The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the agenda and panelists for its December 5 staff roundtable on the use of proxy advisory firm services by institutional investors and investment advisers.

The roundtable, announced earlier this month, will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will be divided into two sessions.  In the first session, participants will discuss, among other topics, the current use of proxy advisory services, including the factors that may have contributed to their use, the purposes and effects of using the services, and competition in the marketplace for such services.  In the second session, participants will discuss, among other topics, issues identified in the Commission’s 2010 concept release on the U.S. proxy voting system, including potential conflicts of interest that may exist for proxy advisory firms and users of their services, and the transparency and accuracy of recommendations by proxy advisory firms.

The roundtable panelists are:

• Karen Barr - General Counsel, Investment Adviser Association
• Jeffrey Brown - Head of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Charles Schwab
• Mark Chen - Associate Professor of Finance, Georgia State University
• Michelle Edkins - Managing Director and Global Head Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment, BlackRock, Inc.
• Yukako Kawata - Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
• Hoil Kim - Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, GT Advanced Technologies, Inc.
• Eric Komitee - General Counsel, Viking Global Investors LP
• Jeff Mahoney - General Counsel, Council of Institutional Investors
• Nell Minow - Co-Founder and Board Member, GMI Ratings
• Trevor Norwitz - Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
• Harvey Pitt - CEO, Kalorama Partners
• Katherine Rabin - CEO, Glass Lewis & Co. LLC
• Gary Retelny - President, Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc.
• Michael Ryan - Vice President, Business Roundtable, and former president and COO of Proxy Governance, Inc.
• Anne Sheehan - Director of Corporate Governance, CalSTRS
• Damon Silvers - Director of Policy and Special Counsel, AFL-CIO
• Darla Stuckey - Senior Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, Society of Corporate Secretaries
• Lynn Turner - Managing Director, LitiNomics, Inc.

The roundtable will be held at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.  The event also will be webcast live on the SEC’s website and will be archived for later viewing.

Members of the public are welcome to submit comments on the topics to be addressed at the roundtable.  Comments may be submitted electronically or on paper; please use one method only.  Any comments submitted will become part of the public record of the roundtable and posted on the SEC’s website. 

Electronic submissions:

Use the SEC’s Internet submission form or send an e-mail to rule-comments@sec.gov.

Paper submissions:

Send paper submissions in triplicate to Elizabeth M. Murphy, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number 4-670 and the file number should be included on the subject line if e-mail is used.