Who should run the SEC in an Obama administration?
It didn’t take long after last night’s incredibly moving celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park when Senator Barack Obama became President-Elect Obama for attention to turn to key jobs in an Obama Administration. Already, there’s lots of talk about Rep. Rahm Emanuel being offered the Chief of Staff position.
While most of the attention will focus on the big jobs — Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Defense, among others — I can’t help but wonder who President Obama will appoint to head the SEC, a job that is very important to most footnoted.org readers. Chris Cox, whom John McCain famously (and incorrectly) said on the campaign trail he would fire if he were President, even though Presidents don’t have that power, has said he plans to leave at the end of President Bush’s term.
So here’s my suggestion for SEC Chair: Nell Minow. While her Wikipedia profile highlights her role as “Movie Mom”, it’s her role as a shareholder activist at LENS and now as co-founder of The Corporate Library that makes her a natural for this critical position. She’s spent time in Washington, D.C., at The Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Management and Budget, but can hardly be called a career bureaucrat. And, if you’ve ever heard her speak — a speech she gave to business journalists over a dozen years ago sparked my interest in diving into filings — you know that she’s both passionate and incredibly knowledgable.
Have a better idea for SEC Chair in an Obama Administration? Post your thoughts below.
Image Source: The Corporate Library
|
Posted in Tags: SEC, soapbox |
 26 Comments » |
RSS
November 5th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Well, I suppose if we can’t have Evelyn Y. Davis, Nell would be just fine
Here’s a great link for those who might not be aware of Evelyn’s mannerisms:
http://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/blog/archive/001486.html
November 5th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
ralph nader - i dont see this happening, but i see him as a good candidate to fight corruption.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hmmm…both Evelyn and Ralph seem like definite long-shots, though both would be interesting choices. I still chuckle when I think about a Citigroup meeting that I covered several years ago when Evelyn said that Sandy Weill was getting a little too chunky. And no, she wasn’t talking about his stock options
November 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Nell Minow would be a very good choice. Though I have been critical of him in the past, maybe we could rehabilitate Eliot Spitzer. His knowledge of the securities markets is large, and he is no stranger to the government.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
While we’re on the change bandwagon, perhaps it’s high time to have a CPA run the commission.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
She’s a lightweight in that jungle of worthless spineless
‘guardians’ of shareholdes. Bozos did nada to prevent what
happened. As it stands no improvements. So…besides talk of
Andrew Cuomo there is the guy who knows where the bodies are
buried and how to clean it up. NY Fed head. Anything less
and it’s same old, same old.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ny-fed-chief-picked-head/story.aspx?guid=7AD3A9A0-429B-4DFD-AD6A-83996D14FA4D
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) — William McDonough, outgoing head of the New York Federal Reserve, was named Tuesday as chairman of the new accounting oversight board created by Congress to root out fraud at public companies.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Minow would actually be a great choice. She built two or three successful businesses, so she knows what it is like for a small business to meet a payroll. She also dislikes the “Evelyn Davis” crackpot style of shareholder activist, and has publicly distanced herself from those crackpots. But she is probably too honest to work at the SEC.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Love the blog- just one quick editorial note. The president does indeed have the authority to fire the SEC chief, as reported by ABC News here:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/mccain-says-he.html
Keep up the great work.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Sorry, Nell has as much chance at heading the SEC as Lucian Bebchuk…
November 5th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Minow is an excellent suggestion, for all the reasons you cite. That said, the SEC is one of those federal regulatory bureaucracies that seems to have been part-captured by their industry. Another approach would be to appoint a functionary to run the SEC while Minow heads the commission to rewrite the Securities Act that created the SEC in the first place.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
@ Jason: Actually, the link that you posted makes it seem a bit fuzzy. But I agree it’s splitting hairs. Even if the President can’t fire the Chairman, he can surely send clear signals that he wants the person to resign.
@ Wayne: Keep in mind that Nell’s father — Newton — has been a mentor to Obama and according to this site her sister, Martha, was one of Obama’s professors @ Harvard Law. Still think she has an ice cube’s chance in hell?
Finally, on the Treasury Secretary question, Portfolio.com has a do-it-yourself brackets to try to predict that choice.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Conan the Barbarian
(the character, not the actor)
November 5th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Harvey Goldschmidt.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Nell would be be great. Her experience at OMB, ISS and The Corporate Library have been great preparation and she really knows how to cut to the chase. Having an actual shareholder advocate in that position would be fantastic. Andrew Cuomo, Elisse Walters and Harvey J. Goldschmid are other names being kicked around.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Mary Schapiro, CEO of FINRA
November 6th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
patrick fitzgerald.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
pat fitzgerald should be in line for AG.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Lots of interesting suggestions here. One other mentioned in this story in today’s WSJ is Damon Silvers, a top lawyer at the AFL-CIO. The story also mentioned Goldschmid, too.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
How about Jim Cramer
November 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
@ Victor: You’re joking, right?
November 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
And yet another SEC Chair speculation story from Bloomberg. Here’s a link.
November 10th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
@ dru: Thank you for a reasonable voice in here. I was just going to say that it needs to be a CPA. This Minow person appears to be a generalist, the SEC is a very specialized area and not a place for amateurs.
November 11th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I’m not in total disagreement — a CPA would certainly be a good thing. But keep in mind that the job of SEC Chair is to set the pace and agenda for the agency, so I think you need someone who’s more than able to just dive into numbers and has the personality to get the job done. Is there a particular CPA that you have in mind?
Also, I’d hardly call Minnow an amateur. She’s brought a common sense approach to shareholder activism and corporate governance that gets the job done without coming off as shrill or crazy.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Gary Lynch.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
JIM CRAMER please!
December 10th, 2008 at 12:18 am
jim cramer
as his expirence
and qualifications
we need for success with market in crisis