The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Marc Fagel, the director of the San Francisco Regional Office, will be leaving the agency later this month for the private sector. He has worked at the SEC for more than 15 years.

Mr. Fagel has served at the helm of the San Francisco office since 2008, overseeing a staff of more than 100 attorneys, accountants, and other professionals responsible for conducting investigations, litigation, and examinations in a region covering Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska.

“Marc’s quick wit and passion for investor protection have earned him deep respect and admiration throughout the Commission,” said SEC Chairman Elisse B. Walter. “He has been a loyal and effective leader at this agency and has unequivocally served investors with steady determination throughout his long tenure.”

Mr. Fagel said, “I consider myself lucky to have had an opportunity to serve alongside so many smart and talented professionals here in San Francisco and throughout the Commission. Investors throughout the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest region are fortunate to have such a dedicated team serving as their advocates.”

Mr. Fagel, 46, joined the SEC’s San Francisco staff as an enforcement staff attorney in 1997. He was promoted to branch chief for the office’s Internet enforcement branch and later appointed associate regional director in charge of the office’s entire enforcement program. Prior to his arrival at the SEC, he spent six years in private practice with a large national law firm. Mr. Fagel graduated from Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School.

During Mr. Fagel’s tenure, he has overseen several of the largest financial fraud cases ever filed in the Pacific Northwest as well as numerous investigations of hedge funds and other private investment funds, including cases alleging undisclosed conflicts of interest, end-of-quarter “portfolio pumping,” improper use of “side pockets,” and misuse of client assets. Mr. Fagel also spearheaded cases against hedge fund managers and online trading platforms involved in the emerging secondary market for pre-IPO stock of hot Silicon Valley companies.

Among the noteworthy matters investigated under Mr. Fagel’s leadership:

• Dozens of investigations into improper backdating of stock options by public companies, including actions against senior executives of multiple Silicon Valley tech companies.
   
• Investigations of multi-million-dollar insider trading rings, including charges against a Wall Street investment banker alleged to have repeatedly tipped friends and family members about confidential transactions, and the spouse of a Big 4 accounting firm partner alleged to have tipped information about her husband’s M&A transactions to a derivatives trader in the UK.
   
• Fraud charges against the senior executive team in one of the largest bank failures of the financial crisis.

Mr. Fagel also played an instrumental role in the historic restructuring of the SEC’s Enforcement Division during the past few years, particularly in the Commission’s grant of delegated formal order authority to the Enforcement Division as well as reforms related to other aspects of the investigative process.

“Marc’s energy, creativity, and vision along with his steady leadership have been critical to the success of the San Francisco office’s enforcement program, said George S. Canellos, Acting Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “He brought those same qualifies to the Enforcement Division’s national leadership and helped develop and implement reforms that greatly enhanced the effectiveness of our investigations.”

As a member of the National Exam Program’s Executive Committee, Mr. Fagel also helped bring about successful changes in the structure and processes of the exam program. He particularly assisted initiatives to instill a more risk-focused approached to examinations and adapt the program to the large influx of newly-registered hedge fund managers and private equity funds under the Dodd-Frank Act.

“Marc has been an exemplary regional director, and under his leadership the San Francisco office’s exam program has done an excellent job protecting investors and supporting the National Exam Program by preventing fraud, promoting compliance, monitoring risk and informing policy,” said Carlo di Florio, Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.

Mr. Fagel is a past recipient of the SEC’s Ellen B. Ross Award, an honor in recognition of exemplary commitment, enthusiasm, and performance in working to fulfill the Commission’s responsibilities for the fair and effective enforcement of the federal securities laws. He served as a management representative on the SEC’s Labor Management Forum, working closely with agency managers and the National Treasury Employees Union to improve agency operations and strengthen employee engagement.

Following Mr. Fagel’s departure later this month, Kristin Snyder and Michael Dicke, who are associate regional directors for examinations and enforcement, respectively, will serve as co-acting regional directors in the San Francisco office.