Printable Biography of Arthur Levitt

Arthur Levitt served as the 25th Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). First appointed by President Clinton in July 1993, Chairman Levitt was re-appointed to a second five-year term in May 1998. He has the unique distinction of being the longest serving Chairman in the Commission's history.

During his career as head of the SEC, investor protection was Chairman Levitt's top priority. Throughout his tenure at the Commission, Chairman Levitt worked to educate, empower, and protect America's investors.

Over the past seven years Chairman Levitt has conducted more than 40 investor town meetings throughout the country to listen to the concerns of investors and give them tips on safe and wise participation in the securities markets. Newsweek magazine said, “Chairman Levitt fought to effectively police the Internet's wild investing scams, and bolster the flow of honest and reliable information to investors.”

A proven expert in his field, Chairman Levitt has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of the financial reporting process, maintain the independence of auditors, and save investors billions of dollars by reducing spreads in the NASDAQ market. He also promoted the requirement that important information be released to all investors simultaneously, as well as fought Internet fraud and cleaned up the municipal bond market.

Before joining the Commission, Mr. Levitt owned Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and from 1978 to 1989 he was the Chairman of the American Stock Exchange. Prior to joining the Amex, Mr. Levitt worked for 16 years on Wall Street. He is presently Senior Advisor to The Carlyle Group, a special adviser to AIG, on the board of Bloomberg LLP, and serves as a member of the AmericanAcademy of Arts & Sciences. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from WilliamsCollege in 1952 before serving for two years in the Air Force.

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 by Pantheon Books in October 2002.
 
Program Topics
 
The Subprime Primer - Drawing on his four decades of experience as head of a stock exchange, brokerage house, and the SEC, Arthur Levitt explains in clear, understandable language how the subprime mess happened and what the resulting credit crunch means to businesses and investors of all sizes and what impact it will have on new, dynamic areas of our markets such as private equity and hedge funds. He brings deep insight into what Washington is likely to do to respond, and what it should do, and how any new regulatory moves will affect the US and global economy. 
 
Take On The Street - Former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt’s sympathies have always been with the everyday investor. From establishing a website that allows free and easy access to corporate filings and investor education materials to holding numerous investor town meetings throughout the country to hear investors’ concerns, Levitt has always made their needs a priority. In this presentation, based on his best-selling book of the same name, Levitt reveals the tactics of wise investment in plain language and spells out how to intelligently invest in mutual funds and the stock market. His advice, aimed not only at individual investors but also at brokerages and investment houses, shows audiences how to interpret annual reports, understand press releases and draw from more from reliable sources.
 
Pensions – The Coming Crisis - The pension crisis for U.S. businesses and employees is once again making headlines, threatening to engulf U.S. automakers as it did with steel companies and the airline industry. For three decades, the current pension structure has allowed a “shell-game” system of pension accounting to develop that misleads taxpayers and investors about the true fiscal health of their cities and companies, while allowing management to make promises to workers that saddle future generations with huge costs. Solutions are underway: proposals to shore up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) are making their way through Congress. However, the problem will only get worse unless immediate action is taken to bring accuracy, transparency and accountability to pension accounting. Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, provides an all-too-salient discussion of the current pension problems faced by today’s economy, along with recommendations about repairing them – for both the short and long term.