New S.E.C. Chairman Pledges to Look After Ordinary Investors<br />And he said he agreed with Ms. White’s assessment in that speech that the agency “is today a stronger protector of investors than ever before.”<br />In his speech, Mr. Clayton outlined a number of principles that he said would guide his stewardship of the agency.<br />But in a lunchtime speech to the Economic Club of New York at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, Mr. Clayton, who is known as Jay, tried<br />to balance his concern for investor protection with reducing regulatory burdens that deter private companies from going public.<br />But he added, “We should be doing what we can to fight corruption.”<br />chairman opened his remarks with an approving nod to his predecessor, Mary Jo White, who, like Mr. Clayton,<br />had come to the commission from a large law firm, in Ms. White’s case, Debevoise & Plimpton.<br />Mr. Clayton noted that Ms. White’s last public speech as S. E.C.<br />Critics said Mr. Clayton’s professional experience doing corporate work for big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs Group<br />and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, might cause him to put the interests of corporate America before those of ordinary investors.
