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Advisory Panel

CalPERS and CalSTRS drew upon the expertise of leaders in the field to help guide the development of the Diverse Director DataSource (3D). The goal was to have perspectives from diversity advocates, shareowners, companies, search firms and academics. We have benefitted immensely from the counsel of these individuals whose expertise and feedback was an important component to the success of this project to date. 3D is now with GMI for implementation.

    • Photo of Victor Arias
    • Victor Arias
    • Senior Client Partner, Real Estate
    • KornFerry

    • Victor Arias, Jr. is a Senior Client Partner in the Dallas office of Korn/Ferry International. He is a member of the Firm's consumer, real estate and board services recruitment efforts.

      Mr. Arias boasts more than a decade of executive recruitment experience gained through working at several of the world's most preeminent search firms. His clients, which range from medium-sized to major global firms, benefit greatly from his deep knowledge of Latin America and expertise in the area of diversity. He has also been active in the formation of the Hispanic Market Center of Excellence within Korn/Ferry, with an initial focus on Latinos in the corporate board room.

      Prior to his executive search career, Mr. Arias spent 15 years in the corporate and commercial real estate business, working at Jones Lang LaSalle in Chicago and as executive vice president of marketing for the Las Colinas development in Dallas.

      Mr. Arias currently serves on the board of directors of AFC Enterprises (NASDAQ:AFCE) and the board of advisors for the University of Notre Dame Institute of Latino Studies. He is a trustee emeritus on the Stanford University board of trustees and a member of the Stanford GSB Advisory Council and the UTEP Development Committee. Additionally, Mr. Arias is a past White House Fellows Commissioner and past national president and co-founder of the National Society of Hispanic MBA's.

      Mr. Arias earned his master's of business administration degree from Stanford University and his bachelor's degree in business administration from University of Texas at El Paso, where he was honored as the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus.

    • Photo of Maria del Pilar Avila
    • Maria del Pilar Avila
    • Chief Executive Officer
    • New America Alliance

    • Ms. Avila rejoined New America Alliance (NAA) in May 2010 as Chief Executive Officer. As NAA's Founding Executive Director from 1999-2005, Pilar applied her leadership and management skills in carrying out the vision of the NAA Board of Directors, turning the vision into a reality, and a start-up into a viable, well-established and highly respected national American Latino business initiative. She brings a deep understanding of the organization's advocacy goals and shares the objective of leveraging and accelerating the economic, political and human capital development of the American Latino community.

      Over her career, Pilar has earned a strong reputation as a business and civic leader, most recently at Palladium Equity Partners as Vice President and part of the investment team from 2005-2010. At Palladium, she was mainly responsible for strategic marketing initiatives, investor relations, and strengthening the Palladium brand. Before joining the NAA as Founding Executive Director, from 1996-1999, Pilar was Vice President of Marketing & Events at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where she developed strong relationships with Latino entrepreneurs in key U.S. markets, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and dealt with the complex intersection of Latino business progress, political advocacy and corporate America. She began her career in hospitality management holding a variety of positions at the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau and Hilton International.

      Pilar serves as board member of The Marathon Club, a dealmakers and relationship accelerator network, and has served on the board of the National Puerto Rican Coalition. In 2010, Pilar was recognized by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the "100 Influentials". In 2006, she was recognized as one of the "20 Most Influential and Outstanding Hispanic Women in Business" by Hispanic Trends Magazine (now PODER Enterprise). She received the New America Alliance Chairmen's Leadership Award in 2004. Pilar earned a Bachelor of Science in Business and Hospitality Management from the University of Central Florida.

    • Photo of Jay Chaudhuri
    • Jay Chaudhuri
    • General Counsel & Senior Policy Advisor
    • Department of State Treasurer, North Carolina

    • Jay Chaudhuri serves as General Counsel & Senior Policy Advisor to North Carolina State Treasurer Janet Cowell, who manages the tenth largest public pension fund in the United States totaling almost $70 billion. He manages all legal and corporate governance matters. Currently, Mr. Chaudhuri serves on the Board of Directors of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII), a nonprofit organization of pension funds that represents over $3 trillion in assets. At CII, Mr. Chaudhuri chairs the Securities and Exchange Policies Subcommittee. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the UNC Directors Development Institute.

