Harvard University law professor John Coates was named general counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, following a four-month stint as acting director for the division of corporation finance.
Taking Coates' previous SEC position in that division will be Boston College Law School's Renee Jones, the first Black woman to lead one of the SEC's four major divisions. The move comes on the heels of new SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's April Senate confirmation.
Coates joined the regulatory body's Investor Advisory Committee in 2016. During his time at the Division of Corporate Finance, Coates pushed for transparency and innovation in environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures.
"We can and should continue to adapt existing rules and standards to the realities of climate risk, for example, and the fact that investors increasingly are asking for ESG information to help them make informed investment and voting decisions," Coates said in a March statement.
More rigorous ESG regulations are expected under the Biden administration. General counsel for public companies are often tasked with overseeing ESG efforts, or at least helping to implement them.
