Michael A. Lawson - President (appointed for term ending June 30, 2016)
Commissioner Lawson is a retired partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, one of the largest law firms in the world where he worked from 1980 until his retirement in 2011. While at Skadden, Arps, he headed the firm’s Employee Benefits Group in Los Angeles and worked in all areas of executive compensation and employee benefits. His expertise included advising clients with respect to the structuring and offering of investment vehicles to pension plans and other institutional investors, as well as the fiduciary obligations of investment managers, trustees and other fiduciaries.

Prior to joining Skadden, Arps, Commissioner Lawson served as a staff attorney at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal corporation that protects the pensions of more than 44 million American workers and retirees in more than 29,000 private, single-employer and multi-employer-defined benefit pension plans based in Washington, D.C., from 1978 to 1980. Following his retirement, Commissioner Lawson was appointed to the California State Teachers Retirement System Board by Governor Jerry Brown as part of the governor’s pension reform plan to add significant public and private sector financial expertise to the board, “to help steward one of the state’s largest and most important retirement systems through uncertain economic times.” Lawson serves on the board’s Investment Committee.

Commissioner Lawson also served as chairman of the board of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan community-based organization dedicated to educating America’s young people about the importance of civic participation in a democratic society. Commissioner Lawson serves on the board of trustees of Morehouse College and on the board of directors of the Advancement Project, a public policy change organization. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Music Center Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County and of the Music Center Foundation.

Professionally, he is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association on Diversity in the Legal Profession and the John M. Langston Bar Association. In 2010 and 2011, Commissioner Lawson served as a member of the Western Regional Selection Panel for the White House Fellows Program. Commissioner Lawson is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and Harvard Law School, and is a member of the bars in California, New York and the District of Columbia.

 Valeria C. Velasco - Vice President (appointed for term ending June 30, 2017)
Valeria C. Velasco was reelected vice president of the Board of Airport Commissioners July 16, 2007. Ms. Velasco is a native Californian, born at California Hospital in Los Angeles. She has lived with her husband Frank and their son Frank in Playa del Rey since 1988. Ms. Velasco is a sole practitioner estate planning attorney in Playa del Rey and an independent associate for Legal Shield. She is presently the Lieutenant Governor for Rotary International District 5280 and serves as a Fee Dispute Arbitrator for the State Bar of California. She is a member of the LAX/Coastal Chamber of Commerce and is currently serving as chair for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce World Trade Week 2012. Ms. Velasco earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law and a Master’s Degree in education from the Claremont Graduate School, and Bachelor of Arts from California State University, Long Beach. Commissioner Velasco has served as a City of Los Angeles Planning Commissioner, Staff Legal Counsel and Hispanic Liaison to former City Councilman Michael Woo, Assembly Aid/Hispanic Liaison to former Assemblymen Mike Roos and a bilingual elementary school teacher.

 Joseph A. Aredas (appointed for term ending June 30, 2015)
A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Aredas began his career in the entertainment industry in 1967 at the MGM machine shop as a member of the former Cinetechnicians Union Local No. 789 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada (I.A.T.S.E.). In 1980, Mr. Aredas was appointed Assistant Business Representative of I.A.T.S.E. Local No. 695, a position he held for seven years. Soon after, he accepted a position at Consolidated Film Industries (CFI), a Hollywood motion picture film processing laboratory, as Vice President of Labor Relations. In December of 1997 he left CFI to assume the position of Chief Administrative Officer at the industry’s Contract Services Administration Trust Fund which is jointly administered by Producers and the I.A.T.S.E. In November 1998, Mr. Aredas was appointed by I.A.T.S.E. President Thomas C. Short to serve as the International Representative-in-Charge of the I.A.’s West Coast Office, located in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Aredas is Vice President of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, as well as a member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (H.E.R.E.); International Association of Machinists (I.A.M.); United Aerospace Workers (U.A.W.); and since 1967 the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.). Mr. Aredas serves on the Board of Directors of the Entertainment Industry Development Corporation (EIDC); Motion Picture and Television Fund; Entertainment Industry Foundation; and the California Film Commission.

