Sarah Teslik. A leading expert in corporate governance and investor relations, Sarah is a frequent speaker on subjects related to governance, compliance, IR and management, and she has co-hosted issuer-shareholder roundtables that draw global audiences.
Prior to joining Joele Frank, Sarah served as Senior Vice President Public Affairs, Communications & Governance at Apache Corporation, an S&P 500 company. Prior to Apache, she served as CEO of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Previously, Sarah founded and served as Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors for almost two decades. Her areas of expertise include:
Corporate Governance and Compliance
She has considerable experience in corporate governance and compliance, both as a former executive of an S&P 500 public company and through her decades of work with independent corporate governance groups. She has founded a number of global governance organizations, including the Energy Governance Group, a network of senior executives from 35 major energy companies, and the Women in Governance Lunch, an annual invitation-only event for 50 Global 500 company directors and 50 proxy voters at the largest global institutional investors.
Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Over nearly 30 years, she has formed strong relationships with hundreds of the largest global investors, as well as leading environmental, social and governance organizations, giving her a unique perspective advising companies on how to effectively manage their shareholder-facing interactions.
Sarah has been published or profiled in a number of periodicals, including Harvard Business Review, Employee Benefits Quarterly, Worth, Directorship, Economie(French publication), Working Woman, The Washington Post, The American Lawyer, Corporate Control Alert, and Fortune. She is also the author of a widely read monthly investment and governance newsletter.
Sarah received a BA from Whitman College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received an MA in modern history from Oxford University and a JD, cum laude, from Georgetown University.
Lee Ballin. As Head of Sustainable Business Programs at Bloomberg, Lee Ballin is a leading sustainability executive with over a decade of experience in the field. Reporting to the Chairman's Office, the team aggressively integrates sustainability considerations into all operations and co-develops products and services for the Bloomberg Terminal and Bloomberg Media, enabling our clients to evaluate sustainability market risks and opportunities.
Lee works closely with forward-thinking brands to showcase their sustainability efforts to the financial and business communities through a wide range of opportunities in Bloomberg Media. Lee and his team are responsible for developing best-in-class employee engagement programs, including training curricula, and delivering Bloomberg's annual GRI-based Sustainability Report. Working closely with operating departments, the Sustainable Business and Finance group has achieved over $115M in cost savings the past 10 years.
He is a Fellow within the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Programs First Mover Fellowship and a graduate of CORO Leadership New York, a civic leadership program. As a faculty member at NYU, he teaches a course on Corporate Social Responsibility, serves as an advisor for the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and recently joined NYU’s advisory council for the Michael Price Student Investment Fund. Lee sits on the CECP's Strategic Investor Initiative’s advisory board and is a member of the WBCSD's Aligning Retirement Assets (ARA) steering committee.
Lee lives in Hoboken, NJ and is married with two daughters. He holds a bachelor's degree in business logistics from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business with a focus on finance and sustainability.