BMO GAM’s Ross Kappele elected IFIC chairman

Five individuals were elected or re-elected to serve on the board of directors of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) at the self-regulatory organization’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Tuesday.

One new director, Michèle Colpron, was elected to the board for a two-year term. Colpron is a certified corporate director and chartered accountant, who was previously senior vice president financial management at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. She also sits on the boards of Fonds de solidarité FTQ and the Professional Insurance Liability Fund -Barreau du Québec.

Four existing IIROC directors were re-elected to serve another two years on the IIROC board, including two directors from dealers, Rita Achrekar, senior vice president of compliance, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Holly Benson, vice president of finance and CFO, Peters & Co. Ltd.

They are joined by re-elected marketplace director, Nick Thadaney, president and CEO of global equity capital markets, TMX Group, and Brian Heidecker, independent director.

The new board has re-appointed Marianne Harris as chairwoman of the SRO, and appointed Paul Allison as vice chairman. Allison, chairman and CEO of investment dealer Raymond James Ltd., succeeds Mike Gagné, who served on the IIROC board from 2009 to 2017.

“One of IIROC’s strengths is the wealth of experience and expertise on our board,” says Andrew Kriegler, IIROC president and CEO, in a statement. “With the board’s ongoing dedication and support, we constantly strive to fulfill our mandate as a national public interest regulator with integrity, transparency and fairness.”

For a full list of IIROC’s 2017-18 directors, see the SRO’s news release.

Speaking at a reception following the AGM, Kriegler noted that IIROC continues to work on addressing conflicts of interest and compensation-related conflicts in particular, alongside work being done by the Canadian Securities Administrators, and particularly the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), on both a set of targeted reforms to advisor-client regulations, and the introduction of possible best interest standard by the OSC.

“We believe it is an area where we can make progress in parallel with the work being done by our CSA colleagues,” Kriegler said. “By both working together with the CSA and proceeding in parallel to clarify our existing best interest conflicts requirements, we believe we can most contribute to confidence in our markets and the financial system.”

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