Charlie Spiring, vice chairman and director, National Bank Financial, was unanimously elected new board chair of the Investment Industry Association of Canada (IIAC) at the association’s annual general meeting on June 5 in Toronto.

Peter Brown, honourary chairman and founder, Canaccord Financial Inc., will remain for a second term as IIAC board vice chairman.

In addition to Spiring’s election, the IIAC welcomed the following four new board members: Sandy Cimoroni; Mario Frankovich; Peter Meyers; and Deborah Starkman.

The IIAC’s immediate past chairman, Roman Dubczak, will remain a member of the IIAC board for an additional year.

In his role as IIAC board chairman, Spiring will focus his efforts on continuing to ensure the IIAC remains a strong and effective advocate on behalf of the association’s 168 Member firms with the goal of achieving practical and effective rules, alleviating the compliance burden, and suggesting modifications to proposed structural and public policy measures in order to facilitate the savings-investment process and market efficiencies.

“The need for a strong industry association and voice for the Canadian securities industry to speak out constructively on the regulatory process and on public policy has never been greater,” said Spiring.

Ian Russell, IIAC president and CEO said: “The IIAC, Canada’s investment industry and Canadian investors will benefit from this board’s experience and expertise. We are fortunate to have culled best-in-class representation from all sectors of Canada’s investment industry, including large retail dealers (non-bank owned), medium retail dealers, small retail dealers, institutional dealers, and integrated dealers (including bank-owned).”

2013/2014 IIAC Board of Directors:

  • Charlie Spiring (chairman) vice chairman and director, National Bank Financial, Winnipeg;
  • Peter Brown (vice chairman) honourary chairman, Canaccord Financial Inc., Vancouver;
  • Paul Allison, chairman and CEO, Raymond James Ltd., Toronto;
  • John Chambers, managing director and president, FirstEnergy Capital Corp., Calgary;
  • Sandy Cimoroni, president, TD Mutual Funds, Toronto;
  • Steven Donald, president, Assante Wealth Management Inc., Toronto;
  • Roman Dubczak, (immediate past chair), managing director and head of equity markets, CIBC World Markets Inc., Toronto;
  • Earl Evans, CEO, Macquarie Private Wealth Inc., Toronto;
  • Mario Frankovich, CEO and chairman, Burgeonvest Bick Securities Ltd., Waterloo, Ont.;
  • Peter Meyers, executive managing director, head, investment and corporate banking Canada, BMO Nesbitt Burns, Inc., Toronto;
  • Sylvain Perreault, chief compliance officer, Desjardins Group, Montreal;
  • Michael Scott, managing director, RBC Dominion Securities,Toronto;
  • Deborah Starkman, chief financial officer and secretary, GMP Capital Inc., Toronto;
  • Greg Woynarski, managing director & head global debt capital markets, Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, Toronto; and
  • Ian Russell (ex officio); president and CEO, IIAC, Toronto.