      Before that, Mr. Chaudhuri served as Special Counsel to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. As Special Counsel, he developed major policy initiatives and provided counsel to the Attorney General on a wide variety of issues. He served as co-counsel for the national multi-state investigation of the two largest social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook. In 2008, Mr. Chaudhuri helped negotiate an agreement between 49 Attorneys General and MySpace which has been called by the Director of the National State Attorneys Generals Program at Columbia Law School as a "creative and cooperative approach to law enforcement [which] will be the hallmark of future A[ttorneys] G[eneral] initiatives." These agreements resulted in dozens of web site changes and the creation of an industry-wide task force to create online safety tools headed by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. For his efforts, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) honored him with the Marvin Award, given to an individual who furthers the NAAG's goal.

      Mr. Chaudhuri has served as a legislative aide to United States Senator Russell D. Feingold. He also clerked for the Honorable Linda M. McGee of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and served as legislative counsel to Roy Cooper, when he was State Senate Majority Leader.

    • Photo of Douglas K. Chia
    • Douglas K. Chia
    • Assistant General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
    • Johnson & Johnson

    • Douglas K. Chia is Assistant General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Johnson & Johnson, the world's most comprehensive and broadly-based manufacturer of health care products, headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to the corporation on matters of corporate governance, securities regulation, public company disclosure, and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.

      Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Chia was Assistant General Counsel, Corporate at Tyco International. In private practice, Mr. Chia was an associate at the law firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Clifford Chance, practicing in the New York and Hong Kong offices of each firm. While in private practice, Mr. Chia provided legal counsel to issuers and underwriters on securities offerings and cross-border transactions.

      Mr. Chia is a member of the Board of Directors, Executive Steering Committee, Corporate Practices Committee, and Policy Advisory Committee of the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals, and is Chairman of the Society's Membership Committee. Mr. Chia is also a member of the Corporate & Securities Law Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel, as well as a member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).

      In 2008, Mr. Chia was the recipient of Corporate Secretary magazine's "Rising Star" award and named by NAPABA as one of the "Best Lawyers Under 40." In 2010, Mr. Chia was named a "Rising Star of Corporate Governance" by the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management. Mr. Chia was recognized by Directorship magazine as one of the 100 "most influential people in corporate governance and the boardroom" in 2009 and 2010. Mr. Chia recently served as a member of the New York Stock Exchange's Commission on Corporate Governance.

      Mr. Chia received his AB from Dartmouth College and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

    • Photo of Michele Chow-Tai
    • Michele Chow-Tai
    • VP and Business Manager, Global Banking and Markets Finance
    • HSBC

    • Michele Chow-Tai is Relationship Manager, Global Reserve Managers and Sovereigns in HSBC Global Banking and Markets. In this role, she leads client interactions with central banks, sovereign wealth funds and the public sector across product areas. Prior to this role, Michele was responsible for distributing alternative investments solutions and strategies to institutional investors, and worked closely with the Bank's investment specialists across all assets classes to identify market opportunities within the United States. Michele joined HSBC in 1989 and has held various positions in financial services including Vice President, Business Development and Assistant Director for HSBC Financial Products Institute, a division which focused primarily on derivatives and structured products client education. Prior to HSBC, Michele spent five years at Moody's Investor Services as a bank and finance analyst. Michele earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the City University of New York and also holds credentials in business administration and finance. Michele is Series 7 and Series 63 licensed.

      Michele serves on the boards of the City of New York (CUNY) York College Foundation, the National Association of Securities Professionals Foundation and the Cambria School of Excellence.

      Michele has participated in a number of corporate diversity initiatives over the years, including the California Public Employees Retirement System / California State Teacher's Retirement System's Advisory Committee on Building a Shareowner Aligned Diverse Pool of Talent, and the HSBC Diversity Business Linkage Committee. Michele is also an active member of 100 Women of Hedge Funds and the Asian American Association of Investment Managers.

      Michele is a 2006 NELI Eagle Award recipient and has received various other awards in recognition of outstanding leadership achievements.

      HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. The Group serves customers worldwide from around 7,500 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$2,691bn at 30 June 2011, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations.

