SEC's Cox (at last) picks chiefs for L.A. and San Fran offices

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox has finally picked new chiefs for the agency’s L.A. and San Francisco regional offices. He didn’t have to look far.

Rosalind Tyson, who has been interim director of the Los Angeles office since July, got the nod to stay in the post, the SEC announced today.

In San Francisco the regional-director job went to Marc Fagel, who has been co-acting chief since October.

Tyson, a Stanford Law School grad (class of ’78) is a career SEC lawyer. She joined the L.A. office in 1982 in the enforcement unit. Since 1993 she has headed the examinations unit, which inspects brokerages, investment advisors and mutual funds.

The 41-year-old Fagel, who got his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1991, joined the SEC’s San Francisco office in 1997. He has been regional enforcement chief since 2005.

The L.A. office’s territory is Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. San Francisco oversees Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Tyson, 60, said her emphasis would be on "swift and vigorous enforcement of the securities laws and to reinforce our cooperative working relationships with our fellow regulators at the federal, state and local levels."

The last L.A. and San Francisco office chiefs had fairly long tenures before making the inevitable hop to private-sector jobs. Randall Lee headed the SEC’s L.A. office from 2001 to last July. He has since opened an L.A. office for Washington law firm WilmerHale. Helane Morrison was San Francisco office chief from 1999 until October, when she departed to become general counsel at Hall Capital Partners, a $22-billion-asset investment management firm in San Fran.

Tyson and Fagel should have job security, even though Cox is almost sure to be replaced by the next occupant of the White House: New SEC chairmen historically haven't summarily replaced the regional chiefs.

Photos: Rosalind Tyson, Marc Fagel. SEC