The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that leading Wall Street fund lawyer Andrew “Buddy” Donohue will join the commission as its next director of the division of investment management.

Donohue, 55, is global general counsel for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. He is also chairman of the firm’s Global Risk Oversight Committee.

The SEC said that at the commission he will work to continue to improve the usability of disclosures by mutual funds, closed-end funds, UITs, ETFs, and other funds available to retail investors. He will also work closely with the commission to expand the use of interactive data to make mutual fund disclosures more useful and to find and develop additional ways in which technology may improve the accessibility and utility of SEC-mandated information for investors.

Prior to his service at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, Donohue spent more than a decade as executive vice president, general counsel, director, and member of the executive committee for Oppenheimer Funds. Before that, he was a corporate and securities law partner with the firm of Kraft & McManimon (now McManimon & Scotland LLC).

Donohue will be sworn in by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on May 15.

“Buddy brings invaluable expertise and three decades of experience with mutual fund regulation to our investor protection mission,” said Cox. “His knowledge will help ordinary American investors get the information they need. I know that he is committed to promoting effective mutual fund governance, sturdy compliance, and plain English information for mutual fund and ETF purchasers. He will work to get investors more accurate and more timely information through the use of the latest technology. As a leader of the Commission, Buddy will be every retail investor’s champion.”

“This is a great honor,” Donohue said. “With increasing numbers of Americans investing in our growing capital markets, and with great revolutions in the markets underway because of new technology, this is a wonderful time to be given the opportunity to apply the lessons I’ve learned over the years to benefit all investors.”