Current Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman William Donaldson is resigning from the position. He said that he will be stepping down from the agency on June 30.
Mr. Donaldson told President Bush, “The time has come for me to step down and return to the private sector and my family.” Today is his 74th birthday.
President Bush originally selected Donaldson as the SEC’s in order to restore confidence to the stock market as it was plagued by scandals. Reuters explains a little about Donaldson’s career with the SEC:
Donaldson was known for his strong enforcement agenda at the agency and his resignation has raised doubts about whether the agency’s tougher post-Enron stance on corporate misconduct will be sustained. During his tenure he pushed through new rules affecting mutual fund governance, hedge fund advisers and stock market trading and pricing.
Some of Donaldson’s initiatives angered business executives and their allies in the Bush administration, who said they raised the costs of doing business and discouraged risk taking.
“Donaldson has been a far stronger advocate for investors than we had any reason to expect in an administration that makes no secret of its support for limits on the role of government regulation,” said the Consumer Federation of America’s director of investor protection, Barbara Roper. “A new chairman could be far more sympathetic to corporate whining.”
Bush’s new selection for the role of SEC chairman is Republican California Representative Christopher Cox. Cox, who is 52 years old, must still win Senate confirmation for the position.
Cox graduated from Harvard Law School, and has been a member of Congress since 1988. He served as the first chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and as a counsel to former President Reagan.
Cox supported the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and according to AP has also been a longtime advocate of repealing taxes on capital gains as well as on dividends.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
