SEC Government-Business 

Small Business ON

Capital Formation 

November 20, 2014 

Washington, DC 
UNITED STATES 


SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 


WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 


DIVISION OF 

CORPORATION FINANCE 

November 20,2014 

Dear Forum Participant: 

Welcome to the Thirty-Third SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business 

Capital Formation. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission has conducted this forum annually since 

1982. The event provides small businesses, their advisors, and their investors with an 

opportunity to share perspectives and views on a variety of topics important to them. 

This is an effective way for the agency and its staff to learn more about the important 

capital formation issues that the small business sector is facing and helps us take a 

practical and effective approach in our rulemaking and interpretation. 

Thank you for devoting your time and efforts to participating in today's forum. We 

look forward to today's discussions and appreciate your comments and 

recommendations. 

Very truly yours, 

Sebastian Gomez Abero 

Chief, Office of Small Business Policy 
2014 SEC Government-Business Forum 

on Small Business Capital Formation 

SEC Headquarters 

Washington, D.C 

November 20, 2014
 

Table of Contents 

Forum SEC Staff 

Agenda 

Breakout Group Room Assignments 

Breakout Group Participant Guidelines 

Guidelines for Drafting Recommendations 

Consolidated 2013 Forum Recommendations 

2013 Forum Recommendations by Breakout Group 

Biographies of Panelists and Moderators 

Map with Directions to Post-Forum Networking Reception 
 

FORUM SEC STAFF 

Elizabeth M. Murphy 

Associate Director (Legal) 

Division of Corporation Finance 

Office of Small Business Policy
 

Division of Corporation Finance 

Sebastian Gomez Abero, Chief 

Anthony G. Barone, Special Counsel 

Julie Z. Davis, Special Counsel 

Jessica Dickerson, Special Counsel 

Zachary O. Fallon, Special Counsel 

Johanna Vega Losert, Special Counsel 

P. Amy Reischauer, Attorney-Advisor 

Office of Chief Counsel 

Division of Trading and Markets
 

Joseph Furey, Assistant Chief Counsel 

Joanne C. Rutkowski, Senior Special Counsel 

Timothy J. White, Special Counsel 
         

     

   

   

         

                       

   

           

                     

   

            

            

       

     

         

   

                      

   

                 

               

   

                           

                    

                  

                      

                  

     

   

                 

   

                                                            

                     

         

   

2014 SEC Government‐Business Forum on

Small Business Capital Formation

SEC Headquarters
 

Washington, D.C.
 

November 20, 2014
 

Agenda

(All participants will meet in Main Auditorium to begin Forum) 

9:00 a.m. Call to Order

Sebastian Gomez Abero, Chief, Office of Small Business Policy, SEC Division of

Corporation Finance

Introductions of Chair and Commissioners

Keith F. Higgins, Director, SEC Division of Corporation Finance

Remarks

Chair Mary Jo White

Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar

Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher

Commissioner Kara M. Stein

Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar

9:50 a.m. Secondary Market Liquidity for Securities of Small Businesses1

Moderators:

Stephen Luparello, Director, SEC Division of Trading and Markets

Stanley Keller, Partner, Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, Boston, Massachusetts

Panelists:

Vladimir Ivanov, Senior Financial Economist, SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis

Michael L. Zuppone, Partner, Paul Hastings, New York, New York

Robert Malin, Vice President of Sales, NASDAQ Private Market

R. Cromwell Coulson, President and CEO of OTC Markets Group, Inc.

A. Heath Abshure, Arkansas Securities Commissioner, Little Rock, Arkansas

11:10 a.m. Break

11:20 a.m. Should the Commission Revise the Accredited Investor Definition?2

1 One or more SEC Commissioners may participate in this discussion. 2 One or more SEC Commissioners may participate in this discussion.

1
 
   

                 

               

   

                     

                   

                   

     

                 

      

   

         

Moderators:

Keith F. Higgins, Director, SEC Division of Corporation Finance

Stanley Keller, Partner, Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, Boston, Massachusetts

Panelists:

Rachita Gullapalli, Financial Economist, SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis

Prof. Donald C. Langevoort, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.

Jean Peters, Board Member, Angel Capital Association; Managing Director, Golden

Seeds Fund LP

A. Heath Abshure, Arkansas Securities Commissioner, Little Rock, Arkansas

12:40 pm.	 Lunch Break

2:00 p.m.	 Breakout Groups Assemble to Develop Recommendations

(After lunch break, all participants will meet in Multipurpose Room (L-006) – 

under stairs across from Main Auditorium for Breakout Group Room 

Assignments) 

Exempt Securities Offerings Breakout Group

(Remain in Multipurpose Room (L‐006) – under stairs across from Main Auditorium)

Moderator:

Gregory C. Yadley, Partner, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP, Tampa, Florida

Secondary Market Liquidity for Securities of Small Businesses Breakout Group

(SEC staff will escort to Room 4000, SPI)

Moderator:

Michael L. Zuppone, Partner, Paul Hastings, New York, New York  

    

Accredited Investor Breakout Group

(SEC staff will escort to Room 6000, SPI)

Moderator:  

Deborah S. Froling, Partner, Arent Fox LLP, Washington, D.C.

Disclosure Effectiveness for Smaller Reporting Companies Breakout Group  

(SEC staff will escort to Room 3000, SPI)

Moderator:

Thomas J. Kim, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, D.C.  

2
 
     

                     

              

           

                

                             

           

  

                       

  

                     

           

3:15 p.m. Break

(SEC staff will escort participants who want to change breakout groups.)

3:30 p.m. Breakout Groups to Develop Recommendations (continued)

(same breakout group room assignments)

5:00 p.m. Plenary Session to Develop Next Steps

(SEC staff will escort all participants in Rooms 3000, 4000 and 6000 to reconvene in

Multipurpose Room for Plenary Session.)

Moderators:

Sebastian Gomez Abero, Chief, Office of Small Business Policy, SEC Division of

Corporation Finance

Gregory C. Yadley, Partner, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP, Tampa, Florida

5:30 p.m. Networking Reception at Nearby Restaurant

3
 
2014 SEC Government-Business 

Forum on Small Business Capital Formation 

Afternoon Breakout Group Room Assignments 

All pre-registered Forum participants are free to attend or dial-in to the telephone 

conference call for any of the four afternoon breakout group meetings, even if they preregistered for a different breakout group. 

Participants may change breakout groups at the 3:15 p.m. break, with a staff escort for 

those in the building, or by dialing-in to a different breakout group for those participating by 

conference call. Please note, however, that selections of each breakout group’s five 

recommendations to be presented at the Forum’s Plenary Session at 5 p.m. will be made in 

the later breakout group session from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Accordingly, please make sure 

you are present at the 3:30 p.m. session of the breakout group in which you want to maximize 

your influence over what five recommendations will be selected by that breakout group. 

SEC staff will be available in each of the four breakout groups to provide technical 

support and guidance in the discussions. 

Exempt Securities Offerings 

Breakout Group 

Multipurpose Room (L-006) 

(Under stairs across from Auditorium)
 

Gregory C. Yadley, Moderator 

SEC Staff Support: 

Tony Barone, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

Julie Davis, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

Vladimir Ivanov, SEC Div. of Econ. and 

Risk Analysis 

Darren Vieira, SEC Div. of T&M 

Secondary Market Liquidity 

for Securities of Small 

Businesses Breakout Group 

Room 4000 (4th Floor) 

Michael L. Zuppone, Moderator 

SEC Staff Support: 

Zachary O. Fallon, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

Joanne Rutkowski, SEC Div. of T&M
 

Accredited Investor Breakout 

Group 

Room 6000 (6th Floor) 

Deborah S. Froling, Moderator 

SEC Staff Support: 

Ivan Griswold, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

Rachita Gullapalli, SEC Div. of Econ. and 

Risk Analysis 

Johanna Losert, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

Michael Seaman, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

Disclosure Effectiveness for 

Smaller Reporting Companies 

Breakout Group 

Room 3000 (3rd Floor) 

Thomas J. Kim, Moderator 

SEC Staff Support: 

Karen Garnett, SEC. Div. of Corp. Fin. 

P. Amy Reischauer, SEC Div. of Corp. Fin. 

1
 
2014 SEC Government-Business 

Forum on Small Business Capital Formation
 

Breakout Group Participant Guidelines 

1) Identify yourself and your organization before speaking. 

2) If participating by phone, mute your phone when not speaking. 

3) Be aware that members of the press may be listening to the discussion. 

