SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™, a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides sustainability accounting standards for use by publicly listed corporations in the U.S., today announces two new members of its board of directors. The new board members, who will serve a three-year term effective June 2016, are:

• Alan Beller, Senior Counsel, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & HamiltonAlan L. Beller is senior counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Mr. Beller's practice focuses on a wide variety of complex corporate governance, securities and corporate matters. Mr. Beller served as the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as Senior Counselor to the Commission from January 2002 until February 2006. Among his accomplishments were the implementation of the corporate provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the adoption of the first general corporate governance standards for listed companies. Mr. Beller is a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit and Risk Committees of The Travelers Companies, Inc. He is also a Trustee of the IFRS Foundation, which is responsible for governance and oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards.
• Ken Mehlman, Member & Global Head of Public Affairs, KKR Ken Mehlman is KKR's Global Head of Public Affairs, helping the Firm assess and improve the companies in which it invests by better understanding and managing geopolitical risk and engaging with their key stakeholders. Mr. Mehlman leads KKR's Environmental Social Governance (ESG) programs for the firm and its portfolio companies. Before joining KKR, Mr. Mehlman led a bipartisan public policy and regulatory practice at the global law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Mr. Mehlman spent a dozen years in national politics and government service, including as 62nd Chairman of the Republican National Committee and Campaign Manager of President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign as well as in high level positions in Congress and the White House.

"We are glad to welcome Ken Mehlman and Alan Beller to the SASB Board," says Mary Schapiro, Former Chair of the SEC and Vice Chair of the SASB Board of Directors. "As leaders in their respective fields, Ken and Alan share expertise in helping businesses understand the material risk and opportunity linked to sustainability factors. Their leadership will be invaluable as SASB continues its work to make markets more transparent and efficient."

"The SASB has established a powerful conceptual framework around standard-setting and a thoughtful due process to establish those standards. These critical factors will lead to standards that will provide material information to investors and a practical disclosure framework for issuers. I am thrilled to be part of the SASB team and the important and well-considered approach they have embraced," said Mr. Beller. 

"Thoroughly understanding the stakeholders impacted by our investments enhances bottom line value and mitigates risk," said Mr. Mehlman. "The planet is only going to be saved at a profit, and the better we understand this connection through work like SASB's, the smarter our decisions become."

For more information about SASB, please visit www.sasb.org.

About SASB

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ is an independent 501(c)3 organization that issues industry-specific standards for use in disclosing material sustainability information in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, and Mary Schapiro, former SEC chairman, serve as chair and vice chair of SASB's Board of Directors, and Dr. Jean Rogers serves as Founder and CEO. More than 2,800 individuals representing $23.4T assets under management and $11T market capital have participated in multi-stakeholder industry working groups informing standards development. For more information about SASB, visit www.sasb.org, or follow us on YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Amanda Medress
Director of Communications
(415) 830-9220 ext. 106
Amanda.Medress@sasb.org

SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

Related Links

http://www.sasb.org