The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced the formation of its new Investor Advisory Committee required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The 21-member committee replaced the advisory committee that was disbanded after the Dodd-Frank Act became law. Section 911 of the Dodd-Frank Act established the new committee to advise the Commission on regulatory priorities, the regulation of securities products, trading strategies, fee structures, the effectiveness of disclosure, and on initiatives to protect investor interests and to promote investor confidence and the integrity of the securities marketplace. The Dodd-Frank Act authorizes the committee to submit findings and recommendations for review and consideration by the Commission.

Members of the committee were nominated by all five sitting Commissioners and represent a wide variety of interests, including senior citizens and other individual investors, mutual funds, pension funds, and state securities regulators. Said SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro:

“The SEC’s new Investor Advisory Committee is made up of individuals with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences. I look forward to their insight and recommendations as to how we can further the SEC’s critical investor protection mission.”

The members of the new Investor Advisory Committee are:

• Darcy Bradbury, Managing Director and Director of External Affairs, D.E. Shaw & Co., L.P.
• J. Robert Brown, Jr., Law Professor, University of Denver
• Joseph Dear, Chief Investment Officer, California Public Employees’ Retirement System
• Eugene Duffy, Partner and Principal, Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC
• Roger Ganser, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BetterInvesting
• James Glassman, Executive Director, George W. Bush Institute
• Craig Goettsch, Director of Investor Education and Consumer Outreach, Iowa Insurance Division
• Joseph Grundfest, William A. Franke Professor of Law and Business, Stanford Law School
• Mellody Hobson, President and Director of Ariel Investments, LLC
• Stephen Holmes, General Partner and Chief Operating Officer, InterWest Partners
• Adam Kanzer, Managing Director and General Counsel of Domini Social Investments and Chief Legal Officer of the Domini Funds
• Roy Katzovicz, Partner, Investment Team Member and Chief Legal Officer, Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P.
• Barbara Roper, Director of Investor Protection, Consumer Federation of America
• Kurt Schacht, Managing Director, CFA Institute
• Alan Schnitzer, Vice Chairman and Chief Legal Officer, The Travelers Companies, Inc.
• Jean Setzfand, Director of Financial Security for the AARP
• Anne Sheehan, Director of Corporate Governance, California State Teachers’ Retirement System
• Damon Silvers, Associate General Counsel for the AFL-CIO
• Mark Tresnowski, Managing Director and General Counsel, Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC
• Steven Wallman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Foliofn, Inc.
• Ann Yerger, Executive Director, Council of Institutional Investors

Congratulations to all Committee members. I’m going to miss Mark Latham, Stephen Davis, Abe Friedman, Mercer Bullard, Hye-Won Choi and others from the first committee but I trust the new members will push even harder for the rights of investors, especially retail investors. They could start by leveling the playing field through measures like my suggested rulemaking to eliminate blank votes from automatically going to management and promoting systems for an open form of client directed voting.

To contact James McRitchie directly, please email jm@corpgov.net