The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that Robert Plaze, the deputy director of the Division of Investment Management, is retiring from public service at the end of August after almost 30 years at the SEC. The agency announced the same day that it has named John J. Cross III the director of the agency's new Office of Municipal Securities.

Plaze, who has been a key architect of the rules governing investment advisors, investment companies, and private fund advisors, joined the SEC in 1983 as an attorney in the Division of Investment Management, which oversees the multitrillion-dollar investment management industry, and went on to become a Special Counsel, Assistant Director, Associate Director for Regulatory Policy, and Deputy Director.

"Few people have had as great an impact shaping the regulatory landscape for the benefit of individual investors," said SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro in a statement. "Bob's keen intellect and passion for investor protection have been central to virtually every significant rule affecting mutual funds and investment advisers for more than a generation."