IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reacre/v30y2018i2p131-137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Donald C. Cook: CPA, SEC Chairman, corporate legend, and presidential advisor

Author

Listed:
  • Flesher, Dale L.
  • Previts, Gary J.

Abstract

Donald C. Cook served as a member of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 1949 to 1953 and as Chairman during the last two years. His unique position as the only Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who served as Commission Chairman has been largely unnoticed and elicits the need for a profile about the individual, his background, career, and what, if any, legacy might be related to it. Cook was also unique in that his prior staff experience at the SEC was primarily in the public utilities division. This profile describes and identifies several episodes in Cook's career at the SEC and after. These include other public service positions in government and his executive career at American Electric Power (AEP) as president and board chairman. These years were often filled with controversy and challenges in dealings with the SEC and with issues relating to consolidation among utilities as the country's demand for electrical energy grew substantially. His government service roles beyond the SEC acquainted him with many political leaders. He was an advisor to President Lyndon Johnson, who shared the opinion of others that Cook was “the smartest man in the country” [Johnson, Telephone conversation No. 7070, March 16, 1965].

Suggested Citation

  • Flesher, Dale L. & Previts, Gary J., 2018. "Donald C. Cook: CPA, SEC Chairman, corporate legend, and presidential advisor," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 131-137.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:30:y:2018:i:2:p:131-137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.racreg.2018.09.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052045718300328
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.racreg.2018.09.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:30:y:2018:i:2:p:131-137. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/research-in-accounting-regulation .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.