The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced two appointments to its Division of Data designed to help the agency leverage analytics and emerging technologies to improve its policymaking and oversight efforts.

The CFTC named Ted Kaouk chief data officer and director of the division, while John Coughlan will serve as the agency’s first chief data scientist. The moves are in line with actions taken by other U.S. agencies to increase their data analytics capabilities.

“The massive shifts in financial markets driven by advances in technology put the CFTC at the center of a new era of financial data, empowering us to more efficiently and effectively execute our mission,” said CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam in a press release Thursday. “With these new critical hires, the CFTC is upskilling our data science staff and increasing capacity and capability to be at the forefront of market innovations. We now have the team in place to set a strategy with concrete benchmarks and a clear path forward.”