4) The objective of the breakout group is to develop no more than five draft 

recommendations to present to the Plenary Session of the Forum at 5:00 

p.m. today in the SEC Multipurpose Room (Lower Level Room 006). After 

today’s sessions, the breakout group moderators will work with breakout 

group participants as appropriate to finalize the recommendations and 

submit them to the SEC staff. The SEC staff will then circulate the 

recommendations to all Breakout Group participants for voting, to prioritize 

them before including them in the Forum Final Report. 
2014 SEC Government-Business 

Forum on Small Business Capital Formation
 

Guidelines for Drafting Recommendations 

1. Recommendations should be clear, concise and to the point. 

2. Recommendations should be presented in a way that permits a “Yes” 

or “No” vote on the entire recommendation by Forum participants 

(e.g., no multiple subparagraphs requiring separate votes). 

3. Ideally, recommendations should be stated in one sentence. In rare 

cases, a second or third sentence may be needed to make a 

recommendation comprehensible. Clear and succinct supporting 

language may be presented separately and may be considered or 

published with the recommendation if time and/or space permits in 

the assembly of Forum participants and/or final report of the Forum. 

4. The entire breakout group should carefully consider each of its 

recommendations. Recommendations should not represent the views 

of a single participant or a small group of vocal participants. 

Breakout groups should filter the group’s recommendations for 

desirability, workability and achievability. A breakout group 

properly considering its recommendations most likely will not have 

time to report out more than a few recommendations. 

5. Each breakout group will be limited to no more than five 

recommendations to present to the Plenary Session of the Forum at 

5:00 pm today. These five recommendations will be included with 

the recommendations of the other breakout groups for voting by the 

Forum participants after the Forum by electronic ballot. The 

prioritized recommendations will be included in the Forum Final 

Report 

6. If a breakout group has more than five recommendations, any 

recommendations in excess of the five recommendations to be 

presented at the Forum’s Plenary Session will be recorded by the 

SEC staff and presented to next year’s Forum afternoon breakout 

groups for additional consideration. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013 CONSOLIDATED FORUM RECOMMENDATIONS1 

Set forth below are the 43 recommendations of the 2013 SEC Government-Business 

Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, consolidated from the three breakout groups of the 

Forum held on the afternoon of November 21, 2013. The three breakout groups covered the 

following topics: Securities-Based Crowdfunding Offerings, Exempt Securities Offerings, and 

Securities Regulation of Smaller Public Companies. After that date, the moderators of the 

breakout groups worked with their breakout group participants to refine each group’s 

recommendations. 

The recommendations are presented below in the order of priority established as the 

result of a poll of all participants in the breakout groups.2 The priority ranking is intended to 

provide guidance to the SEC as to the importance and urgency the poll respondents assigned to 

each recommendation. 

For additional clarity with respect to the interest in each broad area of discussion, the 

recommendations are also subsequently presented by the breakout groups from which they 

originated.3 

1

 The SEC conducts the SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, but does not 

endorse or modify any of the recommendations of the Forum. The recommendations are solely the responsibility of 

the Forum participants, who were responsible for developing them. The recommendations do not necessarily reflect 

the views of the SEC, its Commissioners or any of the SEC’s staff members. 

2

 In the poll, the participants were asked to respond whether the SEC should give “high,” “medium,” “low” or “no” 

priority to each of the 43 recommendations. Of the 126 participants, 34 responded, a 27% response rate. Each 

“high priority” response was assigned five points, each “medium priority” was assigned three points, each “low 

priority” response was assigned one point and each “no priority” or blank response was assigned zero points. The 

total number of points assigned to each recommendation is shown in brackets after the text of the recommendation, 

as is the average assignment of points for the recommendation. The average assignment of points was determined 

for each recommendation by dividing the total number of points for a recommendation by the number of responses 

received (34). 

3

 Of the 34 respondents to the poll, 17 were participants in the Securities-Based Crowdfunding Offerings Breakout 

Group, 14 were participants in the Exempt Securities Offerings Breakout Group and 7 were participants in the 

Securities Regulation of Smaller Public Companies Breakout Group. Four respondents participated in more than 

one breakout group. 

1 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

1 We recommend that the Commission withdraw its proposed amendments to 

Regulation D, Form D and Rule 156. If the Commission determines not to do so, 

then we urge that revised proposals be published for further comment to include the 

following: 

	 Removal of the harsh penalties for non-compliance; 

	 No requirement for an advance Form D, instead require filing no 

earlier than the date of first sale and a closing or annual filing (if 

sales were made); 

	 Allow parts of Form D, such as the financing amount, to be 

confidential; 

	 Require legends and disclosures only when sale terms are 

communicated; 

	 Rather than requiring the filing of advertising materials, form 

working groups from advisory bodies to monitor and report to the 

Commission; and 

	 Clarify the meaning of “general solicitation,” and confirm that 

longstanding economic development events, such as “demo days,” 

do not constitute general solicitation. [112 points; avg. ranking 3.29] 

2 Because Rule 506(c) exempt offerings exclude non-accredited friends and family 

investors, who have traditionally been important participants in small business 

capital formation, we recommend that the Commission: 

	 Maintain the ability of Rule 506(c) issuers to concurrently offer 

Section 4(a)(6) crowdfunding securities, as set forth in the proposed 

rules issued pursuant to the JOBS Act; and 

	 Clarify that an issuer changing from a Rule 506(b) offering to a Rule 

506(c) offering may sell to friends and family and other nonaccredited investors in a parallel Section 4(a)(6) crowdfunding 

offering. [105 points; avg. ranking 3.09] 

3 We recommend that the Commission not increase the dollar amount thresholds in 

the accredited investor definition following its review of the definition, as 

mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Commission has effectively already 

increased the financial threshold in the definition by removing the value of the 

primary residence, which resulted in a significant drop in the investor pool from 

9% to 7% of U.S. households, thus limiting both capital formation and job creation. 

At the same time, we recommend that the Commission consider additional separate 

categories of qualification for accredited investors based on various types of 

sophistication, for example, by virtue of education, experience or training. 

[101 points; avg. ranking 2.97] 

2 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

4 Eliminate the requirement for audited financial statements in crowdfunding 

offerings, and instead require that financial statements for offerings of $500,000 or 

more be reviewed by a certified public accountant. [100 points; avg. ranking 2.94] 

5 The Commission should provide clarification and a framework on what is 

considered investment advice for a crowdfunding portal. Portals should be able to 

provide a labeling mechanism, such as an issue is “hot” or “trending,” along with 

an advanced search feature. [98 points; avg. ranking 2.88] 

6A Based on recent changes resulting from the JOBS Act, private companies will have 

much more flexibility to remain private longer. As a result, the need for a specific 

federal exemption for private secondary transactions for shareholders that cannot 

satisfy Rule 144 has become critical. We recommend that the Commission propose 

a new federal exemption governing the private resale of restricted securities under 

Section 4(a)(1) of the Securities Act, commonly referred to as “Section 4(1-1/2)” 

(or after the JOBS Act amendments to the Securities Act, Section 4(a)(1-1/2)). 

[95 points; avg. ranking 2.79] 

6B The Commission should promptly adopt rules implementing Title IV of the JOBS 

Act that preempt state law review and regulation (but not enforcement) for the 

issuance of securities thereunder. The Commission should consider, among other 

means of accomplishing this: 

	 Making a security offered in reliance upon the Regulation A+ 

exemption a “covered security” under Section 18(b) of the Securities 

Act; 

	 Adopting a “qualified purchaser” definition under Section 18(b)(3) 

of the Securities Act to include purchasers of securities sold in 

reliance upon the Regulation A+ exemption; 

	 Preempting only state regulation that fails to comply with uniform 

state regulation guidelines adopted by NASAA in consultation with 

the Commission; or 

	 Seeking any legislation necessary to so preempt state regulation. 

New regulations promulgated under Title IV of the JOBS Act should provide for 

scaled disclosure based on, among other factors, size of offering, including 

unaudited financial statements for smaller offerings, and encourage user-friendly 

techniques, such as Q&A. [95 points; avg. ranking 2.79] 

6C The Commission should provide guidelines to crowdfunding intermediaries as to 

what constitutes curating deals. [95 points; avg. ranking 2.79] 

9 Eliminate the imposition of liability against a crowdfunding platform for the 

misstatements and omissions of the companies that post on the platform’s website, 

3 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

which is proposed in the SEC proposing release for Title III of the JOBS Act at 

Section II.E.5 of Release No. 33-9470 (Oct. 23, 2013). 

[94 points; avg. ranking 2.76] 

10 Repeal the requirement for smaller reporting companies and emerging growth 

companies to submit financial information in XBRL format for periodic reports and 

other public filings. [92 points; avg. ranking 2.71] 

11 Allow crowdfunding portals to create a membership tiered system that will disclose 

only specific company details (e.g., financial statements) to registered members on 

the platform. [85 points; avg. ranking 2.50] 

12 In the voting and prioritization phase of this Forum, the recommendations of each 

breakout group should be presented separately from those of the other two breakout 

groups. [83 points; avg. ranking 2.44] 

13A Revise the definition of “smaller reporting company” under the Securities Act and 

Exchange Act to include companies with: 

	 A public float of up to $250 million; or 

	 Annual revenues of up to $100 million, so long as their public float 

is not more than $700 million. 

