Former SEC Chair to Receive Economic Impact Award
Former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Arthur Levitt, Jr., will receive the Economics Club of Hampton Roads' second annual Economic Impact Award and talk about the need for transparency in investing at a dinner ceremony Thursday, Feb. 26.
The event, which will be held from 5-8 p.m. at the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center in Norfolk, is sponsored by the Economics Club of Hampton Roads, KPMG, Williams Mullen and Old Dominion University's College of Business and Public Administration. The cost is $65 for nonmembers. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 683-5138.
The 25th and longest serving chairman of the SEC, Levitt was first appointed by President Clinton in July 1993 and was reappointed May 1998. He stepped down from his role in February 2001.
Throughout his tenure at the Commission, Levitt's top priority was investor protection and he worked to educate, empower, and protect America's investors - now more than 50 million strong. He created the Office of Investor Education and Assistance and established a website which allows the public free and easy access to corporate filings and investor education materials. Additionally, he conducted more than forty investor town meetings throughout the country to listen to the concerns of investors and to give them tips on safe and wise participation in the securities markets.
Before joining the SEC, Levitt owned Roll Call, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill. He served as chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the American Stock Exchange, after working for 16 years on Wall Street.
Currently, Levitt is senior advisor to The Carlyle Group, Promontory Financial Group and WisdomTree. Additionally, he serves on the board of Bloomberg LLP, and as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Levitt's bestselling book, "Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don't Want You to Know/What You Can Do to Fight Back," was published in 2002.
The Economics Club of Hampton Roads established the Economic Impact Award in 2008 to recognize outstanding practitioners of sound economic and financial policy, as well as the inextricable ties among our local, national and international economies. The major criterion for the award is that the honoree's economic/financial impact be wide-ranging and perceived by all to be for the common good.