Conference Material Site sponsored by Broadridge  

Managing Director
GETCO

 
Biography
Todd Abrahall leads GETCO's Designated Market Maker (DMM) business. Prior to joining GETCO, Mr. Abrahall was Vice President of Market Operations at NYSE Euronext with the primary responsibility of helping to manage the change from Hybrid to the Market New Model as well as coordinate the relationships between the DMM community and the NYSE. As a staff governor of the Exchange he also worked intimately with issues concerning market structure and market developments.

Prior to joining the Exchange Mr. Abrahall was a member of the trading floor community for 14 years having sat on numerous committees including the technology planning and oversight committee, the market performance committee, and the new member orientation committee.

Mr. Abrahall earned a B.S. in Business from the City University of New York.

Director, Corporate Strategy, Head of Liquidnet Insight
Liquidnet Holdings Inc.

 
Biography
John Adam is the Head of Liquidnet Insight, Liquidnet's issuer service and corporate access group. Liquidnet is the world's institutional marketplace that facilitates equities trading and primary research for institutional investors worldwide. Membership is comprised of 582 predominantly long-only asset management firms, representing over $16 trillion in assets under management (AUM). He joined in 2002, and was responsible for the product management of Liquidnet's OMS/EMS interfaces as well as internal applications before moving into his current role.

John developed his expertise in financial services and technology at NEON, Sybase, and Slam Dunk networks and has over 10 years of industry experience.

He holds a B.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

SVP & CFO
Stanley Black & Decker

 
Biography
Donald Allan Jr., Senior. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. was appointed to the position of CFO in 2009, named a Senior Vice President in 2010 and appointed an executive officer of the company in 2006.

Don was appointed to Corporate Controller of The Stanley Works in November 2000 and elected Vice President in August of 2002. He joined The Stanley Works in March of 1999 as Director of Financial Reporting and was promoted to Assistant Corporate Controller in October of 1999.

Prior to joining Stanley Black & Decker, Don held financial management positions with Loctite Corporation, a leading specialty chemical company, and Ernst & Young LLP. At Loctite, his assignments included Corporate Director of Financial Reporting, Planning & Analysis and Latin American Region Chief Financial Officer.

During Don's nine years at Ernst & Young, he was promoted several times and held the Audit Senior Manager position at the end of his tenure. He serviced several audit clients in the Manufacturing, Health Care, and Banking industries. Don's audit engagements were primarily publicly-traded companies and had significant involvement in various SEC filings and offerings. He also led the Computer Audit Services Group for 3+ years.

Don holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Hartford. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Director, Investor Relations
Newmont Mining Corporation

 
Biography
Karli Anderson is the Director of Investor Relations at Newmont Mining Corporation in Denver, Colorado. Prior to this, she was the Director of Investor Relations for Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation and also for Evergreen Energy. She has nearly 10 years of experience in finance, business development and strategic planning. Karli holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as well as a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio University. Karli has been a member of NIRI since 2006. She will serve as the Secretary and Communications Chair for the Rocky Mountain Chapter for the 2010-2011 program year.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Meritage Homes

 
Biography
Brent Anderson is currently Vice President of Investor Relations at Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE: MTH), where he is also responsible for corporate communications. Meritage is the nation's 9th largest homebuilder – #4 here in Orlando -- and has built nearly 70,000 single-family homes in its first 25 years. Brent has more than 20 years of experience in public accounting, corporate finance, investor relations and corporate communications with companies including Burlington Northern Santa Fe and i2 Technologies, a leader in supply chain management software.

Brent has been a member of NIRI since 1997 and is the president of the Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter. He is also a long-time member of the American Institute of CPAs, and has served on the boards of several non-profit and charitable organizations. Brent is a UND Fighting Sioux alumnus and now lives with his family in Colleyville, Texas.