These companies are still generally considered “micro-caps.” 

[81 points; avg. ranking 2.38] 

13B Clarify whether the intent of proposed Rule 203 of Regulation Crowdfunding is to 

require all material information to be filed on proposed Form C, or whether “free 

writing” is permitted to be posted on platforms. [81 points; avg. ranking 2.38] 

15A Allow crowdfunding intermediaries to syndicate deals between platforms by having 

one lead intermediary host and provide a communication channel to the other 

funding portals and allow funding portals to share commissions and fees. 

Transactions must be conducted on the intermediary platform on which they 

originated. [74 points; avg. ranking 2.18] 

15B Broker-dealers and registered crowdfunding portals should be allowed to share 

transaction-based compensation in conjunction with Section 4(a)(6) offerings. 

[74 points; avg. ranking 2.18] 

17 Forum participants report that many broker-dealers will not accept, deposit, clear, 

sell and/or trade low-priced stocks. They note that the Financial Industry 

Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and the Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) are 

requiring broker-dealers to take inordinate responsibility and liability for possible 

4 
18 

Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

counterfeit certificates, tracking the origin of prior share transfers and monitoring 

the placement of restricted legends. This issue seriously impacts the participation 

of investors in financing micro-cap issuers. Through all of its appropriate 

divisions, the SEC should promptly commence discussions with FINRA and DTC 

to determine the reasons for, and extent of, these perceived practices, and how such 

practices can be modified so as not to hamper small business capital formation. 

[72 points; avg. ranking 2.12] 

The Commission should join with NASAA and FINRA in the effort to implement 

the basic principles of the American Bar Association Task Force on Private 

Placement Brokers. Further, to achieve this goal, the Commission should join 

NASAA and FINRA in developing a timeframe for quarterly or other regular 

meetings—with specified benchmarks—until a mutually agreeable regime of finder 

registration and regulation is achieved. [71 points; avg. ranking 2.09] 

19A Amend the eligibility requirements in the General Instructions of Form S-3 to 

permit smaller reporting companies, companies whose common equity securities 

are not listed on a national securities exchange and companies whose shares are 

defined as “penny stock” to utilize a registration statement on Form S-3 for primary 

and secondary offerings, but not for automatically effective shelf offerings, if the 

companies are current in their Exchange Act reports and have timely filed those 

reports within the past 12 months. The justifications against expanding Form S-3 

usage to smaller public companies have been substantially eliminated with 

advanced information technology, including EDGAR. This recommendation 

follows closely the SEC’s own proposed rule in 2007 to revise the eligibility 

requirements for primary securities offerings on Form S-3. See Revisions to the 

Eligibility Requirements for Primary Securities Offerings on Forms S-3 and F-3, 

Release No. 33-8812 (June 20, 2007). [70 points; avg. ranking 2.06] 

19B Standardize baseline educational material across crowdfunding portals in order to 

establish an industry standard similar to the Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act 

(“RESPA”) administered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) 

for the mortgage industry. [70 points; avg. ranking 2.06] 

21A Support the ongoing efforts of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and NYSE Euronext to 

widen “tick sizes” to increments of $0.05 for smaller reporting company stock 

trading. [69 points; avg. ranking 2.03] 

21B Permit “forward incorporation by reference” in registration statements on Form S-1 

by all companies. Current practices to supplement an effective registration 

statement add little or nothing to the availability or quality of subsequent public 

information provided by issuers. [69 points; avg. ranking 2.03] 

21C In 1988, pursuant to its exemptive authority, the Commission first issued Rule 701 

5 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

to allow private companies to sell securities to employees for compensatory 

purposes. In 1999, the Commission added certain disclosure requirements for sales 

exceeding $5 million in a 12-month period. Given the Section 12(g) exemptions 

for employees provided in the JOBS Act, an update of these thresholds is 

appropriate. We recommend that the Commission raise the dollar threshold for 

triggering the required disclosures pursuant to a Rule 701 offering from $5 million 

to no less than $10 million. [69 points; avg. ranking 2.03] 

24 Crowdfunding platforms of foreign entities should be allowed to conduct business 

as a U.S. crowdfunding portal only if the foreign entity forms a partnership with a 

U.S. crowdfunding portal. [68 points; avg. ranking 2.00] 

25 Allow crowdfunding intermediaries the ability to monitor misstatements on 

crowdfunding platforms, monitor Q&A commentary and de-rank accordingly as a 

filtering mechanism. Allow crowdfunding intermediaries the ability to curate 

based on less objective factors, such as management team experience, over-inflated 

financials, or size of funding requested, if the funding request is too little to 

realistically achieve business goals. [67 points; avg. ranking 1.97] 

26 Consider recommending for enactment by Congress an amendment to the 

definition of an “emerging growth company” (“EGC”) in Section 2(a)(19) of the 

Securities Act to provide the same benefits that are applicable to EGCs pursuant to 

the JOBS Act to companies that would have qualified as an EGC, but for the fact 

that their initial public offerings were declared effective on or prior to December 8, 

2011. Congress may accomplish this by amending the definition of an EGC in 

paragraph (B) of Section 2(a)(19) to add language that states companies whose 

IPOs were declared effective on or prior to December 8, 2011 may be treated as 

EGCs starting as of the date of this amendment so as to give effectively to these 

companies a full 5 years of potential EGC eligibility. [66 points; avg. ranking 1.94] 

27A Amend the cover pages of Form 10-K and Form 10-Q to permit registrants to 

provide the various alternative URL addresses and locations where corporate 

information may be disseminated by the registrant (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, 

Tumblr, Instagram and LinkedIn) and, provide that any such postings shall 

constitute public dissemination for purposes of Regulation FD. 

[65 points; avg. ranking 1.91] 

27B Another medium other than the Internet should be made acceptable to perform 

crowdfunding transactions, particularly for local, community-based capital raising 

efforts. [65 points; avg. ranking 1.91] 

29 Extend the disclosure exemptions and scaled or phased-in disclosure obligations 

that are provided to EGCs under the JOBS Act to all smaller reporting companies, 

unless there is a significant policy reason for not doing so, including the following 

6 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

requirements: 

	 The requirement in Exchange Act Section 14A(a) to conduct 

shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation and on the 

frequency of such votes; 

	 The requirement in Exchange Act Section 14A(b) to provide 

disclosure about and conduct shareholder advisory votes on golden 

parachute compensation; 

	 The requirement in Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act, as 

promulgated by the Commission to be in Item 402 of Regulation SK, to provide disclosure of the ratio of the median annual total 

compensation of all employees of the registrant to the annual total 

compensation of the chief executive officer; 

	 The requirement in Exchange Act Section 14(i) to provide disclosure 

of the relationship between executive compensation and issuer 

financial performance; 

	 In the case of a new or revised financial accounting standard that has 

different compliance dates for public and private companies, the 

deferral of compliance with any such financial accounting standard 

until the date that a private company is required to comply; and 

	 Any rules of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board 

(“PCAOB”) requiring mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement 

to the auditor’s report in which the auditor would be required to 

provide additional information about the audit and the financial 

statements of the registrant. [64 points; avg. ranking 1.88] 

30 Prohibit the PCAOB from requiring any report or procedure similar to a 

supplement to the auditor’s report in which the auditor would be required to 

provide additional information about the audit and the financial statements of the 

issuer, such as a report on “critical audit matters” for the auditors of smaller 

reporting companies and EGCs. [62 points; avg. ranking 1.82] 

31 Given the dwindling number of market-makers willing to submit FINRA Form 211 

for trading the shares of smaller publicly reporting companies on the over-thecounter market, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets should encourage 

FINRA to allow payment by an issuer of a fixed fee to a market-maker to 

compensate the market-maker for its time and effort involved in required due 

diligence, form preparation and related expenses. [59 points; avg. ranking 1.74] 

32 As has been generally recommended since 2008, Rule 144(i) should be amended to 

provide a shell company relief two years after filing a Form 8-K to report that it is 

no longer a shell company. [56 points; avg. ranking 1.65] 

7 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

33A Through all applicable divisions of the SEC, take steps with the national securities 

exchanges to lower to $15 million the current $40 million minimum required size 

of a public offering following a reverse merger of an issuer to eliminate the socalled “seasoning” requirement that delays listing the securities of that issuer for 

more than one year, notwithstanding otherwise meeting all other quantitative and 

qualitative listing requirements. [55 points; avg. ranking 1.62] 

33B Eliminate the applicability to smaller reporting companies of rules mandating 

disclosure with respect to conflict minerals, as well as reports by natural resource 

extraction issuers, concerning payments made to a foreign government or the U.S. 

federal government in order to further the commercial development of oil, natural 

gas or minerals, as such rules would be cost prohibitive for smaller natural resource 

companies. [55 points; avg. ranking 1.62] 

33C Add a general instruction to Regulation S-K that permits smaller reporting 

companies to omit disclosure required pursuant to a line item in Regulation S-K in 

the event that such disclosure is not material from the perspective of a reasonable 

investor. This general instruction should contain language similar to that in Rule 

502(b)(2) of Regulation D, which limits the disclosure required to be provided to 

the purchaser by an issuer “to the extent material to an understanding of the issuer, 

its business, and the securities being offered.” This would add an element of 

principles-based disclosure to Regulation S-K. [55 points; avg. ranking 1.62] 

36 Provide a dashboard (tool) that will show updates on intrastate crowdfunding 

exemptions and federal laws for crowdfunding. [54 points; avg. ranking 1.59] 

37 Provide a final rule as to when public companies are required to adopt the new 

2013 Framework of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway 

Commission (“COSO”), and provide a one-year delay for required implementation 

of the rule by smaller reporting companies. [53 points; avg. ranking 1.56] 

38A Standardize deal structures across crowdfunding platforms. 

