William H Donaldson

When word spread recently that business lobbyists were seeking the ouster of William H. Donaldson, the reform-minded chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the White House wasted no time coming to his defense. "The president appreciates the job Chairman Donaldson is doing," said Scott McClellan, a spokesman for President Bush. McClellan noted approvingly that Donaldson had "worked hard to help us crack down on corporate wrongdoing."

Refusing to back down, a divided Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday passed for the second time a rule requiring independent stewardship of the nation's mutual funds -- just one week after an appeals court had ordered the agency to reconsider the measure. The SEC's swift answer to the court came over the objections of business groups and was among the final official actions of Chairman William H.

NYSE Chairman to Step Down: William H. Donaldson announced that he will not seek a new term at the New York Stock Exchange. Donaldson, 63, co-founder of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, was reportedly under pressure from some members of the exchange's board. Donaldson said he joined the Big Board with the intention of stepping down after one term and that he did not feel any pressure resign. "I made the decision because I felt the speculation going around was not constructive," he said.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson, ordered by a federal appeals court to reconsider a rule on mutual fund governance, will try to save the measure at a meeting next week, one day before he leaves the agency. A three-judge panel said Tuesday that the SEC failed to properly review the costs of the rule requiring mutual fund boards to be composed of 75% independent directors, including the chairman.

The candidacy of William H. Donaldson to head the Securities and Exchange Commission should be unaffected by a news report that he fathered a child out of wedlock by a woman he later married, the White House said. Fortune magazine, citing unidentified sources, said that in the 1980s, Donaldson began an affair with Jane Morrison, who worked at the Yale School of Management while Donaldson was dean. Both were married to other people at the time. The affair resulted in a son, the magazine said.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission will have no involvement in the agency's investigation of accounting at a company where he had served on the audit committee, the agency said Friday. SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson recused himself under government ethics rules from the investigation into EasyLink Services Corp., a technology firm where he was a director and member of the board's audit panel until he resigned in November 2002.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission should remove himself from the agency's investigation of accounting at a company where he served on the audit committee, ethics experts said Thursday. To ensure public confidence in the SEC probe, Chairman William H. Donaldson "has to take himself out in a credible way," said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University.

The incoming chairman of the New York Stock Exchange took to the pulpit at a Manhattan cathedral Sunday to denounce the materialism of the 1980s and the gap between rich and poor. During his 25-minute sermon, William H. Donaldson, who will take office in January, called the 1980s a decade in which "it was easy to see how good things were for some people and even easier to not see how bad things had become for others."

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson, ordered by a federal appeals court to reconsider a rule on mutual fund governance, will try to save the measure at a meeting next week, one day before he leaves the agency. A three-judge panel said Tuesday that the SEC failed to properly review the costs of the rule requiring mutual fund boards to be composed of 75% independent directors, including the chairman.

President Bush is expected today to nominate Rep. Christopher Cox of Newport Beach as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing William H. Donaldson, who resigned Wednesday after aggressively trying to restore investor confidence shaken by corporate scandals. Bush's choice of Cox to be the nation's top securities cop was confirmed by two senior Republican officials late Wednesday.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson on Thursday welcomed a Cisco Systems Inc. plan to create a financial device for valuing employee stock options, saying it has "a lot of potential." For the last decade, Cisco and other technology companies fought a losing battle against rules requiring employee stock options to be treated as an expense. Cisco is seeking permission from the SEC to set a market value on its options by selling a derivative with the same terms.

When word spread recently that business lobbyists were seeking the ouster of William H. Donaldson, the reform-minded chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the White House wasted no time coming to his defense. "The president appreciates the job Chairman Donaldson is doing," said Scott McClellan, a spokesman for President Bush. McClellan noted approvingly that Donaldson had "worked hard to help us crack down on corporate wrongdoing."

Aetna Inc. has reached a tentative settlement with investors who accused the company of hiding accounting misstatements when Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson led the company, an Aetna spokesman said Wednesday. The agreement must be approved by U.S. District Judge George Daniels in New York, said Aetna spokesman David Carter. Carter declined to say how much the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer is paying to settle the case.

With the reelection of President Bush, a burst of aggressive rulemaking at the Securities and Exchange Commission over how companies should be governed may be coming to an end. "I think we've done the right things, and I think they've been important to the country, but there is the danger of a backlash" now that Bush is heading into a second term, said SEC Commissioner Harvey J. Goldschmid, the Democratic SEC commissioner who had been viewed as possible chairman in a John F.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission will have no involvement in the agency's investigation of accounting at a company where he had served on the audit committee, the agency said Friday. SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson recused himself under government ethics rules from the investigation into EasyLink Services Corp., a technology firm where he was a director and member of the board's audit panel until he resigned in November 2002.

Aetna Inc. has reached a tentative settlement with investors who accused the company of hiding accounting misstatements when Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson led the company, an Aetna spokesman said Wednesday. The agreement must be approved by U.S. District Judge George Daniels in New York, said Aetna spokesman David Carter. Carter declined to say how much the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer is paying to settle the case.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson on Thursday welcomed a Cisco Systems Inc. plan to create a financial device for valuing employee stock options, saying it has "a lot of potential." For the last decade, Cisco and other technology companies fought a losing battle against rules requiring employee stock options to be treated as an expense. Cisco is seeking permission from the SEC to set a market value on its options by selling a derivative with the same terms.

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission should remove himself from the agency's investigation of accounting at a company where he served on the audit committee, ethics experts said Thursday. To ensure public confidence in the SEC probe, Chairman William H. Donaldson "has to take himself out in a credible way," said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University.

When William H. Donaldson was named to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission in late 2002, he faced a panel deeply divided over how to answer corporate abuses that had shocked the public and sparked cries for reform. Two Republicans on the five-member commission were extremely wary of saddling companies with new costs. The two Democrats believed Enron Corp.'s collapse and other debacles dramatized the need for active government efforts to protect investors.