Ceres Welcomes Adele Simmons as Newest Member of Its Board of Directors

BOSTO, February 1, 2012 /3BL Media/ – Ceres today announced that Adele Smith Simmons, a senior executive at Metropolis Strategies and a board member at insurance brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan Cos., has been elected to its Board of Directors.

In her current role at Metropolis Strategies, Simmons focuses on environmental and sustainability issues, and provided leadership for the 2009 Burnham Plan Centennial. She was co-chair of the Task Force that developed a Climate Action Plan for the city of Chicago, and is a member of the Green Ribbon Committee that is helping to implement the Plan. She served as a co-chair of the Council on Global Affairs study group on Chicago’s global future.

Simmons also chairs Marsh & McLennan’s board committee on Social Responsibility.

“Ceres is excited to welcome Adele Simmons to our Board,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres. “Her unique experience and expertise in the private sector, as well as with leading NGOs, will help Ceres as we continue to work with businesses and investors to build a more sustainable economy.”

“I have been an admirer of Ceres and its work for many years,” said Simmons. “I look forward to working with the extraordinary staff and my colleagues on the Board to help engage the business and investor community as allies in addressing the critical issues relating to climate change.”

From 1989 to 1999, Simmons was President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  In 1996, she expanded the foundation’s work in the environment to include climate change. The foundation’s international programs focus on the environment, population, international peace and security, understanding inequality within and among nations and climate change.

Before joining the MacArthur Foundation, Simmons was President of Hampshire College, Dean of Students and Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University, and Dean of Jackson College at Tufts University.  Simmons has served as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Redesign Initiative as well as on President Carter’s Commission on World Hunger and President Bush’s Commission on Sustainable Development. She was a member of the Commission on Global Governance and the UN High Level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development.

She is also involved in a number of non-profit organizations, including the Field Museum, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Economic Club of Chicago, Demos and The American Prospect, the Synergos Institute, the Weil Foundation, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

For more information:
Brian Bowen, 617-247-0700 x148, bowen@ceres.org

About Ceres
Ceres is an advocate for sustainability leadership.  Ceres mobilizes a powerful coalition of investors, companies and public interest groups to accelerate and expand the adoption of sustainable business practices and solutions to build a healthy global economy. Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of 100 institutional investors with collective assets totaling more than $11 trillion.

For more information, visit http://www.ceres.org