In a return to the office’s roots, the Securities and Exchange Commission has named a director for its Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service has appointed a new head of its Office of Professional Responsibility, which was created in the wake of the Enron implosion.
Jonathan W. Burks will join the SEC as director of renamed Office of Legislative Affairs, which was known as the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs until 2002. Jane Cobb, who took a gig as director of operations for the newly created Center for Audit Quality industry group, had previously helmed the office.
Burks is currently chief of staff for the 185-person Office of International Affairs at the Department of Treasury and senior advisor to the under secretary for international affairs. Previously, he served as acting executive secretary of the Department of Treasury. Burks has also held various staff positions in the White House and, during the 1990s, served as a policy analyst for the House Policy Committee under then-Chairman Christopher Cox, who now heads up the SEC.
Burks will start on March 5.
Separately, the IRS announced the appointment of Michael R. Chesman as director of its Office of Professional Responsibility.
Chesman most recently served the agency as director of the Office of Taxpayer Burden Reduction, which he launched in 2001 before taking a position in early 2006 as senior vice president and general counsel with holding company Ullico Inc.
The office is responsible for setting, communicating and enforcing standards of competence, integrity and conduct among tax practitioners -- specifically, attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents and others who represent taxpayers before the IRS. Chesman will start on March 1.