[51 points; avg. ranking 1.50] 

38B Develop educational programs aimed at minority owned firms and investors, and 

track the effectiveness of those efforts. [51 points; avg. ranking 1.50] 

40 Anyone that invests in a qualifying business, such as a minority, women or veteran 

owned business, should become eligible for income tax relief based on their 

investment. [49 points; avg. ranking 1.44] 

41 The SEC should repeal the requirement to file an information statement pursuant to 

Section 14(f) of the Exchange Act and Rule 14f-1 thereunder, concerning notice of 

change in the majority of the board of directors other than by a meeting of 

8 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

shareholders, because the schedule is onerous, frequently duplicative, and 

inconsequential for smaller reporting companies. [40 points; avg. ranking 1.18] 

42 Consider recommending for enactment by Congress, the repeal of Exchange Act 

Section 16(b), but leaving Section 16(a) reporting as is, in order to continue 

monitoring insider trading. The short-swing profit recovery provisions of Section 

16(b) may have a disproportionate impact on the management of smaller public 

companies who may rely more heavily on equity-based compensation. 

[39 points; avg. ranking 1.15] 

43 The SEC should recommend that the PCAOB conduct a study of the percentage of 

audit work papers where external auditors rely upon management’s Sarbanes-Oxley 

Act Section 404(a) assessment work papers. [33 points; avg. ranking 0.97] 

9 
2013 FORUM RECOMMENDATIONS BY BREAKOUT GROUP 

Set forth below are the recommendations of participants in each of the three Forum 

breakout groups in order of priority, as discussed in footnote 3 of the preceding section. 

Securities-Based Crowdfunding Breakout Group Recommendations 

Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

1 Eliminate the requirement for audited financial statements in crowdfunding 

offerings, and instead require that financial statements for offerings of $500,000 or 

more be reviewed by a certified public accountant. [100 points; avg. ranking 2.94] 

2 The Commission should provide clarification and a framework on what is 

considered investment advice for a crowdfunding portal. Portals should be able to 

provide a labeling mechanism, such as an issue is “hot” or “trending,” along with 

an advanced search feature. [98 points; avg. ranking 2.88] 

3 The Commission should provide guidelines to crowdfunding intermediaries as to 

what constitutes curating deals. [95 points; avg. ranking 2.79] 

4 Eliminate the imposition of liability against a crowdfunding platform for the 

misstatements and omissions of the companies that post on the platform’s website, 

which is proposed in the SEC proposing release for Title III of the JOBS Act at 

Section II.E.5 of Release No. 33-9470 (Oct. 23, 2013). 

[94 points; avg. ranking 2.76] 

5 Allow crowdfunding portals to create a membership tiered system that will disclose 

only specific company details (e.g., financial statements) to registered members on 

the platform. [85 points; avg. ranking 2.50] 

6 Clarify whether the intent of proposed Rule 203 of Regulation Crowdfunding is to 

require all material information to be filed on proposed Form C, or whether “free 

writing” is permitted to be posted on platforms. [81 points; avg. ranking 2.38] 

7A Allow crowdfunding intermediaries to syndicate deals between platforms by having 

one lead intermediary host and provide a communication channel to the other 

funding portals and allow funding portals to share commissions and fees. 

Transactions must be conducted on the intermediary platform on which they 

originated. [74 points; avg. ranking 2.18] 

7B Broker-dealers and registered crowdfunding portals should be allowed to share 

transaction-based compensation in conjunction with Section 4(a)(6) offerings. 

[74 points; avg. ranking 2.18] 

9 Standardize baseline educational materials across crowdfunding portals in order to 

1 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

establish an industry standard similar to the RESPA administered by the CFPB for 

the mortgage industry. [70 points; avg. ranking 2.06] 

10 Crowdfunding platforms of foreign entities should be allowed to conduct business 

as a U.S. crowdfunding portal only if the foreign entity forms a partnership with a 

U.S. crowdfunding portal. [68 points; avg. ranking 2.00] 

11 Allow crowdfunding intermediaries the ability to monitor misstatements on 

crowdfunding platforms, monitor Q&A commentary and de-rank accordingly as a 

filtering mechanism. Allow crowdfunding intermediaries the ability to curate 

based on less objective factors, such as management team experience, over-inflated 

financials, or size of funding requested, if the funding request is too little to 

realistically achieve business goals. 

[67 points; avg. ranking 1.97] 

12 Another medium other than the Internet should be made acceptable to perform 

crowdfunding transactions, particularly for local, community-based capital raising 

efforts. [65 points; avg. ranking 1.91] 

13 Provide a dashboard (tool) that will show updates on intrastate crowdfunding 

exemptions and federal laws for crowdfunding. [54 points; avg. ranking 1.59] 

14A Standardize deal structures across crowdfunding platforms. 

[51 points; avg. ranking 1.50] 

14B Develop educational programs aimed at minority owned firms and investors, and 

track the effectiveness of those efforts. [51 points; avg. ranking 1.50] 

16 Anyone that invests in a qualifying business, such as a minority, women or veteran 

owned business, should become eligible for income tax relief based on their 

investment. [49 points; avg. ranking 1.44] 

2 
 

Exempt Securities Offerings Breakout Group Recommendations 

Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

1 We recommend that the Commission withdraw its proposed amendments to 

Regulation D, Form D and Rule 156. If the Commission determines not to do so, 

then we urge that revised proposals be published for further comment to include the 

following: 

	 Removal of the harsh penalties for non-compliance; 

	 No requirement for an advance Form D, instead require filing no 

earlier than the date of first sale and a closing or annual filing (if 

sales were made); 

	 Allow parts of Form D, such as the financing amount, to be 

confidential; 

	 Require legends and disclosures only when sale terms are 

communicated; 

	 Rather than requiring the filing of advertising materials, form 

working groups from advisory bodies to monitor and report to the 

Commission; and 

	 Clarify the meaning of “general solicitation,” and confirm that 

longstanding economic development events, such as “demo days,” 

do not constitute general solicitation. [112 points; avg. ranking 3.29] 

2 Because Rule 506(c) exempt offerings exclude non-accredited friends and family 

investors, who have traditionally been important participants in small business 

capital formation, we recommend that the Commission: 

	 Maintain the ability of Rule 506(c) issuers to concurrently offer 

Section 4(a)(6) crowdfunding securities, as set forth in the proposed 

rules issued pursuant to the JOBS Act; and 

	 Clarify that an issuer changing from a Rule 506(b) offering to a Rule 

506(c) offering may sell to friends and family and other nonaccredited investors in a parallel Section 4(a)(6) crowdfunding 

offering. [105 points; avg. ranking 3.09] 

3 We recommend that the Commission not increase the dollar amount thresholds in 

the accredited investor definition following its review of the definition, as 

mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Commission has effectively already 

increased the financial threshold in the definition by removing the value of the 

primary residence, which resulted in a significant drop in the investor pool from 

9% to 7% of U.S. households, thus limiting both capital formation and job creation. 

At the same time, we recommend that the Commission consider additional separate 

categories of qualification for accredited investors based on various types of 

sophistication, for example, by virtue of education, experience or training. 

3 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

[101 points; avg. ranking 2.97] 

4A Based on recent changes resulting from the JOBS Act, private companies will have 

much more flexibility to remain private longer. As a result, the need for a specific 

federal exemption for private secondary transactions for shareholders that cannot 

satisfy Rule 144 has become critical. We recommend that the Commission propose 

a new federal exemption governing the private resale of restricted securities under 

Section 4(a)(1) of the Securities Act, commonly referred to as “Section 4(1-1/2)” 

(or after the JOBS Act amendments to the Securities Act, Section 4(a)(1-1/2)). 

