Remarks by Commissioner Peirce at the Third Annual Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management

Thank you, Natasha [Vij Greiner]. Good morning and welcome to the Third Annual Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management. Before I begin, I must remind you that my views are my own as a Commissioner and not necessarily those of the SEC or my fellow Commissioners.

Today’s four panels take us on a tour from the beginning of the ’40 Acts up to the most recent developments in asset management, and on to the developments likely to come in the near future. These panels are in keeping with the asset management industry, which is an iterative one in which new developments are rooted in the old. I am looking forward particularly to hearing from our “Forever Young” panel of former IM Directors who will reminisce on 85 years of the Investment Company and Investment Advisers Acts.

Thinking back to my arrival at the Division of Investment Management as a wide-eyed staff attorney 25 years ago makes me feel anything but young. But happy memories linger from my four years in the Division: Immersing myself in Division history with the well-worn green binder “bibles,” wrestling through current issues in a rulemaking, or imagining the future of asset management through the eyes of the red book. My colleagues, of course, were the highlight of that experience. Paul Roye as Division Director, Hunter Jones as remarkably patient supervisor, Bob Plaze as master rule-drafter, Martha Peterson as consummate mentor, and countless colleagues who only recently left the staff, including: Bill Middlebrooks, Beckie Marquigny, Chris Chow, Penelope Saltzman, Jennifer McHugh, Jennifer Sawin, Janet Grossnickle, and Nadya Roytblat, to name a few. These and other members of the Division staff poured themselves into administering the statutory framework within which the asset management industry has flourished. (more…)