Vice President, Investor Relations
IMAX

 
Biography
Heather Anthony is a 15-year IR veteran. For the past three years she has served as the Vice President of Investor Relations, of IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX; TSX: IMX), a $2 billion company and the leading brand in premium filmed entertainment. Prior to IMAX, for six years Ms. Anthony oversaw the investor relations function at The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. a $1 billion specialty retailer of children's apparel and accessories. Throughout her career, Ms. Anthony's work has focused on turnaround situations of small to mid-cap consumer discretionary companies. She has developed strong relationships with both the buy and sell-side communities on Wall Street. Her additional experience includes serving as a Vice President, Financial Communications for Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and prior to that at Morgen-Walke Associates (now known as FD).

Ms. Anthony is a graduate of the University of Tampa with a B.S. in Business Management and concentration in Marketing. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

Director, Equity Research
RBC Capital Markets

 
Biography
Jason Arnold is a Director in the Equity Research Department at RBC Capital Markets with focused expertise in Financials and Real Estate. In 2009, Jason was a recipient of the Financial Times Top 10 Stock Picker award (10th out of 3,000+ analysts), and the Wall Street Journal Best on the Street award in the real estate sector (2nd out of 80 real estate analysts). Jason joined RBC Capital Markets as Senior Equity Research Analyst in May of 2007, and focuses on a diverse group of specialty finance companies and banks, including credit card issuers, mortgage finance, mortgage REITs and business development companies (BDCs).

Jason was previously a Junior Research Analyst in Specialty Finance at Merrill Lynch & Co. There, Jason's equity research coverage included specialty finance companies with a focus on mortgage finance, mortgage REITs and thrifts. Prior to Merrill, Jason was an Equity Research Associate at RBC Capital Markets on the Financial Institutions Group where he covered community banks, thrifts, mortgage REITs and BDCs.

Prior to joining RBC in 2004, Jason worked in buy-side equity research, analyzing equities across various sectors using numerous fundamental and relative market valuation analysis methods and models. Jason also co-founded a small real estate investment firm in Eastern Europe.

Jason received his Bachelor of Science from Metropolitan State College of Denver and his Master of Arts from Harvard University. Jason is CFA charterholder.

CEO
InvisionIR

 
Biography
Andrew G. Backman is a tested and proven Investor Relations professional who has been on the front line during the markets' most historic events of the past 20 years. Andy has developed and executed fully integrated Investor Relations and Public Relations programs in numerous industries and during some of the most challenging markets in recent time, has provided strategic counsel, reputation management, crisis management and strategic communication to executive management and Boards of Directors. Drawing on broad-based experience and strong relationships with the investor community, Andy guided major established (AT&T Corporation/Lucent Technologies) and IPO organizations (Corvis Corporate/Broadwing Communications) through the beginning and ultimate implosion of the telecom bubble of the late 1990's and early 2000's. Most recently, he developed and executed the Investor Relations and Public Relations strategies for iStar Financial, one of the largest diversified commercial Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the United States to manage the unprecedented market turmoil occurring over the past five years in the broader financial and commercial real estate markets. Andy is currently chief executive officer and founder of InVisionIR, a new-york based consulting firm that helps public, privately help and pre-IPO companies maximize value by creating and strengthening relationships with major institutional investors and leading analysts worldwide.

Principle Solution Manager, Finance Solution Delivery
Microsoft Corporation

 
Biography
Josh Bailey has worked at Microsoft for 9 years, currently as a Principle Solution Manager in Finance Solution Delivery. His team is responsible for the strategy and execution of finance portals, investor relations website and finance reporting tools. He has spent his last 6 years at Microsoft as a Solution Manager designing and delivering IT solutions for Finance. He spent his first 3 years as a Software Test Engineer working on Microsoft CRM. Prior to Microsoft he worked for Accenture as a Communications and Hi-tech analyst. He graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelors degree in Accounting with a concentration in Management Information Systems and has a MBA from Seattle Pacific University. He is active in his community serving as the treasurer of the board for Youth for Christ in Seattle and a Financial Peace University coordinator. Personally he enjoys home projects, sports, and being with his wife and two girls.

Chairman & CEO
Cardinal Health, Inc.

 
Biography
George S. Barrett is chairman and chief executive officer of Cardinal Health, a company ranked number 17 on the Fortune 500 and dedicated to improving the cost-effectiveness of health care.