[95 points; avg. ranking 2.79] 

4B The Commission should promptly adopt rules implementing Title IV of the JOBS 

Act that preempt state law review and regulation (but not enforcement) for the 

issuance of securities thereunder. The Commission should consider, among other 

means of accomplishing this: 

	 Making a security offered in reliance upon the Regulation A+ 

exemption a “covered security” under Section 18(b) of the Securities 

Act; 

	 Adopting a “qualified purchaser” definition under Section 18(b)(3) 

of the Securities Act to include purchasers of securities sold in 

reliance upon the Regulation A+ exemption; 

	 Preempting only state regulation that fails to comply with uniform 

state regulation guidelines adopted by NASAA in consultation with 

the Commission; or 

	 Seeking any legislation necessary to so preempt state regulation. 

New regulations promulgated under Title IV of the JOBS Act should provide for 

scaled disclosure based on, among other factors, size of offering, including 

unaudited financial statements for smaller offerings, and encourage user-friendly 

techniques, such as Q&A. [95 points; avg. ranking 2.79] 

6 The Commission should join with NASAA and FINRA in the effort to implement 

the basic principles of the American Bar Association Task Force on Private 

Placement Brokers. Further, to achieve this goal, the Commission should join 

NASAA and FINRA in developing a timeframe for quarterly or other regular 

meetings—with specified benchmarks—until a mutually agreeable regime of finder 

registration and regulation is achieved. [71 points; avg. ranking 2.09] 

7 In 1988, pursuant to its exemptive authority, the Commission first issued Rule 701 

to allow private companies to sell securities to employees for compensatory 

purposes. In 1999, the Commission added certain disclosure requirements for sales 

exceeding $5 million in a 12-month period. Given the Section 12(g) exemptions 

for employees provided in the JOBS Act, an update of these thresholds is 

4 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

appropriate. We recommend that the Commission raise the dollar threshold for 

triggering the required disclosures pursuant to a Rule 701 offering from $5 million 

to no less than $10 million. [69 points; avg. ranking 2.03] 

5 
Securities Regulation of Smaller Public Companies Breakout Group Recommendations 

Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

1 Repeal the requirement for smaller reporting companies and EGCs to submit 

financial information in XBRL format for periodic reports and other public filings. 

[92 points; avg. ranking 2.71] 

2 In the voting and prioritization phase of this Forum, the recommendations of each 

breakout group should be presented separately from those of the other two breakout 

groups. [83 points; avg. ranking 2.44] 

3 Revise the definition of “smaller reporting company” under the Securities Act and 

Exchange Act to include companies with: 

	 A public float of up to $250 million; or 

	 Annual revenues of up to $100 million, so long as their public float 

is not more than $700 million. 

These companies are still generally considered “micro-caps.” 

[81 points; avg. ranking 2.38] 

4 Forum participants report that many broker-dealers will not accept, deposit, clear, 

sell and/or trade low-priced stocks. They note that FINRA and DTC are requiring 

broker-dealers to take inordinate responsibility and liability for possible counterfeit 

certificates, tracking the origin of prior share transfers and monitoring the 

placement of restricted legends. This issue seriously impacts the participation of 

investors in financing micro-cap issuers. Through all of its appropriate divisions, 

the SEC should promptly commence discussions with FINRA and DTC to 

determine the reasons for, and extent of, these perceived practices, and how such 

practices can be modified so as not to hamper small business capital formation. 

[72 points; avg. ranking 2.12] 

5 Amend the eligibility requirements in the General Instructions of Form S-3 to 

permit smaller reporting companies, companies whose common equity securities 

are not listed on a national securities exchange and companies whose shares are 

defined as “penny stock” to utilize a registration statement on Form S-3 for primary 

and secondary offerings, but not for automatically effective shelf offerings, if the 

companies are current in their Exchange Act reports and have timely filed those 

reports within the past 12 months. The justifications against expanding Form S-3 

usage to smaller public companies have been substantially eliminated with 

advanced information technology, including EDGAR. This recommendation 

follows closely the SEC’s own proposed rule in 2007 to revise the eligibility 

requirements for primary securities offerings on Form S-3. See Revisions to the 

Eligibility Requirements for Primary Securities Offerings on Forms S-3 and F-3, 

Release No. 33-8812 (June 20, 2007). [70 points; avg. ranking 2.06] 

6 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

6A Support the ongoing efforts of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and NYSE Euronext to 

widen “tick sizes” to increments of $0.05 for smaller reporting company stock 

trading. [69 points; avg. ranking 2.03] 

6B Permit “forward incorporation by reference” in registration statements on Form S-1 

by all companies. Current practices to supplement an effective registration 

statement add little or nothing to the availability or quality of subsequent public 

information provided by issuers. [69 points; avg. ranking 2.03] 

8 Consider recommending for enactment by Congress an amendment to the 

definition of an “emerging growth company” in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities 

Act to provide the same benefits that are applicable to EGCs pursuant to the JOBS 

Act to companies that would have qualified as an EGC, but for the fact that their 

initial public offerings were declared effective on or prior to December 8, 2011. 

Congress may accomplish this by amending the definition of an EGC in paragraph 

(B) of Section 2(a)(19) to add language that states companies whose IPOs were 

declared effective on or prior to December 8, 2011, may be treated as EGCs 

starting as of the date of this amendment so as to give effectively to these 

companies a full 5 years of potential EGC eligibility. [66 points; avg. ranking 1.94] 

9 Amend the cover pages of Form 10-K and Form 10-Q to permit registrants to 

provide the various alternative URL addresses and locations where corporate 

information may be disseminated by the registrant (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, 

Tumblr, Instagram and LinkedIn) and, provide that any such postings shall 

constitute public dissemination for purposes of Regulation FD. 

[65 points; avg. ranking 1.91] 

10 Extend the disclosure exemptions and scaled or phased-in disclosure obligations 

that are provided to EGCs under the JOBS Act to all smaller reporting companies, 

unless there is a significant policy reason for not doing so, including the following 

requirements: 

	 The requirement in Exchange Act Section 14A(a) to conduct 

shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation and on the 

frequency of such votes; 

	 The requirement in Exchange Act Section 14A(b) to provide 

disclosure about and conduct shareholder advisory votes on golden 

parachute compensation; 

	 The requirement in Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act, as 

promulgated by the Commission in Item 402 of Regulation S-K, to 

provide disclosure of the ratio of the median annual total 

compensation of all employees of the registrant to the annual total 

compensation of the chief executive officer; 

	 The requirement in Exchange Act Section 14(i) to provide disclosure 

7 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

of the relationship between executive compensation and issuer 

financial performance; 

	 In the case of a new or revised financial accounting standard that has 

different compliance dates for public and private companies, the 

deferral of compliance with any such financial accounting standard 

until the date that a private company is required to comply; and 

	 Any rules of the PCAOB requiring mandatory audit firm rotation or 

a supplement to the auditor’s report in which the auditor would be 

required to provide additional information about the audit and the 

financial statements of the registrant. [64 points; avg. ranking 1.88] 

11 Prohibit the PCAOB from requiring any report or procedure similar to a 

supplement to the auditor’s report in which the auditor would be required to 

provide additional information about the audit and the financial statements of the 

issuer, such as a report on “critical audit matters” for the auditors of smaller 

reporting companies and emerging growth companies. [62 points; avg. ranking 

1.82] 

12 Given the dwindling number of market-makers willing to submit FINRA Form 211 

for trading the shares of smaller publicly reporting companies on the over-thecounter market, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets should encourage 

FINRA to allow payment by an issuer of a fixed fee to a market-maker to 

compensate the market-maker for its time and effort involved in required due 

diligence, form preparation and related expenses. [59 points; avg. ranking 1.74] 

13 As has been generally recommended since 2008, Rule 144(i) should be amended to 

provide a shell company relief two years after filing a Form 8-K to report that it is 

no longer a shell company. [56 points; avg. ranking 1.65] 

14A Through all applicable divisions of the SEC, take steps with the national securities 

exchanges to lower to $15 million the current $40 million minimum required size 

of a public offering following a reverse merger of an issuer to eliminate the socalled “seasoning” requirement that delays listing the securities of that issuer for 

more than one year, notwithstanding otherwise meeting all other quantitative and 

qualitative listing requirements. [55 points; avg. ranking 1.62] 

14B Eliminate the applicability to smaller reporting companies of rules mandating 

disclosure with respect to conflict minerals, as well as reports by natural resource 

extraction issuers, concerning payments made to a foreign government or the U.S. 

federal government in order to further the commercial development of oil, natural 

gas or minerals, as such rules would be cost prohibitive for smaller natural resource 

companies. [55 points; avg. ranking 1.62] 

