George Hay is an associate editor in Breakingviews’ London office, covering commodities, the Middle East and general financial policy issues. Prior to that he was Breakingviews’ European Financial Editor, and also worked as a correspondent for AFX News and United Business Media. He has an undergraduate degree from Edinburgh University, a Graduate Diploma in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London, and his work has been recognised at the UK’s Business Journalist of the Year Awards.

Anne Simpson joined CalPERS in 2009 and was named interim managing investment director for Board Governance & Sustainability in June 2020.

She is responsible for strategic initiatives across the Fund. These include Climate Action 100+ (a global investor alliance of $40 trillion driving business action on climate change), the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, and the UN Secretary General’s Global Investors for Sustainable Development. Specific programs within investments include the Emerging Manager Program and the sustainable investment strategic plan.

In 2019 she was named by Time Magazine as one of the 15 women leading the global fight on climate change and in 2020 one of the 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance by Barron’s (Dow Jones). For 10 consecutive years from 2010-20 Anne has been ranked by the National Association of Corporate Directors as one of the year’s 100 most influential people in the boardroom.

She serves on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, as well as the Senior Advisory Board at the Center for Responsible Business at Haas, University of California at Berkley. She also serves on the Leadership Council of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Anne is an editorial board member of the journal “Directors & Boards.”

Anne has published several books in the field of Board Governance and Sustainability including “The Financial Ecosystem: The Role of Finance in Achieving Sustainability” with Satyajit Bose and Dong Guo of Columbia University; “Fair Shares: the Future of Shareholder Power and Responsibility” with Jonathan Charkham; and “The Greening of Global Investment: How the Environment, Ethics and Politics Are Reshaping Strategies.”

Previous roles included senior faculty fellow and lecturer at the Yale School of Management, head of the Global Corporate Governance Forum at the World Bank, executive director of the International Corporate Governance Network, and joint managing director of Pensions & Investment Research Consultants Ltd.

Anne graduated from Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where she read philosophy, politics and economics and was awarded bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She was a Slater Fellow at Wellesley College, Massachusetts.