This is the first of a special two part post from SIFMA’s senior management. Stay tuned for a Q&A with SIFMA President Ken Bentsen, which will publish on Thursday.

Former Senator Judd Gregg served as a United States Senator from 1993 to 2011 and was both Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee. Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Senator Gregg served as Governor of New Hampshire (1989-1993) and as a U.S. Representative (1981-1989). He recently joined SIFMA as CEO.

I hope you will join me for SIFMA’s 2013 Annual Meeting.

Along with our commitment to addressing regulatory and legislative issues which seem to arise with considerable consistency, SIFMA, at the direction of and with the strong support of our Board of Directors, is embarking on a broad initiative to reconnect the importance of the capital markets with the everyday lives of Americans.

This effort is pursued under the conference theme “Helping Americans Succeed, Helping Main Street Prosper.” We are supporting this theme with four basic work streams. These involve putting clients first; investing in America; lessons learned post-2008; and a commitment to education at all levels regarding the importance of the market economy and financial literacy. We intend to use our Annual Meeting as a forum to begin this effort and certainly hope that you will find it valuable and an initiative you may want to join.

We also have an extraordinary lineup of speakers from across the political and financial industry spectrum. This includes Governor Bush, Chairman Mary Jo White and, from our own membership, Lloyd Blankfein, Larry Fink, Karen Peetz and Paul Purcell – to name a few. In addition, we intend to have extremely topical breakout sessions which will help you get better informed on key issues that affect your business.

We are going into a period where our nation is looking at the potential of exceptional growth and opportunity, especially for those entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks and create jobs. Our industry is well positioned to be the fuel that drives this engine of economic expansion which is Main Street America. Our goal at SIFMA is to tell the story of the importance of our financial markets to this effort and to work with the government in a constructive manner to assure that we are all moving forward.

I look forward to seeing you at what will be an exciting and valuable Annual Meeting.

To register for SIFMA’s 2013 Annual Meeting, Nov. 11-12 in NYC, visit  www.sifma.org/annual2013

Judd Gregg
CEO

SIFMA