14C Add a general instruction to Regulation S-K that permits smaller reporting 

8 
Priority Recommendation 

Rank 

companies to omit disclosure required pursuant to a line item in Regulation S-K in 

the event that such disclosure is not material from the perspective of a reasonable 

investor. This general instruction should contain language similar to that in Rule 

502(b)(2) of Regulation D, which limits the disclosure required to be provided to 

the purchaser by an issuer “to the extent material to an understanding of the issuer, 

its business, and the securities being offered.” This would add an element of 

principles-based disclosure to Regulation S-K. [55 points; avg. ranking 1.62] 

17 Provide a final rule as to when public companies are required to adopt the new 

2013 Framework of the COSO, and provide a one-year delay for required 

implementation of the rule by smaller reporting companies. [53 points; avg. ranking 

1.56] 

18 The SEC should repeal the requirement to file an information statement pursuant to 

Section 14(f) of the Exchange Act and Rule 14f-1 thereunder, concerning notice of 

change in the majority of the board of directors other than by a meeting of 

shareholders, because the schedule is onerous, frequently duplicative, and 

inconsequential for smaller reporting companies. [40 points; avg. ranking 1.18] 

19 Consider recommending for enactment by Congress, the repeal of Exchange Act 

Section 16(b), but leaving Section 16(a) reporting as is, in order to continue 

monitoring insider trading. The short-swing profit recovery provisions of Section 

16(b) may have a disproportionate impact on the management of smaller public 

companies who may rely more heavily on equity-based compensation. 

[39 points; avg. ranking 1.15] 

20 The SEC should recommend that the PCAOB conduct a study of the percentage of 

audit work papers where external auditors rely upon management’s Sarbanes-Oxley 

Act Section 404(a) assessment work papers. [33 points; avg. ranking 0.97] 

9 
 

2014 SEC Government-Business Forum on 

Small Business Capital Formation 

Biographies of Panelists and Moderators 

A. Heath Abshure is the Arkansas Securities Commissioner and a past President of the North 

American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). Mr. Abshure is an observer member 

of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies and a board member of 

Economics Arkansas, a non-profit, educational organization promoting economic literacy in 

Arkansas. He is the Chairman of the NASAA Corporation Finance Section Committee, and past 

Chairman of the Federal Legislation Committee, Small Business Capital Formation Committee, 

Regulation D Electronic Filing Committee, and Rating Agencies Committee. 

Prior to his appointment as Arkansas Securities Commissioner, Mr. Abshure was a partner at the 

Little Rock law firm Williams & Anderson focusing on corporate and municipal finance. Mr. 

Abshure also served as Senior Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Administrative Law Judges 

at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Mr. Abshure graduated cum laude from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, 

Tennessee. He obtained his law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William
 

H. Bowen School of Law, with high honors. Mr. Abshure also attended the Georgetown 

University Law Center and obtained a Masters of Law with distinction in Securities and 

Financial Regulation. 

Luis A. Aguilar is a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was 

sworn in on July 31, 2008. Commissioner Aguilar was appointed by President George W. Bush 

and was reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2011. 

Prior to his appointment as an SEC Commissioner, Mr. Aguilar was a partner with the 

international law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge, LLP, specializing in securities law. During 

his career, his practice included matters pertaining to general corporate and business law, 

international transactions, investment companies and investment advisers, securities law, and 

corporate finance. He also focused on issues related to corporate governance, public and private 

offerings (IPOs and secondary offerings), mergers and acquisitions, mutual funds, investment 

advisers, broker-dealers, and other aspects of federal and state securities laws and regulations. 

Commissioner Aguilar's previous experience includes serving as the general counsel, executive 

vice president, and corporate secretary of Invesco, with responsibility for all legal and 

compliance matters regarding Invesco Institutional. He also was Invesco's managing director for 

Latin America in the late 1990's. His career also includes tenure as a partner at several prominent 

national law firms and as an attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

1 
Commissioner Aguilar represents the Commission as its liaison to both the North American 

Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and to the Council of Securities Regulators of 

the Americas (COSRA). He has served as the primary sponsor of the SEC's Investor Advisory 

Committee. 

He has been active in numerous civic and business associations. From May 2005 to May 2007, 

he chaired the Latin American Association (LAA), a non-profit organization that has served 

Georgia's Latino community since 1972 with comprehensive services that foster healthy, selfsufficient individuals, families and communities. The LAA offers employment, immigration, 

youth, family, housing, and translation services, as well as English and Spanish language classes. 

In recent years, the LAA has provided services to over 70,000 Hispanics annually. 

He has served on various Boards, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education 

Fund (MALDEF), Girl Scouts Council of Northwest Georgia, Inc., Georgia Hispanic Bar 

Association, United States Fund for UNICEF Southeast Regional Chapter, and CIFAL Atlanta, 

Inc. He has been very active with national organizations such as the Hispanic National Bar 

Association. In 2002, Commissioner Aguilar was Co-Chair of its Annual Convention and also 

served as Regional President (for Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) from 2002 - 2006, Chair 

of its Financial Committee from 2003 - 2005, and a member of its Board of Governors since 

2002. In addition, he served as the President of the Hispanic National Bar Foundation from 

September 2006 to July 2008. 

He is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, and also received a master of laws 

degree in taxation from Emory University. Additionally, he has successfully completed Series 7, 

24, 63, and 65 examinations in connection with serving as president and a director of a registered 

broker-dealer. Commissioner Aguilar has also written numerous articles over the years. He is 

married to Denise T. Aguilar. 

Commissioner Aguilar serves as sponsor of the SEC's Hispanic and Latino Opportunity, 

Leadership, and Advocacy Committee, the African American Council, and the Caribbean 

American Heritage Committee. 

R. Cromwell Coulson is President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of OTC Markets 

Group, Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), which operates financial marketplaces for 10,000 U.S. and 

global securities. 

Over the past two decades, Cromwell has transformed this previously opaque and inefficient 

phone-based marked into fully modern, electronic and transparent financial marketplaces. 

Today, OTC Markets Group operates three marketplaces that organize securities based on the 

quality and quantity of disclosure they provide to investors – OTCQX®, The Best Marketplace 

for established, investor-focused U.S. and international companies; OTCQB®, The Venture 

Marketplace for entrepreneurial and development stage companies; and OTC Pink®, The Open 

Marketplace for brokers to trade all types of securities. 

2 
The 10,000 U.S. and global securities traded on these marketplaces include: 3,100+ American 

Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and foreign ordinary shares of global exchange-traded companies 

like Roche Holding AG, adidas AG and Volkswagen AG; large-cap distressed companies such 

as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; 650+ community and regional banks; 2,500+ SEC reporting 

companies; 1,400+ large- and mid-cap companies; and 2,000+ smaller and growth companies. 

OTC Link® ATS, OTC Markets Group’s FINRA regulated and SEC registered Alternative 

Trading System, directly links a diverse network of leading U.S. broker-dealers that provide 

liquidity and execution services. OTC Markets Group sets the best price standard for OTCQX, 

OTCQB and OTC Pink securities by broadly distributing its market data to major market data 

redistributors, including Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. 

Cromwell is a strong advocate of improving access to capital for small companies and trading 

transparency. He has testified before Congress and spoken on these and other issues at numerous 

industry conferences. He also supports diverse choice and competition among trading venues 

that leverage the power of networks to efficiently connect consumers and suppliers of liquidity. 

Prior to OTC Markets Group, Cromwell was an institutional trader and portfolio manager 

specializing in distressed and value-oriented investments at Carr Securities Corporation, an 

institutional broker-dealer. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern 

Methodist University in Dallas and graduated from the Owner/President Management Program 

at Harvard Business School. Outside of work and family, Cromwell is an active waterman as a 

passionate sailor, stand up paddle boarder, kiteboarder and kite surfer. 

OTC Link ATS is operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA/SIPC member and wholly-owned 

subsidiary of OTC Markets Group. 

Daniel M. Gallagher was confirmed by the United States Senate as a Commissioner of the 

Securities and Exchange Commission on October 21, 2011 and sworn in on November 7, 2011. 

Commissioner Gallagher has had the honor and privilege of serving the agency in several 

capacities throughout his professional career. He first joined the Commission as a summer 

honors program intern while pursuing his law degree, focusing on enforcement matters. In 

January 2006, he rejoined the agency, serving first as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. 

Atkins, and later as counsel to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, working on matters involving 

the Division of Enforcement and the Division of Trading and Markets. 

In 2008, he joined the Division of Trading and Markets as Deputy Director and served as CoActing Director of the Division from April 2009 until January 2010. During this period, 

Commissioner Gallagher was on the front lines in the agency’s response to the financial crisis. 

He represented the Commission in the Lehman Brothers liquidation, and helped lead the agency 

in addressing other crisis-related issues, including the move to central clearing of swaps and 

matters involving SIPC. In his role as Co-Acting Director of Trading and Markets, he also 

served as the inaugural Chairman of Committee 6 of the IOSCO Technical Committee, 

responsible for addressing matters related to the regulation of credit rating agencies. 

