Senator Art Torres (Ret.)

Independent Board Member
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Started with PFM: 2022

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Senator Art Torres (Ret.) serves as an independent board member to PFM II LLC. His multifaceted career, which spans over 40 years, is marked by his tireless advocacy on various fronts. He has been a champion for causes ranging from healthcare and education to environmental conservation and human rights, both in the private and public sectors. 

Senator Torres served for twenty years in the California Legislature, during which he chaired significant committees such as the Assembly Health Committee, the Senate Insurance Committee and the Senate Toxics Committee. He notably authored Proposition 65, the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, safeguarding drinking water from carcinogens. 

In 1996, Senator Torres was elected as the Chair of the California Democratic Party and is the only Latino to hold the position and longest serving Chair of a major state political party until 2009.  

In 2009 he was elected as the statutory Vice Chair of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a $5 billion stem cell research granting agency created by the voters of California by initiative.

In 2010, then Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Torres to serve for four years as a member and President of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Senator Torres has made substantial contributions to academia and governance as a University of California Regent and President of the University of California Alumni Association. He served two terms as a member of the Covered California Board of Directors which oversees the Affordable Care Act in California. 

Senator Torres has also been actively promoting diversity having served as President of the Kaitz Foundation, the U.S. cable television industry's arm for diversity and Vice Chair of One Legacy, one of the largest organ transplant foundations. 

Throughout his career, Senator Torres has demonstrated a commitment to international diplomacy and humanitarian efforts. He assisted in the release of Vietnamese prisoners held since 1975 in 1989, aided Soviet Jewish refuseniks in 1987, and contributed to drafting Pope John Paul II's environmental message in 1989. His work on immigration issues led to his appointment and confirmed by the US Senate to the Commission on International Migration and Cooperative Economic Development. 

Senator Torres's academic pursuits include being a John F. Kennedy teaching fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics in 1973 and was appointed as a Diversity Scholar Visiting Professor by the University of San Francisco in 2016. 

With a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz and a Juris Doctorate degree from the UC Davis School of Law, Senator Torres continues to make a profound impact on society, leaving a lasting legacy of advocacy, leadership, and service. 

 
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Started with PFM: 2022

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