Barrett has refocused the company on the 'business behind health care,' supporting hospitals, pharmacies and alternative sites of care in their efforts to improve the quality and safety of patient care, while reducing costs and improving efficiency.

Barrett joined Cardinal Health in 2008 as vice chairman and CEO of the company's Healthcare Supply Chain Services segment, where he was responsible for all of the company's supply chain businesses, including pharmaceutical distribution, medical/surgical distribution, nuclear pharmacy services, Presource® surgical kitting services and the Medicine Shoppe International, Inc. retail pharmacy franchise operations.

From 2005 to end-2007, Barrett served as president and CEO of North America for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's largest generic drug maker. During 2007, he also served as corporate executive vice president of the company's Global Pharmaceutical Markets. He held the position of president of Teva USA from 1999 to end-2004. Prior to joining Teva, Barrett held various positions with Alpharma Inc., serving as president of US Pharmaceuticals from 1994 to 1997, and president of NMC Laboratories, prior to its acquisition by Alpharma in 1990.

Barrett serves on the board of directors of Nationwide Children's Hospital and the President's Leadership Council of Brown University. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Healthcare Leadership Council and The Conference Board. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable, The Business Council, Ohio Business Roundtable and The Columbus Partnership. In addition, Barrett is a recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Barrett received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration from New York University.

Vice President/Floor Governor
NYSE Euronext

 
Biography
Richard Barry (Rich) is Vice President of the Capital Markets Desk at NYSE Euronext. The Capital Markets Desk provides individual stock trading insight and analysis to NYSE-listed companies as well as a consolidated view of stock trading.

Rich earned his BA in Economics from Fairfield University and his MBA in Finance from Fordham University. He has served in various functions on the NYSE trading floor from 1996 through 2008 as a Specialist, Floor Official and Floor Governor and Director of the NYSE Floor. In addition to his current role on the Capital Markets Desk, Rich continues to serve as a Floor Governor on the NYSE trading floor.

Principal & Founder
Corporate Governance Advisors, Inc.

 
Biography
Michael is the principal and founder of Corporate Governance Advisors Inc. and has served as a member of more than 30 public and private boards in the U.S., Canada, England, Brazil, Spain and Germany during his career. He currently serves as a director of Fresh Del Monte Produce Company (NYSE:FDP), a Coral Gables FL based Fortune 1000 consumer products company, where he serves on the audit and chairs the compensation committee and Pro-Dex Inc. (NASDAQ:PDEX), an Irvine California based manufacturer of medical devices where he serves as chair of the governance committee and a member of the audit and compensation committees. Mr. Berthelot also serves on the board of a privately held San Diego based software company and as a member of the advisory board of a privately held Southern California internet start-up. Mr. Berthelot is an adjunct professor at the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego where he teaches a graduate level course on the CEO, the board of directors, and corporate governance. Mr. Berthelot retired in 2006 as chairman of TransTechnology Corporation, then a $350 million (revenue) New York Stock Exchange listed multinational manufacturer of industrial and aerospace equipment and components after fifteen years in that position, including twelve years when he also served as chief executive officer.

Mr. Berthelot holds a Bachelor's of Science in Accounting, cum laude, from the University of Akron, a Masters of Business Administration from Cleveland State University, and is a certified public accountant (Ohio). His past affiliations include owning his own certified public accounting firms in Ohio and Florida; partnership in Barnes Wendling Cook & O'Conner, Inc., Certified Public Accountants and Management Consultants in Cleveland, Ohio; principal shareholder and director of EWI, Inc., a privately held automotive supplier; and a major shareholder and director of Golf Card International, Inc., (OTC:GCIC), a golf membership services and publishing organization. Additionally, he served four years in the U.S. Coast Guard, including a tour in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and was an agent with the Internal Revenue Service for three years following a one-year college internship.
Mr. Berthelot's professional affiliations include the Ohio Society and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Corporate Directors and its Directors Institute (Washington DC), and the Corporate Directors Forum (San Diego) where he also serves as a Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Berthelot is a member of Beta Alpha Psi, the national accounting honors fraternity, and Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honors fraternity. Mr. Berthelot has served as a member of the faculty of the University of Phoenix Online, where he taught Organization Behavior and Cuyahoga Community College (Cleveland) where he taught mathematics. He is currently a mentor to MBA students at the Rady School at UC San Diego. Mr. Berthelot has served as a member of the advisory board of the Fitzgerald Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies of the College of Business at the University of Akron and earlier served as a member, president and treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Hudson Montessori School in Hudson, Ohio. Mr. Berthelot is currently a Mentor and board member with the Chairmen's Roundtable, a not for profit that provides mentoring to small to medium sized business in San Diego County. Mr. Berthelot writes and speaks on corporate strategic and governance issues on a national basis.

