Good morning. Thank you Chair Garrett, Vice Chair Solomon, and all the committee members for hosting us today. I’m thrilled to meet this committee for the first time. This is my first meeting with any SEC advisory committee, and I’m eager to learn from this distinguished group.

My father started and ran a small vending machine business in Baltimore, so the work of this committee especially resonates with me.

A critical part of the SEC’s mission is to facilitate capital formation. American entrepreneurs and business owners rely on a diverse array of sources to fund their companies. That’s just one reason why our capital markets are the envy of the world.

In my dad’s case, he used his mustering-out pay from World War II to buy used vending machines, fix them up, and build our family business. Today – who knows? – he might have used equity crowdfunding platforms, though my daughters would’ve had to set up his account and do all his marketing for him.

The third part of the SEC’s mission – “facilitate capital formation” – doesn’t pick winners and losers.

All companies, from small businesses to high-growth startups to corporations, deserve access to our capital markets to fund their entrepreneurial ideas and innovations, regardless of their race, gender, geography, or any other factor.

As a society, we still have a lot of work to do to correct unequal access to capital for underrepresented groups.

Today, I know you’ll be continuing your discussion about that very issue, and to explore the role that smaller, regional funds can play. I look forward to learning from your conversations about how to make our capital markets as inclusive as possible. The SEC has a critical role in addressing these disparities.

This committee has a track record of agreeing with the SEC’s actions on certain issues and proposing alternative approaches in other cases. That’s a good thing; I welcome debate on the important topics that you’re tackling.

In closing, I’d like to thank you all for representing the interests of small business owners. You are helping us better understand how we can help them access the capital they need, and I am grateful for your work.