 Robert D. Beyer (appointed for term ending June 30, 2014)
Robert D. Beyer is chairman of Chaparal Investments LLC, a private investment and holding company he founded in 2009. He has decades of experience in business management, as well as in overseeing operating, financial and real assets. During his investment career, Beyer managed large, diversified and global businesses, overseeing more than 1,500 employees and 100 different public and private market investment strategies, and portfolios in various investment categories. In connection with these responsibilities, Beyer was a founder and portfolio manager of the largest independent mezzanine finance fund primarily serving the leveraged buyout and recapitalization markets. Beyer served as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of The TCW Group, Inc., from 2005 until 2009, and as its president and chief investment officer from 2001 and 2005. From 2001 to 2009, he was a member of the executive committee of Société Générale Asset Management. Beyer cofounded Crescent Capital Corporation, an investment management firm, in 1991. Prior to that, he was an investment banker and capital markets professional at Bear, Stearns & Co. and Drexel Burnham Lambert specializing in structuring and financing leveraged acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings. He is a current director of two Fortune 100 companies, The Allstate Corporation and The Kroger Co. In 2008, his peers selected him as an Outstanding Director of the Financial Times’ Outstanding Directors Program. He also serves as chair of the board of visitors of The UCLA Anderson School of Management, as a trustee and immediate past chair of Harvard-Westlake School, and as a member of the Board of Councilors of the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. Beyer also is a member of the board of directors of The Los Angeles World Affairs Council and is an owner and member of the advisory board of the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club .

  Ann M. Hollister (appointed for term ending June 30, 2015)
Ann M. Hollister is a community activist and veteran political consultant. She has been an active member of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps Board of Directors since 1995 and served as the organization’s chairperson from 2003-2008. For the past 10 years she has also co-chaired the annual Russell Kantor Scholarship Fund Luncheon, which was created in memory of the son of the Corps’ founder, Mickey Kantor.

Commissioner Hollister has a long-standing interest in education issues. She was a founding board member of the Archer School for Girls in Brentwood and has been a member of the Board of Trustees at the John Thomas Dye School in Bel Air since 2002. She recently stepped down as chair of the board following the schools’ completion of its master plan that included a new academic center and parking structure. Commissioner Hollister has also served on the boards of the Alliance for Children’s Rights, the Los Angeles Children’s Museum and the Pacific Palisades/ Brentwood American Youth Soccer Organization.

Commissioner Hollister has held a wide range of positions at the local, state and federal levels for more than 18 years, including finance director for Kathleen Brown’s gubernatorial race and finance director of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee under Majority Leader George Mitchell and Senator John Breaux.

She also managed a number of campaigns, including those of Congressman Howard Berman, Controller Gray Davis and Mel Levine for Senate. Legislative positions she has held include serving as chief of staff to Congressman Berman; legislative staff to Assemblymen Burt Margolin and Terry Friedman, aide to Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and district director for U.S. Senator Alan Cranston.

 Fernando Torres-Gil (appointed for term ending June 30, 2013)
Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil is currently serving as Acting Dean at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. He is also the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, serves as Professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy, and is the Director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging. Previously, he was a Professor of Gerontology and Public Administration at the University of Southern California and continues as an Adjunct Professor of Gerontology at USC. His academic accomplishments parallel his extensive government and public policy experience. He served as the first-ever Assistant Secretary for Aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He also served as Staff Director of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging (1985-1987), where he administered the legislative and oversight activities of the largest committee in the U.S. Congress; Special Assistant to then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Patricia Roberts Harris (1979-1980); and White House Fellow and Special Assistant to Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1978-1979). President Carter appointed Dr. Torres-Gil to the Federal Council on Aging (1978). At the local level, Dr. Torres-Gil was the Vice President of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission (1989-1993) and served as a member of the Harbor Commission (1997-2001) and the Taxi Commission (1996-1997) for the city of Los Angeles. Dr. Torres-Gil was born and raised in Salinas, California, and is the son of migrant farm workers. He earned his B.A. in Political Science (1970), graduating with honors from San Jose State University, an M.S.W. (1972) and a Ph.D. in Social Policy, Planning and Research (1976) from the Heller Graduate School in Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.