Chester Spatt Named Chief Economist

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2004-45

Washington, D.C., March 31, 2004 - The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today the selection of Chester Spatt, Ph.D., as Chief Economist and Director of the Commission's Office of Economic Analysis.

Spatt, 50, will join the Commission from Carnegie Mellon University where he is the Mellon Bank Professor of Finance and Director of the Center for Financial Markets at the Tepper School of Business. Spatt will succeed Lawrence E. Harris, who is returning to his research and teaching at the USC Marshall School of Business where he holds the Fred V. Keenan Chair in Finance.

"I am pleased to welcome Dr. Spatt to the Commission staff at such a critical time for our financial markets. I look forward to his insight and analysis into the important issues we are facing," Chairman William H. Donaldson said.

In accepting the position, Spatt said, "I am delighted to have this opportunity to join Chairman Donaldson and his outstanding staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission to work on the important issues facing America's financial markets."

Spatt received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979. He has researched and written extensively on market structure, pricing and valuation, and the impact of information in the marketplace.

Spatt is married to Ellen Gordon Spatt. Their son Samuel is a freshman at Brandeis University.

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-45.htm