Michael Garland is Assistant Comptroller for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for New York City Comptroller John C. Liu. The Comptroller serves as investment advisor, custodian and a trustee to the New York City Pension Funds, which have approximately $120 billion in assets and a long history of active ownership on issues of corporate governance and sustainability. Mr. Garland and his team are responsible for developing and implementing the Funds’ active ownership programs for public equities, including voting proxies and engaging portfolio companies on their ESG policies and practices. He co-chairs the Activism Committee of the Council of Institutional Investors and is on the advisory board of the American Corporate Governance Institute. Prior to joining the Comptroller’s Office in September 2010, Mr. Garland led shareowner initiatives for the AFL-CIO Office of Investment and the CtW Investment Group, which he helped establish in January 2006 as part of the Change to Win labor federation. He has also financed middle market corporations for National Westminster Bank USA, provided financial and economic consulting to corporate, union and government clients at Locker Associates, and conducted economic research for the OECD. He earned a B.A. in economics with distinction from the University of Virginia and a Master in City Planning from MIT.