FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	                                    2001-140


Alan Beller to Be Next Director of the Commission’s Division of 
Corporation Finance

Washington, DC, November 19, 2001 -- We are extremely pleased, 
and proud, to announce that, effective January 14, 2002, Alan L. 
Beller will become our next Director of the Division of Corporation 
Finance.  In addition, he will be Senior Counselor to the Commission, 
a new position we created to take maximum advantage of Alan’s unique 
qualifications and ability to make meaningful contributions to 
all facets of our work, both within and without the Division of 
Corporation Finance.

At this time in our history, there is an urgent need to reform our 
capital raising and disclosure regimes.  We are committed to improving, 
streamlining and expediting corporate disclosure dissemination, and 
to enabling seasoned corporate issuers to access our capital markets 
more efficiently than at present.  Mr. Beller will oversee and direct 
these Commission reform efforts, as well as lead all facets of our 
corporate disclosure and corporate transactional programs.

Chairman Harvey L. Pitt said, “The reform of the way in which capital 
is raised and corporate disclosures are made and disseminated is the 
most critical project on our current agenda.  These undertakings are 
complex and challenging, and require the guidance of one of the world’s 
foremost authorities on corporate and securities laws.  Alan Beller is 
uniquely qualified to perform that role, and the Commission is 
enormously fortunate that he is willing to join and lead us in this 
critical endeavor.”

At present, Alan Beller, 52, is a distinguished and well-recognized 
expert on corporate and securities laws at the international law firm 
of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he became a partner in 1984. 
Mr. Beller has worked in three of Cleary Gottlieb’s worldwide offices — 
New York, Paris and Tokyo — and his practice has focused on the entire 
spectrum of corporate, securities and derivatives issues, both domestic 
and international.  Mr. Beller is co-chair of the International Sub-
committee of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Federal 
Regulation of Securities and has published extensively, including 
co-authoring a treatise entitled U.S. Regulation of the International 
Securities and Derivatives Markets (Sixth Edition, 2001).  He received 
a J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania 
Law School and graduated from Yale College in 1971.

Chairman Pitt added, “Alan Beller brings the most distinguished 
breadth of experience ever to the position of Director of Corporation 
Finance — a considerable accomplishment given the other notable 
lawyers who have served in this capacity.  In our extensive seven-
decade history, Alan is the most qualified and well-established 
expert ever to assume this critical Commission position.”

Mr. Beller said:  “We are at a critical crossroads in government 
regulation of capital formation and disclosure in the U.S. and global 
securities markets.  The need for reform and modernization of the 
regulatory framework, and SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt’s commitment to 
moving forward on these issues, makes this an irresistible opportunity.  
I am honored that the SEC has invited me to help shape these critical 
decisions.”


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