The Ontario Securities Commission has named the members of its revived investor advisory committee, which will be chaired by law professor Anita Anand.

The OSC’s new Investor Advisory Panel will be charged with providing the investor perspective on proposed rules, policies and the regulator’s annual statement of priorities, among other things. It expects to hold its first meeting in September.

The seven-member panel will be headed by Anita Anand, associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law where she teaches securities regulation and corporate law. She is joined by panelists who will each serve a term of two years.

The most prominent investor advocate in the group is Stan Buell, founder and president of the Small Investor Protection Association.

Along with Buell, the panel includes former brokerage industry veteran, Paul Bates, who since leaving the industry has become dean of McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, and is currently chair of the Investor Education Fund. Steve Garmaise, along-time industry analyst, is also on the committee.

They are joined by Michael Wissell, senior vice president of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, responsible for tactical asset allocation at the OTPP; Lincoln Caylor, a lawyer with Bennett Jones LLP; and, Nancy Averill, former director of research and methodology for the Public Policy Forum.

The panel is slimmed down from the 11-member group that formed the OSC’s first investor advisory group back in 2005. That committee, which was also headed by an academic from UofT, was disbanded after its two-year term expired. Recently however, the commission has heeded the call for more investor input in its policymaking. The proposed national regulator, which remains a work in progress, has also promised to set up an investor advisory committee as part of its structure.

The OSC reports that it received 119 applications to serve on the new panel, and that its members were selected “based on their experience with investor issues and public policy development”, as well as for specific skills to respond to requests for comment issued by the OSC. Unlike the first panel, the new group doesn’t count any private investors or consumer advocates among its ranks.

“We appreciate the great interest in the Investor Advisory Panel and have selected members with diverse backgrounds who demonstrate the ability to represent a broad range of investors in Ontario,” said Mary Condon, the panel’s executive sponsor and one of the part-time commissioners who worked on its’ development.

“The panel looks forward to contributing the perspectives of Ontario investors to the development of rules and policies that seek to protect their interests,” said Anand.

IE