CSRD as de facto global standard: Inside the minds of SEC influencers

How do you become (what we’re calling in this series of articles) an SEC ‘influencer’? Whatever those influencers’ background or current position, the thread running through this series is a passion for all things reporting. And Steve Soter, a vice president and industry principal at Workiva, certainly fits the bill.

Talking about how he came to the world of SEC filings, he explains that he studied accounting and became an auditor before quickly moving into financial reporting roles. ‘I absolutely love it,’ he says. ‘I love the project management of it, I love the intensity and everything about that written communication, even writing technical accounting memos’, though he acknowledges this might be something of a niche passion.

But that love of all things reporting led Soter through roles including director of SEC reporting for Overstock.com, where he was involved in the world’s first digital debt and equity offering. He has been involved in M&A and debt offerings and has sat on the US XBRL Data Quality Committee. He is the executive adviser of the SEC Professionals Group, too, making him an ‘insider’ as well as an ‘influencer’.

Soter is also one of a number of people who pore over SEC filings not just because it’s their job but because they love finding the interesting numbers tucked away in a company statement or the unusual perks an executive might be taking home. When Nick Mazing of AlphaSense described someone as an ‘SEC influencer’ on LinkedIn, Governance sister publication IR Magazine decided to find out who these people are. What is it they’re looking for, how do they dig into the details – and what makes them tick?

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