President & Chief Executive Officer
Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals

 
Biography
Ken Bertsch was appointed CEO and President of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals in December 2010.

Mr. Bertsch previously led corporate governance teams at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (2006-2010) and Moody's Investors Service fundamental ratings groups (2002-2006). He served as director for corporate governance at TIAA-CREF from 1999 to 2002, and before that served for 14 years in various capacities at the Investor Responsibility Research Center, including as director of the Corporate Governance and Social Issues services.

Mr. Bertsch received a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 2004 and a B.A. from Williams College in 1978.

Director, Global Investor Relations Products
Institutional Investor Research Group

 
Biography
Michele Bickford is Director of Global Investor Relations Products and Market Research for Institutional Investor, a leading international business to business publisher, focused primarily on international finance. In this role, she is responsible for the development and sales of II's U.S., Latin America, European and Asian Investor Relations research. Previously, Michele served as Associate Editor for Institutional Investor and Alpha magazines, where she coordinated research projects covering corporations and the hedge fund industry. She held this role from 2005 to 2007. Michele draws on this editorial research experience while leading Institutional Investor's Market Research Group and facilitating customized research for clients.

Michele joined Institutional Investor in 2002 as a freelance Researcher and Project Manager. Prior to joining II, she lived in London, U.K. where she worked for Euromoney magazine as a researcher, and later as a Production Editor for Corporate Finance magazine. Michele, has a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Florida.

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Group Communications
Elster Group SE

 
Biography
No bio available

Assistant General Counsel
SAP (USA)

 
Biography
Wendy Boufford is Assistant General Counsel of SAP. In this capacity she is responsible for SAP AG's U.S. securities and NYSE reporting and compliance. Additionally, Wendy advises on U.S. law with respect to global financing and corporate reorganization projects.

Wendy joined SAP in January 2008 through its acquisition of Business Objects S.A. At Business Objects, Wendy was Assistant General Counsel and advised on U.S. securities matters, NASDAQ compliance and mergers & acquisitions.

Prior to Business Objects, Wendy was a corporate attorney with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where her work focused on private company investments, mergers & acquisitions and public company reporting and compliance.

Vice President, Treasurer, IR and Corporate Affairs
Wesco Corporation

 
Biography
Dan is the Vice President – Treasurer, Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs of WESCO International, Inc., a leading North American provider of electrical products and other maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) supplies. He is responsible for Treasury, Insurance, Enterprise Risk Management, Investor Relations, Real Estate, corporate communications, government & community relations.

Dan joined WESCO in March 1999 prior and has had a significant role in the enhancement of WESCO's capital structure and building an active investor relations program. Mr. Brailer also served as Corporate Secretary from 1999 to 2004 and has additionally been responsible for Legal, Cash Application and certain other corporate governance responsibilities.

Prior to joining WESCO, Dan was employed by Mellon Bank for approximately 17 years and held the title of Senior Vice President of the Basic Industries Group.

Dan holds both a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from West Virginia University.

Senior Analyst - Utilities
Bloomberg

 
Biography
No bio available

Principal
BrownFlynn

 
Biography
Barb is a principal and co-owner of BrownFlynn, a corporate responsibility and sustainability consulting firm. BrownFlynn designs sustainability strategies, establishes triple-bottom line goals and creates action plans and communications strategies to accomplish objectives for its clients. BrownFlynn is the first U.S. certified training partner for the Global Reporting Initiative, the defacto standard in ESG reporting. Barb is an officer of the NIRI Cleveland Chapter, a member of the Social Investment Forum serving on both the integrated reporting and extractive committees. Before founding BrownFlynn in 1996, Barb spent six years with National City Corporation where she served as vice president and manager of the financial service company's corporate communications department.

