An Atlanta attorney who was named to Hispanic Business magazine's list of 100 Influential Hispanics in 2006 may be in line to replace Roel Campos at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Campos announced earlier this month that he planned to leave the SEC in September to pursue opportunities in the private sector. Mr. Campos had been the first Hispanic named to the commission, which regulates America's financial markets.
One of the names arising as a possible replacement for the prominent Democrat is Luis Aguilar, who in the early 1980s spent three years as an attorney with the SEC in Atlanta before entering private industry.
According to the Web site Financial Week and the Bloomberg news agency, Mr. Aguilar is on the short list to replace Mr. Campos, with his appointment being championed by Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey. (Although President Bush makes the nomination, by law the position on the five-member panel -- chaired by a Republican -- cannot be filled by a Republican.) Mr. Menendez's office did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.
Mr. Aguilar told HispanicBusiness.com he was aware that his name had been raised for the position but had no comment on the speculation.
After leaving the SEC, Mr. Aguilar worked in the securities arena with two Georgia law firms, Powell Goldstein LLP and Kilpatrick & Cody. From there, he served as the general counsel, executive vice president and corporate secretary of INVESCO, an independent institutional investment company with more than $380 billion in assets under management in the U.S. and international markets.
He left INVESCO in 2002 and now practices securities law for McKenna Long & Aldridge in Atlanta. Named one of Georgia's Super Lawyers for three years running, he received the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund's "Excellence in Leadership" Award in April 2005, and was also named the 2005 Latino Attorney of the Year by the Hispanic National Bar Association.
A Cuban émigré – he arrived in the United States at age 7 with little more than the clothes on his back -- this month he was named to chair the board of directors of Atlanta-based Latin American Association.
Mr. Campos is in his second three-year term, having been appointed and confirmed to the post in August 2002. A former assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, he supported an aggressive SEC enforcement program to restore investor confidence. He also fought for the elimination of conflicts, enhanced issuer disclosure, improved corporate governance and greater shareholder rights with regarding the election of directors.
In a 2004 interview with LawCrossing.com, Mr. Aguilar discussed the state of the securities industry with Cray Griffin.
"The securities industry has changed dramatically over the last few years," he told the online magazine. "The onslaught of disclosures that are being made, from Enron through all the progenies thereof, and the resulting legislation that came out of it -- Sarbanes Oxley being the most notable one -- has made some changes that will be permanent in the industry. I'm not sure we've seen the end of it yet.
"Sarbanes-Oxley was a political response to serious breaches in honesty and fiduciary responsibility. As a political response I think it was quickly and hastily done to address public confidence issues. Although there's some good stuff in there, there's also some additional burdensome cost imposed on corporate America I'm not sure the cost benefit analysis has balanced out.
"I'm concerned about the refocus senior management has had to do away from running their business and into the document production side of the disclosure provisions. I'm not sure how that will wash out, but I'm a big believer in American ingenuity, and we'll find ways to deal with the new norm, whether it's amending Sarbanes with the cool, calm hindsight of what the new provisions have done, or whether it's streamlining processes and procedures inside corporations to deal with regulations and allow senior management to return their focus to running their business."
