SEC Expected to Name Enforcement Chief

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson will promote Linda Thomsen, a former federal prosecutor, to lead the agency’s enforcement division, people familiar with his decision said.

Thomsen, 50, would succeed Stephen Cutler, 43, who leaves the agency this week. She would be the first woman to oversee enforcement at the SEC, which she joined in 1995 as a trial attorney. The SEC may announce her appointment as soon as today, said the people, who asked not to be named.

“It’s a landmark appointment for the Bush administration, and she has experience in a broad range of cases, so she has the confidence of the commissioners,” said James Doty, a former SEC general counsel. Thomsen, who has declined to comment, has been Cutler’s deputy since January 2002. She would take over the 1,300-person enforcement unit at a time when corporate lobbying groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are complaining that SEC fines and investigations are excessive.