SEC Chairman Atkins tells ‘Pod Force One’ that more companies need to come forward, protesting DEI’s rising practices

Companies have been barred from going public in recent years because revived policies and programs for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have caused “upheaval” on Wall Street, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said on a recent episode of “Pod Force One.”

“One of my pillars is trying to make IPOs big again,” the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission told “Pod Force One” host Miranda Devine.

“Part of that is going back to basics – all of this friction in the corporate governance environment, I submit, is one of the reasons why companies don’t want to go public,” Atkins said. “They just don’t want to put up with the inconvenience of all this because most of this has nothing to do with the real problems of the company.”

Full Episode

President Trump tasked the SEC in December with looking into two “politically motivated proxy advisors” – Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. – who have received criticism for pushing so-called “resurrection” policies, such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives, at Wall Street firms.

Dealing with the huge influence the two foreign firms have in advising large investors on how to vote as shareholders on company affairs could stem the tide of policies and encourage more startups to file for initial public offerings (IPOs), Atkins said.

“It is one thing for the shareholders to hold the directors accountable, but for these many issues that are not related to the economic reality of the company, I would submit that it is a distraction,” said the SEC chairman. “And that with the power of these, or other types of shareholder groups, they are looking at their issues that are being crushed by the axe.”

Atkins promised that the SEC would “try to get things back to basics.”

He estimated that the cost of social problems imposed on companies is in the “billions of dollars.”

As for why more companies should go public, the SEC chairman explained that it has benefits for both businessmen and the country.

“One big thing is that if you have a lot of employees, you can give them stock as part of their compensation,” explained Atkins. “There are a lot of companies that do that, big public companies with their employee stock option plans and things like that.”

Every week, Post writer Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid interviews with Washington’s most influential disruptors on ‘Pod Force One.’ Register here!

“Then, for the entire US economy to have a strong public market that attracts and builds on it, because success obviously attracts more success in general, and that means foreigners come here to invest in these markets,” he continued.

“So all these things build on it. It helps the private sector. You have a better comparison with all that, so it all builds on you having a strong public market.”