Director, Corporate Governance & Associate General Counsel
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of American College Retirement Equities Fund

 
Biography
Stephen L. Brown serves as Director of Corporate Governance and Associate General Counsel for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America–College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), a full-service financial services group of companies with $451 billion assets under management (as of 12/31/2010).

On behalf of the boards of the TIAA-CREF group of companies, Mr. Brown and his colleagues in the Corporate Governance Group work to enhance the governance/social responsibility practices of companies held within TIAA-CREF's investment portfolios with the objective of increasing shareholder value and improving long term performance of targeted companies.

Additionally, Mr. Brown advises management and the boards of the TIAA-CREF group of companies on internal corporate governance operations. In 2009, Mr. Brown was named as one of 10 global Rising Stars of Corporate Governance by the Yale School of Management's Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance.

Prior to joining TIAA-CREF, Mr. Brown practiced corporate and securities law with Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP in New York City. At both firms, Mr. Brown represented industrial companies, investment advisers, hedge funds, private equity funds, and mutual fund complexes. Additionally, he represented Fortune 500 corporations, boards of directors and executives in a variety of securities enforcement matters and corporate internal investigations. Prior to practicing law, Mr. Brown was a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Brown is an adjunct professor at Yale University and City College of New York. Mr. Brown's pro bono practice has included advising several New York City charter schools and economic development organizations. He is currently an elected member of the Englewood Public School Board in Englewood, N.J., and has served on the boards of the Queens Economic Development Corporation, Harlem Renaissance Economic Development Corporation and the Public Interest Law Foundation at Columbia University Law School. Mr. Brown received his B.A. with honors from Yale University and his J.D. from Columbia University Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an Olin Law & Economics Junior Fellow.

Columnist & Author
The New York Times

 
Biography
Adam Bryant, who conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for his weekly Corner Office feature in The New York Times, has been a business journalist for more than two decades. As a reporter at The New York Times through the 1990s, he covered a number of beats, including airlines, aviation safety, executive pay and corporate governance. From 1999 to 2006, he worked at Newsweek magazine as a senior writer and then as business editor. He returned to the Times as an editor in the business section, overseeing coverage of big stories such as the crisis in the U.S. auto industry. Adam was the lead editor of a series on the dangers of distracted driving that won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He is now the deputy national editor, working with reporters in the Times' domestic bureaus, and overseeing coverage of such issues as education, and military and legal affairs. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife and two daughters.

Executive Vice President & Partner
Sharon Merrill Associates

 
Biography
Equally adept at working with pre-IPO start-ups, newly public growth companies and established industry leaders, Jim has infused strategic thinking and long-term planning into the IR departments at companies of virtually every size and stage of development across a wide spectrum of industries. Jim's experience spans the full spectrum of IR and corporate communications functions, including financial media relations as well as investment community outreach activities such as perception studies, slide show presentations, roadshows and analyst day events. As a member of the Sharon Merrill Associates executive team, Jim is responsible for a variety of operational functions within the agency.

Jim has been a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) for more than 10 years. During his career, he has spoken on investor relations and corporate communications topics through conferences and panel discussions sponsored by NIRI, PRSA, Business Wire, PR Newswire, the North Shore Technology Council and Venture-Preneurs. He has published pieces in Barron's and Investor Relations Review. Jim recently served several years as an adjunct instructor of investor relations at Boston University.

Prior to joining the firm in 1993, he worked as a reporter for the Eagle Times, a regional daily newspaper in Claremont, New Hampshire. Jim holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Marquette University and an MBA from Boston College.

