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SASB / Sustainability

Speakers at the 2017 SASB Symposium

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Symposium Speakers Implementation: Using SASB SYMPOSIUM FOR COMPANIES FOR INVESTORS SASB.ORG CONTACT US Symposium Speakers Symposium Agenda Speakers Register Sponsors Higgins-Keith-SASB-13958-150x150.jpg November 30th, 2017 Fordham Law School 150 W 62nd St New York, NY 10023

Alan Beller Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Alan L. Beller is a preeminent legal advisor and recognized thought leader regarding securities law, capital markets and corporate governance. He currently serves in leadership oversight roles for organizations dedicated to long-term quality and stability of capital markets and the best interests of investors and issuers. Notably, he is a Trustee of the IFRS Foundation, which is responsible for governance and oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards, the global system of accounting standards used in more than 130 countries. He also serves on the board of The SASB Foundation and is a former Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. SEC.

Lynn S. Blake, CFA Vice President, State Street Global Advisors
Lynn is an executive vice president of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) and CIO of Global Equity Beta Solutions. She also oversees SSGA’s Corporate Governance and Global Proxy Voting as well as the Company Stock Group. In addition, she is a member of the SSGA Fiduciary Committee, the Investment Committee, the Executive Management Group, and the IT Steering Committee. Lynn earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the Boston Security Analyst Society. She also is a member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) Investment Advisory Group and serves on various index advisory boards.

Michael R. Bloomberg Philanthropist, Founder of Bloomberg LP, and the 108th Mayor of New York City; Chairman, The SASB Foundation Board
Michael R. Bloomberg is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served three terms as Mayor of New York City, from 2002 through 2013. He began his career in 1966 with an entry-level job at Salomon Brothers, an investment firm. After being let go in 1981 he launched a real-time financial data service, Bloomberg LP, which grew into a global company that now has offices in 73 countries around the world. As Mayor of New York, Bloomberg cut crime to historic lows, revitalized the waterfront, implemented ambitious public health strategies, expanded support for arts and culture, reduced the city’s carbon footprint by 19 percent, introduced new anti-poverty programs, and drove high school graduation rates up by more than 40 percent. The Mayor’s economic policies helped New York City create a record number of jobs and weather the Great Recession in far better condition than most other cities. As a philanthropist, Bloomberg supports government innovation, education, public health, the environment, and the arts. He also leads a number of bi-partisan coalitions that are taking action on urgent national issues, including illegal guns, immigration reform, infrastructure investment, and he serves as board president of the C40 Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world’s megacities working together to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2014, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Bloomberg to be U.N. Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, where he will focus on helping cities and countries set and achieve more ambitious climate change goals.

Glenn Booraem Investment Stewardship Officer, Principal, Vanguard
Glenn Booraem is the head of Investment Stewardship and a principal at Vanguard. Glenn joined Vanguard in 1989, and has led its investment stewardship efforts since 2001. He also represents Vanguard and its investors through a number of initiatives: – Investor Stewardship Group – Investor Advisory Group for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) – Investor Advisory Board for CECP’s Strategic Investor Initiative – National Association of Corporate Directors’ (NACD) Blue Ribbon Commission on Building the Strategic Asset Board (2016) Glenn has been named to the NACD Directorship 100 list each year since 2010, as one of the most influential people in corporate governance.

Douglas K. Chia Executive Director, Governance Center, The Conference Board
Douglas K. Chia is executive director of The Conference Board Governance Center. He joined The Conference Board in February 2016 following his previous role as Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Chia has held a number of central leadership positions in the corporate governance field, including Chair of the Board of Directors of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, President of the Stockholder Relations Society of New York, and member of the New York Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Commission. He is currently a member of the Corporate Laws Committee of the American Bar Association and a member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Rick Fedrizzi Founding Chairman, USGBC, and Chairman and CEO of International WELL Building Institute
Rick Fedrizzi joined the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) as chairman and CEO in Nov. 2016, bringing his global environmental track record and keen business insight to IWBI’s work to advance human health through better buildings and communities. Rick is also founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and former CEO of both USGBC and of Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), nonprofit organizations that promote high-performing buildings and communities. He serves on numerous boards and advisory councils, including the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; View, Inc., and Global Green.

Janine Guillot Director of Capital Markets Policy and Outreach, SASB
Janine Guillot is the Director of Capital Markets Policy and Outreach at SASB, where she works with investors to support demand for standardized disclosure of material sustainability factors. Ms. Guillot has more than 25 years of experience in operating, strategy, risk management and finance roles in financial services, most recently as Chief Operating Officer of Incapture LP, an early stage enterprise technology and asset management business. Prior to joining Incapture, Janine served as Chief Operating Investment Officer for the California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS). Ms. Guillot also oversaw the CalPERS corporate governance program, including integration of sustainability and governance factors into investment decision-making.