    • Photo of Margaret M. Foran
    • Margaret M. Foran
    • Chief Governance Officer, Vice President and Corporate Secretary
    • Prudential

    • Ms. Foran is Chief Governance Officer, Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Prudential Financial, Inc. She has been a corporate governance leader throughout her career at J. P. Morgan & Co., Inc., Pfizer, Inc., and most recently Sara Lee Corporation. She is admitted to the New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey (In-house) Bars. Ms. Foran is a Director on the Board of Occidental Petroleum Corporation and is a former Chairman, a former director, the former Chair of the Securities Law Committee, and the former Treasurer of the Society. Ms. Foran received her B.A., magna cum laude, and J. D. degrees from the University of Notre Dame.

    • Photo of Julie Hembrock Daum
    • Julie Hembrock Daum
    • Practice Co-leader, North American Board & CEO Succession Practice
    • Spencer Stuart

    • Julie Hembrock Daum is the practice co-leader for the North American Board & CEO Succession Practice of Spencer Stuart, the leading executive search firm in the boardroom. She consults with corporate boards, working with companies of all sizes from the Fortune 10 to pre-IPO companies and has worked on over 450 director assignments. Her recent work includes recruiting the outside directors for AIG, AOL, Citigroup, Delta Air Lines, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and The Home Depot. She continues to work with companies such as Coach, Global Hyatt, Genzyme Corporation and The New York Times to recruit individual directors. She serves on the board of directors of Spencer Stuart, Women's Refugee Commission, Citymeals on Wheels and The James Beard Foundation.

      Julie also is involved in the organization of the Northwestern Conference on Corporate Governance and was the founder of Wharton's Corporate Governance: Fresh Insights and Best Practices for Directors program. She is a frequent writer and speaker on governance topics and recently has been quoted in The New York Times, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Time Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. She has been selected as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Governance by Directorship Magazine and one of the 100 Most Influential Women in New York by Crain's New York Business.

      Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Julie was the executive director of the corporate board resource at Catalyst. She managed all board of directors' activities and worked with companies to identify qualified women for their board. After graduating with an M.B.A. in corporate finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Julie began her career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles.

    • Photo of Femke van't Groenewout
    • Femke van't Groenewout
    • Senior Advisor Responsible Investment
    • PGGM

    • Femke van 't Groenewout joined PGGM in March 2007, and holds the position of Senior Advisor Responsible Investment at PGGM Investments. Although her focus is primarily on Corporate Governance, the Responsible Investment department is coordinating all Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related issues within PGGM Investments. Furthermore, Femke is responsible for the implementation of the Shareholder Litigation Policy of PGGM , in which shareholder litigation in the United States, especially by means of securities class actions, plays an important role.

      Femke van 't Groenewout is a member of the Investment Committee of Eumedion, the Dutch Corporate Governance Forum for Institutional investors with 68 participants (Dutch and foreign pension funds, assets managers, investment institutions and insurance companies), collectively representing over 1 trillion euro of Assets Under Management.

      Before joining PGGM – asset manager for Dutch pension funds for especially the health care sector with AUM approximately € 100 billion – Femke was vice-director of the Dutch Shareholders Association, VEB in which function she became highly experienced with collective actions on behalf of duped investors in The Netherlands.

      Prior to her work at the VEB, Femke was a corporate lawyer with a large Dutch law firm, specialized in mergers & acquisitions. She studied Dutch corporate law at the University of Leiden.

    • Photo of Henry Jones
    • Henry Jones
    • CalPERS Board of Administration

    • Henry Jones was elected to the CalPERS Board of Administration in December 2007 by retired members. He is Chair of the Finance Committee and Vice Chair of the Ad Hoc Risk Management Committee. He also serves on the Investment, Benefits and Program Administration, Health Benefits and Ad Hoc Board Governance Committees.

      Mr. Jones retired from the Los Angeles Unified School District in 1998 as Chief Financial Officer overseeing the $7 billion dollar annual budget. He also headed the Annuity Reserve Fund Board overseeing the pension fund for 7,000 school teachers and administrators.

      Mr. Jones serves as a Personnel Commissioner for the Los Angeles Community College District. Mr. Jones is a CalPERS representative of the Advisory Council of California All, a nonprofit organization focused on closing the achievement gap from preschool to professional careers in law, financial services and technology. He has also served as State Finance Chair for the Association of California Schools Administrators; Treasurer for the National Council of Institutional Investors; and Chairman of the Schools Federal Credit Union.

      Mr. Jones is a member of the Governing Board of the Robert Toigo Foundation, a non-profit organization which encourages minorities to pursue careers in finance.