VP Corporate Solutions
StockTwits

 
Biography
No bio available

Executive Vice President & Partner
Sharon Merrill Associates

 
Biography
David C. Calusdian is executive vice president and partner of Sharon Merrill Associates, a nationally recognized investor relations strategic advisory firm based in Boston. He combines broad experience in investor relations, public affairs and media relations with a passion for quality service in providing Sharon Merrill Associates clients with ongoing strategic counsel as well as direct support on projects such as investor perception studies, corporate presentations, investor roadshows and analyst days. He also has significant experience in providing executive presentation coaching.

Prior to joining Sharon Merrill Associates in 1995, he implemented communications programs as an account executive for Jack Walsh & Associates, a public affairs consulting firm. For nearly 10 years, Calusdian served as an adjunct instructor of investor relations, public relations and public speaking at Emerson College, where for part of that time he also directed the school's media relations efforts. He has delivered speeches and participated on investor relations panel discussions at conferences sponsored by the NASDAQ, the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), AeA, the Publicity Club of NE and other professional development organizations.

He is a past-president of the Board of Directors of NIRI's Boston Chapter and holds bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in communications from Emerson College.

Manager, Investor Relations
GFI Group

 
Biography
Chris Ann Casaburri is the Investor Relations Manager at GFI Group. Chris Ann joined GFI Group to build and implement a solid investor relations program from the ground up. Prior to joining GFI Group, Chris Ann worked in Investor Relations at Lexington Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust. Chris Ann has more than seven years of related experience and holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Albany.

Executive Vice President
Alliance Advisors, LLC

 
Biography
Peter has over fifteen years of proxy solicitation experience, and extensive knowledge in equity compensation plan analysis, corporate governance consulting, proxy solicitation and proxy contests. Additionally, Peter's substantial proxy fight experience includes consent solicitations, hostile tender offers, contested mergers, and several proxy fights for board representation that have involved cumulative voting and numerous $vote no$ campaigns.

Peter's already-diverse client base has expanded over the years to include several high profile corporations, hedge funds, and Canadian issuers. A testament to his professional prowess, Peter is an often sought-after speaker and panelist on corporate governance matters. Prior to joining Alliance Advisors, Peter was employed at major proxy solicitation firms Corporate Investor Communications (CIC), Georgeson and The Altman Group, Inc. Peter proudly heads up the Proxy Solicitation Group at Alliance Advisors.

Executive Director
China International Capital Corporation

 
Biography
Dr. Chang is an Executive Director at China International Capital Corporation (CICC), the leading Chinese investment bank responsible for taking most Chinese SOEs listed overseas. Before joining CICC in 2010, Dr. Chang was the CEO of CSOP Asset Management based in Hong Kong managing the first QDII fund: capital out of China investing overseas. From 2000 to 2008, Dr. Chang was an equity prop trader at Citigroup Global Equity Division in New York. Prior to coming to Wall Street, Dr. Chang was an agricultural scientist at University of Hawaii where he received his Ph.D. in soil physics. Born in Suzhou, China, Dr. Chang studied at Nanjing Agricultural College and Chinese Academy of Science.

Senior Director, Investor Relations
Cargill, Inc.

 
Biography
As senior director of investor relations, Lisa Clemens heads corporate financial communications and media relations for Cargill, a $120 billion, privately held, food and agricultural company with operations in 67 countries. She also serves as Cargill's financial and corporate spokesperson and as communications counsel to Cargill's financial subsidiaries.

Clemens joined Cargill in August 1995 to lead the company's state government relations and issues management practice. She later began an investor relations practice for the company. Prior to coming to Cargill, she worked for 15 years in public finance and economic development positions in both the private and public sectors.

Clemens graduated from the University of Washington and earned a master of science in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a member of the board of directors of Stages Theatre Company, the leaders in giving program in Minneapolis-St. Paul United Way, and a member of the National Investor Relations Institute.

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
ARCA Biopharma, Inc.

 
Biography
Derek Cole is vice president, investor relations and corporate communications for ARCA biopharma Inc., Bloomfield, CO.

