Few in this day and age would think twice about a woman heading an office of 155 lawyers, accountants and support staff.
That wasn't the case when Rosalind R. Tyson, the new director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Los Angeles region, was contemplating careers.
"I grew up in the era when, really, the major choices for a woman were to be a nurse, a teacher or an executive secretary," said Tyson, 60, who was raised in New Jersey. "My dad sat me down at one point and said, 'Well, what would you like of those three?' "
By then, she had volunteered as a hospital candy striper and knew that nursing didn't appeal to her. Ditto for secretarial work.
So she earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and a master's from the University of Hawaii and later landed a job teaching French at a Catholic girls' school in Monterey, Calif.
"I was really good at it and enjoyed it, but it was not somehow my passion," Tyson said. "When you're a teacher, you should be so involved in it that it becomes your life, and that was not the case for me."
As she was "casting about for something else to do," Tyson took her younger brother's advice to consider law. She graduated from Stanford Law School in 1978, spent four years in private practice and then found the job that would become her passion.
Tyson joined the SEC's Los Angeles office as an enforcement staff attorney in 1982 and has been there ever since, in ascending positions. She was named regional director in May, replacing Randall Lee, who left last year for private practice.
"She's got deep knowledge of the securities industry, she is highly respected both in the L.A. office and throughout the SEC and, most importantly for someone in a position like that, she's got outstanding judgment," Lee said. "At the end of the day, judgment is what it's all about."
Collaborative approach
The SEC oversees and regulates securities exchanges, brokers and dealers, investment advisors and mutual funds. It examines the records of those it regulates and files civil lawsuits over violations such as insider trading, accounting fraud and misleading investors.
Tyson, whose region covers Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii, said she takes a collaborative approach to her job and seeks the input of those who work with her in deciding which cases to go after.
