WASHINGTON -- John Shad, a vice chairman of the E.F. Hutton investment firm, is expected to be named this week as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, sources said today.
In a related development, it was learned that Stanley Sporkin, the SEC's controversial director of enforcement, has been assured he will keep his job in the Reagan administration.
The SEC is an agency independent of the executive branch. But Sporkin's tenure was in question since his agressive enforcement style rankled some influential Reagan business backers and reportedly members of the Reagan's transition team at the SEC.
Shad would become the first SEC chief in nearly 20 years to come from the investment business the SEC regulates. He would succeed Harold Williams, who plans to retire March 1.
Shad was a leading fund-raiser for President Reagan in New York state and has been an active Republican supporter for the past 10 years.
Sources in the government and on Capitol Hill familiar with the SEC transition said Shad is expected to be named SEC chairman this week. They said he was able to work out satisfactorily a way to sell his considerable stock in E.F. Hutton. His reported objection to taking the government job was based on the loss he would suffer by having to pay capital gains taxes on the sale.
Shad joined E.F. Hutton in 1962 and has been active in corporate finance with the New York firm.
Reagan also looked to New York's financial circles when he picked his treasury secretary, Donald Regan, then chairman of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith brokerage house.
Sporkin, chief of the enforcement division since its beginning in 1972, is known for vigorous prosecution of securities law violations. He initiated an investigation that eventually led to the disclosure of hundreds of corporate slush funds -- money not reported to stockholders -- in the mid 1970s.
