Balancing Act: Redefining Modern Boards through Diversity and Skills

Director, ConocoPhillips, Meritage Homes, and Automobile Club of Southern California; Operating Partner, Sandbrook Capital

Dennis Arriola

Mr. Arriola is an Operating Partner at Sandbrook Capital. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) from 2020 until 2022. He joined Avangrid from Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a publicly traded utility and energy infrastructure company, where he served as executive vice president and group president, and chief sustainability officer. Throughout his career, Mr. Arriola has served in a broad range of leadership positions in gas and electric utilities as well as renewables, including as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Southern California Gas Co., senior vice president and chief financial officer of both San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co., vice president of communications and investor relations for Sempra, and regional president and general manager of Sempra’s South American operations. Mr. Arriola also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) from 2008 until 2012.

Mr. Arriola serves on the board of directors of ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) and the Automobile Club of Southern California. He previously served on the boards of Avangrid, Inc., the California Latino Economic Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the California Business Roundtable, the Edison Electric Institute, and the boards of several Sempra operating companies, including Infraestructura Energética Nova, a publicly traded company in Mexico, Luz del Sur SAA, a publicly traded company in Peru, and Chilquinta Energía in Chile.

Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, UC San Diego

Dr. Becky Petitt

Dr. Becky Petitt joined UC San Diego in March 2015 and brings over 25 years of progressive administrative experience in equity, diversity, and inclusion work across the higher education community. Prior to UC San Diego, she served as the Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff for the Office of Diversity at Texas A&M University, and served as adjunct faculty in the College of Education and Human Development with scholarship focused on diversity in higher education, cultural competence, organizational development, and inclusive teaching and learning.

As a scholar-practitioner, Dr. Petitt provided vision and leadership for Texas A&M University’s Diversity Plan, which is acknowledged as a national exemplar of sustainable institutional change.

She is a nationally recognized consultant, specializing in equity and diversity in higher education, organizational learning and organizational change. Her influence extends across the academy and well beyond.

She holds a bachelor of science in psychology and received both a master’s and doctorate in education from Texas A&M University.

Partner, Cooley; Fmr. Senior Vice President, Governance and Chief ESG Officer, Verizon

Beth Sasfai

Beth’s practice focuses on advising public and private companies, investment funds and their boards in a broad range of corporate matters, with an emphasis on their ESG matters, including sustainability reporting, board oversight and disclosure controls, and shareholder and stakeholder engagement. She has extensive experience developing robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies and driving forward a wide range of ESG initiatives, from corporate governance and board affairs to ESG reporting and shareholder engagement issues – and more.

Before joining Cooley, Beth served as Verizon’s senior vice president, governance and chief ESG officer. While at Verizon, she was responsible for the company’s ESG strategy, disclosure and related stakeholder advocacy while leading a cross-functional team of lawyers and sustainability professionals responsible for corporate governance policy and board affairs; ESG commitments, reporting and engagement; business and human rights; digital trust and safety; compliance with corporate and securities laws; legal support to investor relations and external reporting; and advising on other general corporate matters. She also served as a management liaison to the Corporate Governance and Policy Committee of the Verizon board of directors, the committee charged with overseeing sustainability, governance, public policy and reputational risk.

Previously, Beth was vice president and associate general counsel, litigation for Verizon corporate. In that role, she was responsible for litigation and dispute resolution nationally for Verizon’s corporate, wireline, wireless, and enterprise and government businesses.

Beth has more than 20 years of experience, including a strong background in regulatory, governance, public policy and corporate litigation. Before joining Verizon, Beth also practiced in the corporate and litigation groups of prominent New York City law firms.