SEC Appoints Stacey Bowers as Small Business Advocate

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that University of Denver law professor Stacey Bowers has been named the new director of the SEC’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation (OASB). Ms. Bowers, a seasoned practitioner in corporate and securities law, began her legal career as a staff attorney in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance before entering private practice to counsel public companies through initial public offerings and represent entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital to advance their businesses.

“Stacey will bring deep experience to the role of Director of the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “I look forward to working with her to advance the SEC’s important work on behalf of small businesses and their investors. I’d also like to thank Amy Reischauer for helping carry out the Office’s work in her capacity as Acting Deputy Director.”

Ms. Bowers said, “The capital formation process is both rewarding and challenging, and the SEC’s Small Business Advocate can help make it a little less daunting for entrepreneurs to succeed in raising the capital they need for their businesses and their investors to thrive. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed serving on the SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee this past year and look forward to returning to work at the agency where my legal career began, working alongside such talented SEC staff, particularly within OASB, who are so devoted to ensuring our capital markets work fairly and efficiently for everyone.”

OASB is an independent office established in January 2019 to advance the interests of small businesses and their investors in the capital formation process. The office proactively works to identify and address unique capital formation challenges faced by small businesses, particularly those that are minority-owned or women-owned or located in rural or natural disaster areas.

Since 2018, Ms. Bowers has served as Director of the Corporate and Commercial Law Program at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, where she earned her own law degree in 1992. She joined the Sturm faculty in 2007 and has taught many courses on corporate and securities law, including capital raising. As a practitioner, Ms. Bowers has represented business owners from startups to more established companies as they navigated the capital formation process.

Ms. Bowers earned her bachelor's degree in business/accounting (cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to her law degree, Ms. Bowers also earned a master’s degree in library and information science and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction studies at the University of Denver.