Keith F. Higgins Chair, Securities & Governance Practice, Ropes & Gray LLP
Keith Higgins is a member of Ropes & Gray’s corporate department and chair of the securities & governance practice. Keith rejoined the firm in 2017, after having served as Director of Corporation Finance at the U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission since 2013. While in that role, Keith led the Division’s implementation of significant rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), and Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). He also led the Division’s Disclosure Effectiveness project and oversaw the issuance of significant interpretive guidance to companies and investors under the federal securities laws.

Robert B. Hirth, Jr. Chair, COSO
Bob Hirth serves as COSO Chair. His experience includes all of COSO’s mission disciplines; Enterprise Risk Management, Internal Control and Fraud Deterrence. He has worked on assignments and made presentations in over 20 countries, serving more than 50 organizations and working closely with board members, C-level executives, finance and accounting personnel as well as public accounting firm partners and employees. In 2012, Bob was appointed to serve a two-year term on the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and was re-appointed to serve a three-year term ending December 31, 2016. He became a board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) in 2017.

Donald C. Langevoort Thomas Aquinas Reynolds Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Prior to joining the Law Center faculty in 1999, Professor Langevoort was the Lee S. and Charles A. Speir Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 1981. Professor Langevoort teaches Contracts, Securities Regulation, various seminars on corporate and securities issues, and Corporations. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan Law School and a lecturer at the Washington College of Law, American University. After practicing for two years at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., he joined the staff of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission as Special Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel.

Hugh Lawson Global Head of Institutional Client Strategy, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM)
Hugh has oversight responsibility for the division’s strategic, single-asset or multi-asset assignments with institutional clients, globally. In addition, he leads the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing efforts for the Investment Management Division. Hugh is a member of the GSAM Client Experience Group, with a focus on developing GSAM’s strategic work on a range of investment and market-related topics. Prior to joining the firm, Hugh worked in New York for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Boston Consulting Group. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a trustee and Investment Committee chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Paula Loop Partner, PwC's Governance Insights Center
Paula Loop is the leader of PwC’s Governance Insights Center, which strives to strengthen the connection between directors, executive teams and investors by helping them navigate the evolving governance landscape. With more than 20 years of experience at PwC, Paula brings extensive knowledge in governance, technical accounting, and SEC and financial reporting matters to organizations. Paula is a well-known speaker on a variety of governance topics. She has also been quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Forbes and CNBC. Paula has twice been named to Directorship Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in US corporate governance. Paula is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in New York.

Rob Lovelace Vice Chairman, Capital Group
Rob Lovelace is a portfolio manager for the American Funds and President of the New Perspective Fund and New World Fund. He is also Vice Chairman and a Director of the Capital Group Companies, President and a Director of Capital Research and Management Company, a subsidiary of Capital Group, and serves on the Capital Group Companies Management Committee. Rob joined Capital in 1985 and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Mr. Lovelace is a Trustee of the J. Paul Getty Trust, a Director of the California Community Foundation, a Director of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and a founder of Vistamar School.

Brian G. Macnamara Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller, Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc.
Brian G. Macnamara has over 26 years of experience in accounting, finance and real estate. His current position is Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller with Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Over a more than 20-year-career at Host, he has held numerous positions since February 1996 including Vice President, Financial Reporting and Corporate Real Estate and Vice President, Assistant Corporate Controller. Prior to joining Host, Mr. Macnamara worked at the Securities & Exchange Commission and Deloitte & Touche. He currently serves as a Board of Directors member for the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

Arlene McCarthy OBE Executive Director, AMC Strategy
Arlene is Special Advisor to the Chairman of Bloomberg and a Non-Executive Director for Bloomberg TFL and TRL. She is a member of the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. Arlene is a strategic policy advisor to Bloomberg Philanthropies and to Michael Bloomberg’s team engaged on the FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures as well as to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. Arlene has over 20 years of European legislative & Policy experience as President of the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Affairs Committee and Vice-President of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

Sophia Mendelsohn Head of Sustainability, JetBlue
Sophia is responsible for shaping policies and practices that enhance JetBlue’s competitive advantages and reduce environmental impacts. Prior to JetBlue, Sophia was Head of Sustainability for Haworth Inc., a multinational manufacturer in the corporate real estate industry. At Haworth, she was responsible for increasing sustainable product offerings in emerging markets, including Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Previously, Sophia worked for the Jane Goodall Institute, and international NGO, in Shanghai, China. Sophia is accredited in the Leadership in Energy Environment and Design (LEED) green building rating system and certified to perform Life Cycle Amylases (LCA) and lead Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports.

