The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today announced the appointment of Anne Simpson as senior portfolio manager for corporate governance. Simpson replaces Dennis Johnson who left last July to become managing director of Shamrock Activist Value Fund.
Simpson’s appointment follows the appointments of Anne Sausboll as chief executive in December and Joseph Dear as chief investment officer just a week ago. Sausboll, the first female CEO to lead the 77-year-old pension fund, replaced Ken Marzion who served as interim CEO since theretirement in June of Fred Buenrostro.
Simpson served most recently as the executive director of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), which represents investors responsible for $15 trillion in global assets.“In Anne Simpson, we are getting one of the world’s most influential investor activists,” said George Diehr, chair of the CalPERS Investment Committee. “She is widely recognized in the global corporate governance community, which knows her for her many appearances before political, policy and regulatory bodies.”
As first executive director of ICGN, Simpson doubled its size and stepped up its role in policy advocacy and best practice development before such forums as the International Accounting Standards Board, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority and the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission.
With CalPERS, she will oversee the Focus List program, which involves monitoring portfolio companies’ performance related to finance, corporate governance practices and CalPERS strategic issues. Simpson also will help CalPERS respond to ongoing market reform issues before U.S. policymakers and regulators.