WSIB Executive Director elected Chair of Board of Directors for Council of Institutional Investors (July 14, 2008) Olympia - Joe Dear, executive director of the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB), was elected Chair of the Board of Directors for the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) by his fellow Board members on July 11. The position of chair became vacant recently when Dennis Johnson, Corporate Governance Director for CalPERS, announced he was leaving the public pension fund for a job in the private sector. Dear was the unanimous choice to succeed Johnson. Dear had been serving as Chair of the Council's Policy Committee since his re-election to CII's Board of Directors in April. The Council of Institutional Investors is a not-for-profit association of 140 pension funds, including most of the largest pension funds in the U.S., with assets totaling more than $3 trillion. Founded in 1985, the Council's purpose is to address investment issues important to its members. The council works to educate members and the public about corporate governance, and to advocate for strong governance standards on issues ranging from executive compensation to the election of corporate directors. "Given the volatile nature of our financial markets today and the increasing call for greater government oversight, CII will play a critical role in representing the interests of its members," Dear said. "There has never been a more important time to have a strong voice advocating on behalf of institutional investors and the millions of shareowners we represent." This is Dear's second, one-year term on the council's Board of Directors. Dear has served as the WSIB's executive director since November, 2002. Prior to that he was the government relations officer for the Frank Russell Company, chief of staff for Governor Gary Locke, assistant secretary of labor for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and director of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. As director of Labor and Industries, Dear was a member of the Washington State Investment Board from 1987 to 1992 and served as Board chair from 1989 to 1991.