Standard Life Assurance Co. of Canada Tuesday announced the appointment of Gerry Rocchi as an independent director of Standard Life Canada and two affiliated companies, effective January 1.
Rocchi is the CEO and a co-founder of Green Power Action, an environmental finance firm that launched Canada’s first carbon offset credit fund, the voluntary Greening Canada Fund for Canadian corporations.
“In addition to having an acute awareness of how companies can find economic advantages by integrating sustainability into their corporate strategies,” said David Nish, chairman of Standard Life Canada. “Gerry brings investment management expertise and a sound understanding of corporate financial governance processes and practices to our Board.”
Rocchi served as the first independent chairman of the board of directors of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) in 2011 and 2012, and was a director of IIROC for eight years.
He has extensive experience as a senior executive, director and advisor in a broad array of disciplines, including pension investment and finance, strategic analysis, business development, risk control and client services.
Rocchi worked for many years with Barclays Global Investors (now part of Blackrock Global Investors), serving as CEO of Barclays Global Investors Canada from 1997 to 2004. He also spent 16 years with Imperial Oil and Exxon in a variety of finance roles and served on an independent review committee for a mutual fund group.
Rocchi has also co-taught a course on pension and endowment fund management in the Master of Finance program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.