The SEC's Division of Investment Management has lost two of its top staff, including its Meyer "Mike" Eisenberg, its acting head. Eisenberg said that he retired from the SEC to accept a post in academia. Earlier in the day, David B. Smith, Jr., said he was taking a job at the Mutual Fund Directors Forum.

The two executives are only the most recent departures from the SEC, which has been losing staff in a steady drain since Christopher Cox took over as chairman last fall.

SEC officials did not say how the two openings would be filled.

Eisenberg has been the acting director of the Division of Investment Management since April, when he was appointed to replace Paul Roye. Roye had resigned in February and has since joined Capital Research & Management.

Smith, 39, was an associate director for the Division of Investment Management who was responsible for Public Utility and Investment Company Regulation. He plans to leave the SEC later this month to become executive vice president for Policy and Legal Affairs for the Mutual Fund Directors Forum.

Meanwhile, Eisenberg, who was also the SEC's deputy general counsel, will become a visiting professor of Law at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon. He first joined the SEC staff in 1959.

"Mike’s experience spans decades that saw dramatic increases in the number of Americans who invest," said SEC Chairman Cox in a statement. "For his work to protect investors over the years, and for helping to keep America’s capital markets the world’s ‘gold standard,’ Mike deserves the gratitude of all investors. As just one example, between the time Mike joined the SEC and today, the mutual fund industry grew from $40 billion to more than $8 trillion." 

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