CFP Board Picks a CEO

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. has named Sarah Ball Teslik as its CEO. Teslik, an attorney, has served for 16 years as the executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, a Washington, DC-based association of corporate, union, and public pension funds; she is the only executive director that CII has had in its 20-year history. In a prepared statement, CFP Board Chair Dave Diesslin praised Teslik for her lobbying expertise in Washington, saying her appointment will give the CFP Board "the ability to take itself to the next level . . . in shaping the legislative and regulatory environment in which CFPs operate on behalf of their clients."

The Denver-based CFP Board has been without a CEO since Lou Garday resigned in July 2003 after two years on the job. There are about 45,000 CFPs in the United States; neither Garday nor Teslik holds the certification.