      Mr. Jones served as a Business Development Executive for IBM Business Consulting Services and Principal Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Jones has also served as an Adjunct Professor at California State University, Los Angeles.

      Mr. Jones has a Bachelor's degree from California State University, Los Angeles, in business administration and finance.

    • Photo of Richard Koppes
    • Richard Koppes
    • Fellow
    • Stanford Law School

    • Mr. Koppes is the former Deputy Executive Officer and General Counsel of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension fund in the United States with over $200 billion in assets. He is the founder, Past President, and current Administrative Officer of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA) and serves on the boards of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute. Mr. Koppes was a Director of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International from 2002 to 2010, and a Director of Apria Healthcare Group Inc. from 1998 5o 2008. He retired from the international law firm of Jones Day in December 2009 after 13-plus years of service, and is a current fellow at Stanford Law School. Mr. Koppes was a member of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on Board Evaluations and of the NACD-CII Task Force on Shareholder/Director Communications, and is a former board member of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. In 2007, NACD presented him with its lifetime achievement award for contributions to corporate governance ??? its highest honor.

    • Photo of Mindy Lubber
    • Mindy Lubber, JD, MBA
    • President
    • Ceres

    • Mindy S. Lubber is President of Ceres, the leading coalition of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to build sustainability into the capital markets and address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. She also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of more than 90 investors representing approximately $10 trillion in assets that coordinates U.S. investor responses to the financial risks and opportunities of climate change.

      Ms. Lubber is the recipient of the Skoll Social Entrepreneur Award and under her leadership, Ceres has been awarded Global Green USA's 2009 Organizational Design Award and Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards in 2007 and 2008. She was recently voted one of "The 100 Most Influential People in Corporate Governance" for 2009 by Directorship Magazine, who noted Ceres' substantial influence in its field.

      Before coming to Ceres, Ms. Lubber was the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Founder/CEO of Green Century Capital Management, an investment firm managing environmentally screened mutual funds.

    • Photo of Ira M. Millstein
    • Ira M. Millstein
    • Senior Partner
    • Weil Gotshal & Manges
    • Senior Associate Dean for Corporate Governance and The Theodore Nierenberg Adjunct Professor of Corporate Governance
    • Yale School of Management

    • Ira M. Millstein is a senior partner at the international law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where, in addition to practicing in the areas of government regulation and antitrust law, he counsels boards of directors on corporate governance matters. In addition to his active legal practice, Mr. Millstein is the Senior Associate Dean for Corporate Governance, and the Theodore Nierenberg Professor in the Practice of Corporate Governance at the Yale School of Management. Among many distinguished positions and roles, Mr. Millstein has served as Chairman of the OECD Business Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance, where he was instrumental in the development of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, Co-Chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Improving the Effectiveness of Corporate Audit Committees and Chairman of the National Association of Corporate Directors' Blue Ribbon Commission on Director Professionalism. Mr. Millstein currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Private Sector Advisory Group to the Global Corporate Governance Forum, Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Overseers of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Life Trustee of the Board of the Central Park Conservancy and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Red Cross of Greater New York. Mr. Millstein is also a dedicated member of the Board of Directors of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. Most recently, Mr. Millstein has played a key role in the reform of New York State's numerous public authorities, serving at the request of Governors Pataki and Paterson, as Chairman of various task forces charged with overseeing successful implementation of the new public authorities laws.

      An Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Mr. Millstein is a frequent lecturer and author of books and articles on corporate governance, antitrust and government regulation.

    • Photo of Dan Pedrotty
    • Dan Pedrotty
    • Director, Office of Investment
    • AFL-CIO

    • Dan Pedrotty is the Director of the AFL-CIO's Office of Investment. The Office of Investment organizes workers' capital (pension funds and savings plans) into a voice for corporate accountability and retirement security. He also represents the Federation with the media, lawmakers and agencies on the issues of capital markets and corporate governance, including serving as Rich Trumka's liaison to President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He graduated from Dickinson College with a B.A. in Political Science in 1999, and from Wake Forest University Law School with a J.D. in 2002.

