Roye Leaving SEC to Return to Private Sector

Paul F. Roye, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's division of investment management, announced Friday that he will be leaving the Commission to pursue opportunities in the private sector.

Roye, who became the director of the division in 1998, worked alongside with SEC Chairman William Donaldson to implement the agency's recent reforms of the mutual fund industry. Among the many initiatives he spearheaded, some included requiring mutual funds and advisors to adopt comprehensive compliance policies and procedures, improving disclosure of fund fees, expenses and conflicts and applying Sarbanes-Oxley reforms to the mutual fund industry.

Roye's division came into the limelight when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer started investigating trading abuses at a number of mutual fund companies in late 2003. One rule proposed by Roye's division-- requiring fund companies to have independent chairmen--has sparked significant controversy. Roye's division will also start overseeing hedge fund advisors, which must register with the SEC under a new rule.

Donaldson said Roye "provided invaluable guidance and input as we developed a strengthened mutual fund regulatory regime." Before becoming director of the division of investment management, Roye was a partner at the law firm Dechert LLP. He received his A.B. cum laude from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.