Prepared Remarks Before the 2024 43rd Annual Small Business Forum

Good afternoon. Thank you, Stacey for your introduction. As is customary, I'd like to note that my views are my own as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and I am not speaking on behalf of my fellow Commissioners or the staff.

Stacey Bowers joined us in January as the new director of the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation (OASB). We are excited to have her as part of the SEC's team advancing our important work on behalf of small businesses and their investors.

In 1980, Congress directed the SEC to hold an annual Small Business Forum so the Commission could hear directly from small businesses and their investors about the unique issues that they face. Today, I'm pleased to welcome you to the SEC's 43rd Annual Forum.

I grew up in a small business household. My grandparents on one side opened and ran a grocery store and on the other side a bar, both in Baltimore. My dad, Sam Gensler, started a small business repairing vending machines. It grew into a small vending machine business that served hundreds of other small businesses in the process, such as small diners and bars.

In this sense, my family's business was part of a larger community of small businesses, whose owners were as diverse as the city of Baltimore.

Entrepreneurs and small businesses are integral to our capital markets. In fact, more than 99 percent of U.S. businesses are small, and their employees make up nearly half of the American private sector employees.

From 1995-2021, small businesses created nearly two out of every three new jobs.

At the SEC, our job is to serve investors building for a better future and companies of every size. We are working to make our markets more efficient, competitive, transparent, fair-and worthy of the public's trust. We work to ensure that markets serve investors and issuers alike-not the other way around.

At the SEC, we have educational resources to help equip small businesses and investors with the tools to help navigate capital raising. Please check out SEC.gov and Investor.gov.

As you discuss the various topics over the next three days-from early-stage stories to investing in early-stage companies to accessing the public markets-please share your ideas and policy recommendations with us. We greatly benefit from your perspective and willingness to engage.

This forum will inform a report that will be delivered to Congress. Further, your perspective may help the Commission consider policies to benefit small businesses, like my dad and grandad's and so many across America.

Thank you, and now turning it back to the rest of the program.

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