    • Photo of Anne Sheehan
    • Anne Sheehan
    • Director, Corporate Governance
    • CalSTRS

    • Ms. Sheehan is the Director of Corporate Governance for the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second largest public pension fund in the USA, where she is responsible for overseeing all corporate governance activities for the fund including proxy voting, company engagements and managing $3billion placed with activists managers. Prior to that, she served as Chief Deputy Director for Policy at the California Department of Finance. Ms Sheehan also serves as a board member of the Council of Institutional Investors and the NASDAQ Listing Council. Ms. Sheehan was named one of the 100 most influential people on corporate governance by Directorship magazine in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

    • Photo of Anne Simpson
    • Anne Simpson
    • Senior Portfolio Manager, Corporate Governance
    • CalPERS

    • Anne Simpson is Senior Portfolio Manager for Corporate Governance at the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension system in the United States with approximately $228.9 billion under management. She heads the corporate governance program which includes CalPERS Focus List of shareholder engagement with companies, global proxy voting, legal and regulatory reform agenda and CalPERS actively managed corporate governance investment strategy.

      Anne is a Visiting Professor and Senior Faculty Fellow at the Yale School of Management where she teaches corporate governance with Ira Millstein. She has recently been appointed a member of the Investor Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Anne also sits on the Editorial Advisory Board for the journal "Corporate Governance: An International Review" published by Blackwells. Her former roles include: Executive Director of the International Corporate Governance Network, head of the World Bank's Global Corporate Governance Forum and Joint Managing Director of the investment firm PIRC Ltd in London. Anne read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Hilda's College, Oxford University and Development Economics as a Slater Fellow at Wellesley College. She is author of a number of publications including, with Jonathan Charkham, 'Fair Shares: the future of shareholder power and responsibility' published by Oxford University Press.

    • Photo of Deborah M. Soon
    • Deborah M. Soon
    • Vice President, Marketing & Executive Leadership Initiatives
    • Catalyst

    • Deborah M. Soon leads the Catalyst marketing organization, directing marketing strategy development, the editorial and design processes, events planning, and public affairs. She is also responsible for Catalyst services targeted to the most senior women executives in corporations. The core of these services, Corporate Board Services, focuses on the advancement of women into the corporate boardroom through candidate assessment and preparation.

      Prior to working at Catalyst, Ms. Soon was a consultant at Spencer Stuart, one of the leading global executive search firms. Her search engagements focused on the areas of technology, education, and healthcare, with specific functional emphasis on CEO, other senior executive, and board placements. Prior to Spencer Stuart, Ms. Soon was the CEO of Larscom, a telecommunications company she took public in 1996 and subsequently led as a public entity. Earlier in her career, Ms. Soon held various executive positions in marketing and software engineering at AT&T, BBN, and EDS.

      Ms. Soon holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She also completed special studies in Mathematics at Cambridge University, England. Ms. Soon is member of the Board Diversity Council of Corporate Board Director magazine and a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Advisors of DirectWomen Board Institute.

    • Photo of Carolyn Widener
    • Carolyn Widener
    • Trustee
    • Teachers' Retirement Board

    • Carolyn Widener is a Board member of the California State Teachers' Retirement System and elected representative for community college instructors. CalSTRS is the largest teachers' pension fund in the U.S. with an investment portfolio of $140.1 billion. CalSTRS serves nearly 847,000 members and benefit recipients, providing retirement, disability and survivor benefits for California's public school educators in grades kindergarten through community college. Since 1970, she has taught and counseled at the colleges within the Los Angeles Community College District. Additionally, she has provided leadership for teacher organizations, currently representing faculty on the District's Joint Labor-Management Health Benefits Committee and serving as the elected Executive Vice President of the Los Angeles College Faculty Guild.

    • Photo of Ann Yerger
    • Ann Yerger, CFA
    • Executive Director
    • Council of Institutional Investors

    • Ann Yerger was named Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors in January 2005. She joined the organization in early 1996 as Director of the Council's Research Service. Founded in 1985, the Council is an organization of public, corporate, and Taft-Hartley pension funds which manage in aggregate over $3.0 trillion in assets. The Council's objective is to address, on a non-partisan basis, investment issues and corporate governance issues.

      Before joining the Council, Ms. Yerger was deputy director of the Corporate Governance Service of the Investor Responsibility Research Center. Before joining IRRC, she spent five years in the domestic corporate banking division of Wachovia Bank in Winston-Salem, NC and Atlanta, GA.

      She currently serves as a member of the Investor Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council. She is a director of the National Institute on Retirement Security.

      She received an A.B. in Economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. in Finance from Tulane University.

Last Updated: 10-04-2011