Achieving Diversity in the Boardroom and the C-Suite: Barriers, Biases, and Breakthroughs
Anne Sheehan
Anne Sheehan
Director of Corporate Governance, CalSTRS
Ms. Sheehan is the Director of Corporate Governance for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the largest teacher’s 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 $3 billion placed with activists managers. Ms. Sheehan has served in this position since 2008. Prior to accepting this position, Ms. Sheehan has had a long and distinguished career in government.
In August 2004, recently-elected Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recruited Anne Sheehan to join his new administration as the Chief Deputy Director for Policy of the California Department of Finance. In this capacity, she represented the Governor on more than 80 state boards, commissions, and public authorities. These various entities covered a very broad spectrum of topics and policy issues and, included such diverse organizations as the State Lands Commission, the Commission on State Mandates, and the California Public Works Board. Additionally, Anne also had staff oversight responsibility for managing the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.
Ms. Sheehan has had nearly three decades of management and leadership experience in major policy positions at both the state and federal levels. At 29, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs in the Department of Energy. She had the distinction of being the youngest person to hold such a position in the Reagan administration. Upon her departure from Washington, Ms. Sheehan came to California and served two Republican governors in a variety of senior positions culminating in her appointment by Governor Pete Wilson as Secretary of California’s State and Consumer Services Agency. This organization has 14,000 employees and an annual budget of $1.7 billion.
In addition to her regular job responsibilities at the Department of Finance, Governor Schwarzenegger called upon her to undertake special projects for him. At the beginning of his administration, she was on special assignment as the Executive Director of the California Performance Review Commission which developed a lengthy series of recommendations to restructure and reorganize the state government. In 2007, Anne was responsible for directing the Governor’s Post Employment Benefit Commission. This was a special commission established to analyze the seriously unfunded pension and health care liabilities of all the cities, counties, and public agencies in California.
Ms. Sheehan served as the Chair of the Council of Institutional Investors for 2012 and 2013, as well as having served two terms on the NASDAQ Listing Council. Ms. Sheehan is currently Vice Chair of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee, is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, and is a Member of the Board of Directors of the 30% Coalition. Ms. Sheehan was named one of the 100 most influential people on corporate governance by Directorship magazine for the past six years.
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