3 
Since returning to the agency in 2011, Commissioner Gallagher has focused on initiatives aimed 

at strengthening our capital markets and encouraging small business capital formation, including 

staunchly supporting the changes introduced by the JOBS Act. Commissioner Gallagher has 

also been an outspoken and frequent advocate for conducting a comprehensive holistic review of 

equity market structure issues; increasing the Commission’s focus on the fixed income markets, 

both corporate and municipal; addressing the outsized power of proxy advisory firms; and 

eliminating special privileges for credit rating agencies. He has also addressed the creeping 

federalization of corporate governance matters as well as the concerted efforts of special interest 

groups to manipulate the SEC’s disclosure regime to advance their political agendas. He also 

has been instrumental in educating the markets and investors about the shortcomings of the Dodd 

Frank Act and the encroachment of bank regulatory measures and prudential regulators into the 

capital markets. In addition, Commissioner Gallagher has been an outspoken critic of the 

disturbing trend toward empowering supranational groups to enact “one world” regulation 

outside established constitutional processes. 

While in the private sector, Commissioner Gallagher advised clients on broker-dealer regulatory 

issues and represented clients in SEC and SRO enforcement proceedings as a partner with the 

Washington, D.C. law firm WilmerHale, where he earlier began his career in private practice. 

Commissioner Gallagher also served as the General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Fiserv 

Securities, Inc., where he was responsible for managing all of the firm's legal and regulatory 

matters. 

Commissioner Gallagher earned his JD degree, magna cum laude, from the Catholic University 

of America, where he was a member of the law review. He graduated from Georgetown 

University with a BA degree in English. 

Sebastian Gomez Abero is the Chief of the Office of Small Business Policy in the Division of 

Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The office assists companies 

seeking to raise capital through exempt or smaller registered offerings, and participates in and 

reviews SEC rulemaking and other actions that may affect small businesses. Previously, Mr. 

Gomez was a Special Counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel in the Division of Corporation 

Finance. He received his law degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, 

where he was an editor of the Journal of International Law & Business, and his B.S. in computer 

science, magna cum laude, from Bridgewater College. 

Rachita Gullapalli is a financial economist with the Office of Corporate Finance at the Division 

of Economic and Risk Analysis. She has been with the Commission since August 2012. Her 

areas of expertise include securities offerings, including unregistered offerings and offerings by 

foreign private issuers. At the SEC, she has been the lead economist on Dodd-Frank rulemakings 

relating to “Bad Actors in Rule 506 offerings’ and ‘Conflicts of Interest related to 

Securitizations.” In addition to working on JOBS Act Title IV: General Solicitation and JOBS 

Act Title II: Regulation A rulemakings, she has been the lead economist on the rulemaking 

“Amendments to Regulation D, Form D and Rule 156.” Her research has been published in 

Journal of International Money and Finance. 

4 
Prior to working at the Commission and her doctoral studies, Rachita worked in economic 

consulting and investment banking. She received her B.S. in Business Studies from Delhi 

University (India), MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (India), and Ph.D. in 

Economics from University of California, Berkeley. 

Keith F. Higgins is the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities 

and Exchange Commission. Prior to joining the Division in June 2013, Mr. Higgins practiced 

law for 30 years at Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston, Massachusetts, where he advised public 

companies on securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, compliance and corporate 

governance and regularly represented underwriters in IPOs and other public equity offerings. 

Vladimir Ivanov is a senior economist with the Office of Corporate Finance at the Division of 

Economic and Risk Analysis and has been with the Commission since 2009. His areas of 

expertise include venture capital and private equity, securities offerings, and small business 

financing. At the SEC, he has worked on a number of Dodd-Frank rulemakings primarily related 

to corporate disclosure and executive compensation. Most recently, he has been the lead 

economist on two JOBS Act rulemakings –Title III: Crowdfunding and Title IV: General 

Solicitation – and has participated in the JOBS Act Title II: Regulation A rulemaking. At the 

Commission, he has also designed and executed economic studies on the capital raising in the 

Regulation D market, disclosure and capital raising in the OTC market, and shell reverse mergers 

in the OTC market. His research has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of 

Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and other prestigious 

academic journals. He has received the Commission’s Economic Research Award. 

Before Coming to the Commission, Vladimir was an assistant professor in Finance at the 

University of Kansas Business School where he taught classes in corporate finance, investments, 

and entrepreneurial finance. He received his B.S. in Finance from the University of National and 

World Economy (Bulgaria), MBA in Finance from the University of Memphis, and PhD in 

Finance from Vanderbilt University. 

Stanley Keller is partner in the Boston office of Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, and has 

extensive experience in corporate and securities law, and has worked on regulatory 

developments with officials at all levels in the SEC. He chaired the American Bar Association’s 

Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities during the height of the Sarbanes-Oxley era, and 

in that capacity had responsibility for interacting on behalf of the private bar with the SEC, other 

governmental officials and the stock exchanges. He was actively involved with the ABA’s Task 

Force dealing with the SEC’s attorney conduct rules, with the ABA Task Force on Corporate 

Responsibility and with the ABA Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege. He recently served 

as chair of the ABA Legal Opinions Committee, having previously chaired the ABA’s Audit 

Responses Committee, and he is a participant in the ABA’s Corporate Laws Committee. He also 

is a member of the TriBar Opinion Committee and was the reporter for its Remedies Opinion 

Report and its Report on Preferred Stock Opinions. Mr. Keller is co-chair of the Boston Bar 

Association’s Task Force on Revision of the Massachusetts Business Corporation Law, which 

5 
 

 

drafted the current Massachusetts corporation statute, and chaired the BBA’s Business Law 

Section, Corporation Law Committee, and Legal Opinions Committee. Mr. Keller lectures 

widely for continuing legal education organizations, and has written and edited many articles and 

treatises on corporate and securities law matters. 

Donald C. Langevoort is the Thomas Aquinas Reynolds Professor of Law at Georgetown 

University Law Center, Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the Law Center faculty in 1999, 

Professor Langevoort was the Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Professor at Vanderbilt University 

School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 1981. The courses Professor Langevoort teaches 

are Contracts, Securities Regulation, various seminars on corporate and securities issues, and 

Corporations. Professor Langevoort has received the the Frank Flegal Teaching Award at 

Georgetown and the Paul J. Hartman Award for Excellence in Teaching at Vanderbilt. He has 

been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan Law School and 

a lecturer at the Washington College of Law, American University. After practicing for two 

years at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., he joined the staff of the U.S. 

Securities & Exchange Commission as Special Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel. 

Professor Langevoort is the co-author, with Professors James Cox and Robert Hillman, of 

Securities Regulation: Cases and Materials (Aspen Law & Business), and the author of a treatise 

entitled Insider Trading: Regulation, Enforcement and Prevention (West Group). He has also 

written many law review articles, a number of which seek to incorporate insights from social 

psychology and behavioral economics into the study of corporate and securities law and legal 

ethics. Professor Langevoort has testified numerous times before Congressional committees on 

issues relating to insider trading and securities litigation reform. 

Stephen I. Luparello became Director of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets in March 

2014. Before returning to the SEC, he was a partner at WilmerHale, specializing in broker-dealer 

compliance and regulation, securities litigation, and enforcement. Mr. Luparello joined 

WilmerHale after 16 years at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and its 

predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) where he most recently 

served as Vice Chairman of FINRA. As FINRA’s Vice Chairman, Mr. Luparello was responsible 

for its examination, enforcement, market regulation, international, and disclosure programs. He 

played a key role in the creation of FINRA’s Office of the Whistleblower and its Office of Fraud 

Detection and Market Intelligence, and led the development of its Order Audit Trail System 

(OATS) and SONAR, technology used to monitor securities markets and detect suspicious 

trading. From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Luparello served as Chief of Staff and legal counsel to thenCFTC Chairman Mary Shapiro. He began his career with nine years at the SEC, serving as 

Branch Chief in the Office of Inspections in the Division of Market Regulation, now the Division 

of Trading and Markets. Mr. Luparello received his law degree from Washington and Lee 

University in 1984. He received his B.A. in history from LeMoyne College in 1981. 

6 
Robert Malin is Vice President of Sales at NASDAQ Private Market and a principal of NPM 

Securities, LLC. He is responsible for business development where he engages private 

companies, investors and brokers to improve and expand the market for private share trading. 

From 2007 to 2012, Mr. Malin worked at Liquidnet where he led the design and launch of the 

firm's Equity Capital Markets platform after joining the firm as a member of the Corporate 

Strategy Group. Prior to Liquidnet, he held client-facing roles at NASDAQ for both the New 

Listings team and Transaction Services group, as well as at Brut ECN where he headed the 

institutional sales effort. Previously, he worked within the corporate debt market for over 10 

years, holding positions in investment-grade sales, trading and origination at Barclays Capital, 

Credit Suisse First Boston, and Lehman Brothers. 

