Eric W. Orts

The private equity exit market has improved, but it has not reverted to the conditions many sponsors once viewed as normal.

Over the past year, we have moved decisively on our agenda to return to first principles across every dimension of the SEC's mandate—namely, to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation. Fundamental to fulfilling this mandate—especially to protect investors and promote capital formation—is expanding the number of publicly listed companies. Accordingly, one of the most ambitious aspects of my policy agenda as Chairman is to incentivize more companies to go public and stay public—or, as I have often put it, to Make IPOs Great Again.

The strangest thing about federal criminal justice today may be that companies are offered a clearer path to redemption than people are.

The rapidly changing business environment and evolving best practices for corporate governance are reshaping the agenda of the board committee responsible for companies' people – or “human capital.” The human capital committee (or similarly named body) is typically charged with overseeing workplace and compensation-related issues and policies, primarily relating to the company's non-executive employees. Its responsibilities have been steadily expanding over the last decade, reflecting changes in government policy and developments in a host of other areas: workplace safety, employee well-being, remote work, anti-harassment protocols, codes of culture, recruitment, retention and succession practices, and benefit design.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you, Fred [Ryan], for your generous introduction. Before I begin, I should like to take a moment to recognize what a profound privilege it is for me to address the Reagan National Economic Forum.

In a statement published last September, here , we argued that the SEC should maintain its current system of mandatory quarterly reporting and not

There has been a certain ebullience in market sentiment toward Venezuela since the capture in early January of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by U.S. military forces. Venezuelan sovereign and PDVSA bonds rallied sharply as investors anticipated that a political transition might finally pave the way for long-delayed debt restructuring negotiations. The rally has continued following Venezuela's recent announcement that it intends to launch a restructuring process and has retained outside financial and legal advisers.

On May 19, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed significant changes to the way public companies are categorized for federal securities law reporting purposes. The proposed rules and form amendments would simplify the existing filer status framework, extend scaled disclosure and other accommodations to most public companies, and extend periodic reporting filing deadlines for the smallest public companies. The proposal was released as part of a pair of proposed rulemakings the SEC called “transformative reforms” aimed at incentivizing companies to go and stay public, the foundation of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins' agenda to “

This Sunday, June 14 (“Flag Day,” if you can remember that holiday), the White House will host on its South Lawn the “UFC Freedom 250” mixed martial arts festival, which will show the subtlety and sophistication of Donald Trump's taste in entertainment and the arts. After the courts ordered that his name come off the Kennedy Center, he may establish a Trump Center for Martial Arts. Cynics suggest that this timing derives more from the fact that it is the President's 80th birthday than that it is Flag Day (indeed, we should expect a Presidential Executive Order making the date a national holiday).

Key Takeaways Through four coordinated actions issued last month (an order , a policy statement , a no-action letter , and a staff