Speech by SEC Staff:
Opening Remarks Before the CCOutreach National Seminar

by

Andrew J. Donohue

Director, Division of Investment Management
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Washington, DC
November 14, 2006

Good Morning. I am Andrew J. Donohue, Director of the Division of Investment Management. It is my pleasure to welcome each of you to the 2006 CCOutreach National Seminar. We have an impressive turn-out today of Chief Compliance Officers and compliance professionals representing mutual funds and investment advisers from across the country and beyond. I also want to welcome the hundreds more of your compliance colleagues who are listening to today's program over the Internet via webcast. Your participation is a testament to your commitment to your very important compliance positions within your firms. I appreciate each of you taking the time to join us.

Today's event represents the culmination of this year's CCOutreach Program. This program, sponsored by the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examination and the Division of Investment Management, commenced over two years ago following the adoption of the Commission's mutual fund and investment adviser compliance rules. The program is designed to give the Commission staff a forum to better communicate and coordinate with you and to help you to succeed in your role as chief compliance officers. Although I have been Director of the Division of Investment Management for just over 6 months and, unlike my colleague from OCIE standing next to me, cannot take credit for initiating the CCOutreach program, I could not agree more with its goals. For much of my previous career, I served as General Counsel of asset management firms and worked very closely with my firm's CCO. I have a great respect for the work you do and understand that your role is critical to the success of any firm's compliance program. I also appreciate the challenges you may face in your mission of furthering a culture of compliance within your firms. I look forward in my new role here at the SEC to using the CCOutreach program to assist you the best I can by learning the questions that you have and the issues that are important to you and providing appropriate and useful guidance.

I am hopeful that today's National Seminar will accomplish these goals, as well as provide a day of lively and engaging discussion on a number of relevant, practical topics. I am particularly looking forward to hearing the observations and experiences of six highly knowledgeable and experienced CCOs who have agreed to participate on three of today's panels alongside the SEC staff. Representing firms diverse in size and culture, each CCO will provide their own unique viewpoint on today's topics. We are fortunate to have them here and I want to thank each of them for their participation.

In determining the panel topics for today's program, we hoped that you would be able to benefit not only from hearing the experiences of the CCO panelists, but also from hearing the experiences the SEC staff has had, and the insights they have attained, through their years of evaluation and examination of the compliance programs of funds and advisers. As a relative newcomer to the SEC staff, I have been impressed with the knowledge, experience and expertise of the people who work here - as well as the SEC staff's commitment to professionalism. As you can see from the agenda, much of today's program is focused on SEC staff sharing information about our exam practices and insights learned from our examinations so that you can incorporate this learning into your own internal compliance programs.

I again want to thank the CCOs for participating here today and know that we will each benefit from hearing their experiences. I also hope that by relaying our experiences and insight, the SEC staff is able to provide you with information that will help you to make your compliance programs more efficient and effective and ultimately allow you to succeed in your role. If so, we will have achieved our goal today. I also look forward to furthering this goal throughout the year as we continue our dialogue with you through the CCOutreach Program. Again, thank you all for joining us today and I hope you enjoy the program. I would now like to turn it over to my colleague, Lori Richards.

* The Securities and Exchange Commission, as a matter of policy, disclaims responsibility for any private publication or statement by any of its staff. The views expressed by the staff in these written materials are those of the staff and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission or of other Commission staff.

http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2006/spch111406ajd.htm