Mr. Malin earned his MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and his BA in 

Government from Dartmouth College. He previously served as 2nd Vice President at The 

Security Traders Association of New York. He holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 63 & 79 licenses. 

Jean Peters is managing director of Golden Seeds, one of the nation’s largest and most active 

angel groups. Peters also is on the Board of the Angel Capital Association, the leading 

professional association of the global accredited investor community. Peters chairs ACA’s 

Marketing Committee, and serves on the Public Policy and Membership committees. 

Previously, Peters was senior vice president of Genworth Financial, with responsibility for 

investor relations, corporate communications and strategic planning. She was internal lead on 

Genworth’s IPO from GE, which raised more than $13 billion. Prior to Genworth, Peters was 

SVP for investor relations of John Hancock Financial, where she was internal lead on its 

demutualization and IPO. 

Peters had a prior career as a financial and investigative journalist for several metropolitan daily 

publications including the Louisville Courier-Journal, and as financial editor of the Dayton Daily 

News. She also spent several years on Capitol Hill as policy analyst to the U.S. House of 

Representatives’ Committee on the Budget, following a one-year Congressional Fellowship from 

the American Political Science Association. She graduated from Northwestern University with a 

degree in journalism, was awarded a fellowship for Carnegie Mellon University’s Program for 

Executives and attended the University of Louisville School of Law. She is a recipient of the 

Charles Stewart Mott Award for Investigative Reporting, and a William Randolph Hearst 

National Journalism Scholar award. 

Michael S. Piwowar was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Securities and 

Exchange Commission (SEC) and was sworn in on August 15, 2013. 

Most recently, Dr. Piwowar was the Republican chief economist for the U.S. Senate Committee 

on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs under Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Richard Shelby 

(R-AL). He was the lead Republican economist on the four SEC-related titles of the Dodd-Frank 

Act and the JOBS Act. Dr. Piwowar also worked on a number of important SEC-related 

7 
oversight issues under the jurisdiction of the Committee, such as securities, over-the-counter 

derivatives, investor protection, market structure, and capital formation. 

During the financial crisis and its immediate aftermath, Dr. Piwowar served in a one-year fixedterm position at the White House as a senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic 

Advisers (CEA) in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations. While at the 

CEA, Dr. Piwowar also served as a staff economist for the Financial Regulatory Reform 

Working Group of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. 

Before joining the White House, Dr. Piwowar worked as a Principal at the Securities Litigation 

and Consulting Group (SLCG). At SLCG, he provided economic consulting to law firms 

involved in complex securities litigation and technical assistance on market structure, regulatory 

policy, and risk management issues to domestic and international securities regulators and 

market participants. 

Dr. Piwowar’s first tenure at the SEC was in the Office of Economic Analysis (now called the 

Division of Economic and Risk Analysis) as a visiting academic scholar on leave from Iowa 

State University and as a senior financial economist. In those roles, he provided economic 

analyses and other technical support to the Commission and other SEC Divisions and Offices on 

a wide range of rulemaking, compliance, and enforcement matters. 

Dr. Piwowar was an assistant professor of finance at Iowa State University where he focused his 

research on market microstructure and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in corporate 

finance and investments. He published a number of articles in leading academic publications 

and received several teaching and research awards. 

Dr. Piwowar received a B.A. in Foreign Service and International Politics from the Pennsylvania 

State University, an M.B.A. from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Finance from the 

Pennsylvania State University. 

Kara M. Stein was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC) and was sworn in on August 9, 2013. 

Ms. Stein joined the Commission after serving as Legal Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor for 

securities and banking matters to Sen. Jack Reed. From 2009 to 2013, she was Staff Director of 

the Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Banking, 

Housing, and Urban Affairs. During that time, Ms. Stein played an integral role in drafting and 

negotiating significant provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 

Protection Act. 

As Staff Director for the Senate Banking Subcommittee of primary jurisdiction over the SEC, 

Ms. Stein also organized and participated in over twenty hearings on such issues as the: 

 evolution of market microstructure, 

 regulation of exchange traded products, 

8 
 state of the securitization markets, 

 risks to investors in capital raising processes, including through public offerings, 

 role of the accounting profession in preventing another financial crisis, 

 establishment of swap execution facilities, and 

 role of the tri-party repurchase markets in the financial marketplace. 

Ms. Stein was Legal Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to Sen. Reed from 2007 to 2009 and 

served as both the Majority and Minority Staff Director on the Banking Committee’s 

Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation from 2001 to 2006. She served as Legal Counsel 

to Sen. Reed from 1999 to 2000, following two years as a Legislative Assistant to Sen. Chris 

Dodd. 

Before working on Capitol Hill, Ms. Stein was an associate at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & 

Pickering, a Skadden Public Interest Fellow, an Advocacy Fellow with the Georgetown 

University Law Center, and an assistant professor with the University of Dayton School of Law. 

Ms. Stein received her B.A. from Yale College and J.D. from Yale Law School. 

Mary Jo White was sworn in as the 31st Chair of the SEC on April 10, 2013. She was 

nominated to be SEC Chair by President Barack Obama on Feb. 7, 2013, and confirmed by the 

U.S. Senate on April 8, 2013. 

Chair White arrived at the SEC with decades of experience as a federal prosecutor and securities 

lawyer. As the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 2002, she 

specialized in prosecuting complex securities and financial institution frauds and international 

terrorism cases. Under her leadership, the office earned convictions against the terrorists 

responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the bombings of American 

embassies in Africa. She is the only woman to hold the top position in the 200-year-plus history 

of that office. 

Prior to becoming the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Chair White served 

as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney and later Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of 

New York from 1990 to 1993. She previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the 

Southern District of New York from 1978 to 1981 and became Chief Appellate Attorney of the 

Criminal Division. 

After leaving her U.S. Attorney post, Chair White became chair of the litigation department at 

Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, where she led a team of more than 200 lawyers. Chair 

White previously was a litigation partner at the firm from 1983 to 1990 and worked as an 

associate from 1976 to 1978. 

Chair White earned her undergraduate degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from William & Mary in 1970, 

and her master’s degree in psychology from The New School for Social Research in 1971. She 

earned her law degree in 1974 at Columbia Law School, where she was an officer of the Law 

9 
Review. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marvin E. Frankel of the U.S. District Court 

for the Southern District of New York. 

Chair White has won numerous awards in recognition of her outstanding work both as a 

prosecutor and a securities lawyer. The 2012 Chambers USA Women in Law Awards named her 

Regulatory Lawyer of the Year. Among other honors she has received are the Margaret Brent 

Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the George W. Bush Award for Excellence in 

Counterterrorism, the Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Distinction in Public Service, and the 

“Women of Power and Influence Award” given by the National Organization for Women. 

Chair White is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International College 

of Trial Lawyers. She also has served as a director of The NASDAQ Stock Exchange and on its 

executive, audit, and policy committees. Chair White is a member of the Council on Foreign 

Relations. 

Michael L. Zuppone is a partner in the Corporate practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the 

firm’s New York office. He serves as the chair of the firm’s Securities and Capital Markets 

practice group. He practices primarily in the area of securities and capital markets representing 

public and private companies, underwriters, and investors in domestic and international equity 

and debt securities offerings, including IPOs, follow-on offerings, Rule 144A offerings, PIPEs, 

and other private placements. He is recognized in Capital Markets: Equity Offerings and Real 

Estate Investment Trusts by Legal 500 US and Capital Markets: REITs by Chambers USA. 

Mr. Zuppone also practices in the area of general corporate and securities law and is often 

consulted as outside securities counsel by many of the firm’s public company clients with respect 

to ongoing securities compliance. He regularly counsels public companies and their boards 

regarding Dodd Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley and related corporate governance compliance. Mr. 

Zuppone’s practice also includes counseling sponsors in connection with the formation of private 

equity funds and portfolio transactions. He also has substantial experience in mergers, 

acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures involving public and private companies and he 

regularly counsels investment professionals regarding securities, broker-dealer, and investment 

advisor regulations. 

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Zuppone served as a branch chief in the New York 

Regional Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where he administered the 

office’s full disclosure program, supervising the review of initial public offering documents of 

startup and small business issuers. 

10 
Taxi Stand xi Sta

F St. NE 

Massachusetts Ave. Ne 

D St. NE 200 ft 100 m 

Union

Station

SEC 

Taxi S t nd Ta xi Sta nd 

Thunder Grill Restaurant 

5:30 p.m. Networking Reception at Thunder Grill Restaurant 

(in Union Station facing taxi stand—can be reached from either 

inside or outside Union Station)