Earlier this week, President Bush appointed Laura Unger as acting chair of the SEC. A permanent successor to departing chair, Arthur Levitt, has not yet been named.

Phillip Livingston, President and CEO of Financial Executives International, has identified several key issues that are of utmost importance to financial executives. He hopes that the next head of the SEC will address these issues.

• Support and continued movement toward global accounting standards
• Reexamination of the massive disclosure requirements in 10K and 10Q forms with a movement toward a more user-friendly, concise reporting format
• More use of the Internet for filings and public disclosure of documents
• Increased reliance on enforcement actions and less reliance on additional regulations
• A clearer agenda and more consistency in communication

In his position as leader of FEI, Mr. Livingston speaks on behalf of 15,000 corporate financial executives.