Barbara M. Porco, MBA, ALM, PhD, CPA, CFE, CFF Professor of Accounting, Fordham University
Dr. Porco is a member of the accounting faculty for over twenty-five years and recipient of Fordham University’s prestigious Bene Merenti Medal. Dr. Porco is a licensed Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified in Financial Forensics whose experiences include positions as the Director of Personal Financial Planning, as well as Audit Supervisor and Senior Tax Manager in the Financial Service Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She is an educator and consultant to an array of domestic and international banks, financial services organizations, hospitals, Big Four accounting firms and regulatory agencies including FINRA and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Thomas L. Riesenberg Director of Legal Policy & Outreach, SASB
Mr. Riesenberg is Director Legal Policy & Outreach at SASB and the former Deputy General Counsel of Ernst & Young LLP responsible for regulatory matters, primarily involving the SEC and the PCAOB. He retired from the firm effective July 1, 2013. Through a consulting agreement with EY, he now serves as the Director of Legal Policy for the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Prior to joining EY, Mr. Riesenberg served for seven years as an Assistant General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He is a member of the bars of the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

Jean Rogers Founder and Former CEO, SASB; Chair of the SASB Standards Board
Dr. Jean Rogers is the Chair of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). She is also its Founder, and for 6 years, she served as Chief Executive Officer of the SASB. Under her leadership, the SASB developed provisional standards for 79 industries with the involvement of 3,000 stakeholders, raised more than $25M for standards development, launched an education program in sustainability accounting, and convened an Investor Advisory Group comprised of 27 leading asset owners and asset managers with more than $20T in assets, including BlackRock, CalPERS, CalSTRS, and State Street Global Advisors, all advocating for a market standard for sustainability information.

Mary Schapiro, JD Former Chairman, SEC; Co-Vice Chair of the Board, The SASB Foundation
Ms. Schapiro’s service as the 29th Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) culminated decades of regulatory leadership. She was the first woman to serve as SEC Chairman, and the only person to have served as Chairman of both the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). During her four years as Chairman, Ms. Schapiro presided over one of the busiest rule-making agendas in the SEC’s history, during which the agency also executed a comprehensive restructuring program to improve protections for investors and aggressive enforcement of the federal securities laws. Before becoming SEC Chairman, Ms. Schapiro served as CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA), the largest nongovernmental regulator of securities firms. Earlier, she was Chairman of the CFTC (1994-1996); a Commissioner of the SEC (1988-1994); and General Counsel of the Futures Industry Association. Currently, she serves as Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board of Promontory Financial Group. Ms. Schapiro is a member of the Boards of Directors of General Electric Company, the London Stock Exchange Group and Mitre Corp. In addition, she serves as a member of the Governing Board of the Center for Audit Quality, a Trustee of Franklin and Marshall College and a member of the Board of the Washington Animal Rescue League. She is Vice Chairman of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and a member of the CFA Institute Future of Finance Advisory Committee. She also previously served on the Boards of Kraft Foods and Duke Energy.

George Serafeim Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
George Serafeim is the Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has taught courses in the MBA, executive education and doctoral programs, and is currently teaching the elective course “Reimagining Capitalism: Business and Big Problems” in the MBA curriculum. Professor Serafeim’s research focuses on measuring, driving and communicating corporate performance and social impact. His work has been published in the most prestigious academic and practitioner journals and his research has been recognized with numerous awards and is regularly cited in the media. Professor Serafeim has professional experience as a senior advisor and board member in both non-profit and private sector organizations.

Stephanie Tang Senior Corporate Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary, The Clorox Company
Stephanie’s areas of focus include corporate governance, executive compensation, stockholder engagement, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate responsibility. During her time at Clorox, Stephanie has also been responsible for SEC reporting, subsidiary management, and providing legal support for finance, tax, and treasury matters as well as the company’s product supply organization. She also coordinates diversity efforts within the legal department, including the law student internship program. Prior to joining Clorox, Stephanie was an associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where she represented public and private companies in securities matters, initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, and other corporate matters.

Sarah Teslik Of Counsel, Joele Frank
A leading expert in corporate governance and investor relations, Sarah is a frequent speaker on subjects related to governance, compliance, IR and management, and she has co-hosted issuer-shareholder roundtables that draw global audiences. Prior to joining Joele Frank, Sarah served as Senior Vice President Public Affairs, Communications & Governance at Apache Corporation, an S&P 500 company. Prior to Apache, she served as CEO of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Previously, Sarah founded and served as Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors for almost two decades. Her areas of expertise include corporate governance and compliance as well as investor relations and corporate communications.

Elisse B. Walter Former Chairman, SEC
Elisse B. Walter was appointed Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission by President George W. Bush and served from July 2008 until August 2013. She was designated the 30th Chairman of the SEC by President Barack Obama, and she served as the agency’s leader from December 2012 to April 2013. She also served as Acting Chairman in January 2009. Ms. Walter is a member of the Board of Directors of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Foundation, the National Women’s Law Center and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, and a member of the Board of Governors of FINRA.

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