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SVIA Membership Appoints New Board Members

SVIA recently asked all voting members to nominate candidates for four service firm positions on the Board of Directors, which is responsible for ensuring that the Association executes your agenda for Stable Value funds. Forty-three voting members or 47 percent responded to the request for nominations.

As you may recall, to become a candidate for election to the Board, an individual must be:

• A member in good standing in the Association,
• Become the voting member for his/her firm if nominated and elected, if not already,
• Commit to taking an active leadership role in Association activities,
• For a service firm member, receive the greater of three nominations from SVIA voting members or 10 percent (rounded to the next higher value of the total number of voting members who make nominations.)

What exactly does the fourth criteria mean for service firm members? It means that getting the minimum of three nominations did not ensure that your nominee would be a candidate for the Board of Directors. In the 2003 nomination process, it meant that a nominee had to receive at least four nominations from individual voting members to run for the Board. This hurdle narrowed the field of service firm nominees from twenty-seven to six.

SVIA's Experience in Board Nomination Process for Service Firms

The three or 10 percent rule was instituted as a way to have the membership whittle down nominations to a manageable slate of candidates. The rule avoids primaries and the potential for a series of run-offs from an overly broad field. The rule also provides a mechanism for the membership to directly select or appoint new members on the Board.

This year's nomination process has exercised the last purpose of the rule, which is, if need be, to directly select new Board members. Although six individuals were nominated, only four chose to run for the Board. The four new Board members are: John Axtell of Deutsche Asset Management, Richard Cook of GE Financial Assurance, Aruna Hobbs of AEGON Institutional Markets, and Michael Norman, Galliard Capital Management, Inc.

Additionally, one plan sponsor seat was up for election this year, Halliburton's Nathaniel Duffield. Since Nat was interested in serving a second term, the Board of Directors' unanimously appointed him to a second term at the July 15-16 Board meeting.

These five individuals will serve a three-year term on the Board beginning January 1, 2004 and ending December 31, 2007. SVIA current Chairman, Deutsche Asset Management's Eric Kirsch will also be stepping down in 2004. Eric will continue on the Board in an ex-officio (non-voting) status as the most recent past chairman. JP Morgan Fleming's Victoria Paradis will pick up the gavel from Eric and become the new SVIA chairwoman at that time.

Read Next: Introducing Five Board Members