Gov. Jerry Brown announced the appointment of four individuals to the UC Board of Regents on Jan. 17.

Brown appointed to the board Richard Blum, Monica Lozano, Norman Pattiz and Richard Sherman, all of whom await confirmation by the California State Senate. Lozano will be returning to the board, having served from 2001 to 2013, while regents Blum and Pattiz will be continuing their service after their current terms end Mar. 1.

“I am very happy that Governor Brown has appointed three individuals with so much regental experience and another who will bring additional expertise to the University of California Board of Regents,” said board chair Bruce Varner in a statement. “It will be great to have Monica Lozano back on the board, and Richard Blum and Norman Pattiz continuing their service as regents. We look forward to welcoming Richard Sherman, whose financial and investment experience will be an invaluable asset.”

If confirmed by the Senate, the appointments of Blum, Lozano and Pattiz will be effective Mar. 2, while the beginning of Sherman’s term was not specified. Five of the regent positions have been vacant since March 2013, three of which have been empty for more than a year under Brown.

Lozano is the CEO and chair of the board of ImpreMedia LLC as well as a director at the Bank of America Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Weingart Foundation. During her previous term as UC regent, Lozano served as chair of the Committee on Finance.

Blum, a UC Berkeley alumnus who has been on the board since 2002 and was board chair from 2007 to 2009, is the founder of the Blum Center for Developing Economies on campus. He is also a member of the Economic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and an appointee to the President’s Global Development Council. Pattiz, who has served on the board since 2002, is CEO of Courtside Entertainment Group as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sherman, who has never served on the board, is the CEO of the David Geffen Company, an investment management firm, and was previously a partner of Breslauer, Jacobson, Rutman and Sherman, a business management firm, from 1977 to 1992.

Student Regent Cinthia Flores said she was pleased to see both Pattiz and Blum continuing their service as regents, noting Pattiz’s advocacy of UC laboratories and Blum’s wealth of knowledge and aid to UC President Janet Napolitano in navigating the board. Flores also said Sherman would lend a “fresh perspective.”

“The very strong positive is that the board will already have a good working relationship, but it is unfortunate that we’re not seeing appointments of individuals with backgrounds in education policy,” Flores said. “But after those backgrounds, there are tangible benefits to appointing those from other fields, like finance. I hope Sherman will bring a close eye to detail and an financial understanding that will enable the board to maximize  investment and reinvestment from the state.”

Currently, the board consists of 13 regents and one student regent; nine regents are required to be in attendance for a regular meeting. The next Board of Regents meeting will be held Jan. 22 to 23 at the UCSF Mission Bay campus.