Paul Atkins

Paul S. Atkins is the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, sworn into office on April 21, 2025, after being nominated by President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 9, 2025. He is the 34th Chairman of the SEC. Prior to this appointment, Atkins was chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services firm specializing in regulatory compliance that he founded in 2009, whose clients included Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He sold his stake in the firm in July 2025 for between $25 million and $50 million.

Atkins has a documented history of engagement with digital assets. He was co-chair of the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy group for the Chamber of Digital Commerce, and served on the advisory board of Securitize, Inc., a cryptocurrency firm. At the time of his SEC appointment, he held $6 million worth of crypto-related investments and pledged to divest from them during his confirmation. Since assuming the chairmanship, the SEC has dropped or settled numerous lawsuits with cryptocurrency companies. In September 2025, Atkins affirmed plans to reduce reporting requirements for public companies, shifting from quarterly to semi-annual reporting timelines, and expanded on those plans at an SEC-sponsored event in December 2025. He previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008, appointed by President George W. Bush, and from 2009 to 2010 was a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He began his career as a lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. Atkins holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law and an A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Wofford College.