. in April 2000 as regional head of Global Markets for North America. He was named regional head of Global Markets and Equities for the Americas in June 2000 and served as vice chairman of the Americas Executive Committee. In February 2001, he took his present role.