Cole has been involved in the capital markets and strategic planning for over 17 years with 12 years of dedicated investor relations experience focused on supporting the development of small- and mid-cap companies. He has managed or contributed to a broad spectrum of financing transactions, raising approximately $800 million, as well as supporting four M&A transactions. Cole was recently with Allos Therapeutics, Inc. as their vice president, investor Relations. Prior to Allos, Cole headed the investor relations and corporate communications function at Myogen, Inc., from its days as a private company, through its Initial Public Offering and continuing until its recent $2.5 billion acquisition. He is an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) currently serving as President of the Rocky Mountain Chapter and as a member of the BioPharma Roundtable steering committee. Cole is also on the Board of Directors of the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA).

Board Term

2008 - 2012

Board Committees

Advocacy

Communications, chair

Compensation

Director Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
The Sherwin-Williams Company

 
Biography
Before joining Sherwin-Williams in 2006, Conway spent 8 years at KeyCorp where he was VP Investor Relations. Mike and the KeyCorp IR team were recognized by Institutional Investor magazine as one of the top IR groups in the financial services industry for outstanding service to investors, the media and associates. Conway and the Sherwin-Williams team also received similar recognition.

Prior to KeyCorp, Conway was Director of Corporate Communications for Manco; Director of Media Relations for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and spent 13 years as an Emmy award winning Special Projects Reporter at WJW-TV-8, Cleveland. Assignments included travel to Poland, Israel, Mexico, and Canada.

Conway has an MBA from Cleveland State University and a BA from John Carroll University.

Founder & Managing Director
Corbin Perception Group, LLC

 
Biography
Rebecca Corbin is Founder and Managing Director of Corbin Perception Group, LLC (CPG), an investor relations research and advisory firm focused on assisting its clients with long-term shareholder value creation. CPG specializes in investor perception studies and investor day strategy and execution.

Ms. Corbin has consulted on investor relations for over a decade and has provided strategic counsel to hundreds of companies worldwide and across diverse industries.

Prior to founding CPG in 2007, Ms. Corbin was a vice president with Thomson Reuters, where she established and led the company's perception study business in 2003. Prior to that, she was as a surveillance analyst and served as co-director of the Media & Entertainment team within Thomson's Capital Markets Intelligence division.

Ms. Corbin received a B.A. in Business Management from Washington College, where she graduated cum laude and with honors. She was the first recipient of the Schottland Business Leadership Award, a tuition grant towards graduate work in business and was also presented with the Department of Business Management Award, the department's highest continuing honor. Recently, she was selected as the 2011 recipient for the Alumni Horizon Ribbon Award which is given to a graduate of the past 15 years who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, service and scholarship in a particular area.

Global Product Manager - Bloomberg Industries
Bloomberg

 
Biography
No bio available

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Cardinal Health, Inc.

 
Biography
Sally J. Curley is senior vice president, investor relations for Cardinal Health, Inc., an $87 billion, Fortune #19 ranked global health care company. Sally is responsible for overseeing the company's global investor relations (IR) efforts. In addition, she is a member of the Cardinal Health's Global Leadership Team, Finance Council and Political Action Committee Board of Directors. Sally also sits on the Steering Committee for the Company's Women's Initiative (Women in Business).

With more than 23 years of business experience, Sally joined Cardinal Health from Genzyme Corporation where for nine years she led IR and advised the Board's Nominating and Governance Committee on corporate governance issues. Although she has worked for and represented companies in the high tech, software and retail industries, the vast majority of her corporate and consulting experience has been in healthcare. She serves on the National Investor Relations Institute's (NIRI) Board of Directors and has presented to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on shareholder transparency and proxy access reforms.

Sally received her bachelor's degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine and her master's degree in business administration from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She has guest lectured and/or taught classes on disclosure and governance, investor relations, communications and public company earnings reporting at The Ohio State University, Harvard University, Boston University, Suffolk University, Babson College and Emerson College Graduate School of Communications.

NIRI National Board Service
Board Term

2007 - 2011

Board Committees

Advocacy

Professional Development

Nominating & Governance

Accountant & Business Consultant
Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras

 
Biography
Ms. Santos has served as an accountant since 2004 and as a business consultant since 2008. Ms Santos has actively participated of Convergence Accounting Process in Petrobras Group.

Ms. Santos has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Universidade do Grande Rio (Grande Rio University), an executive MBA from the Fundação Getlio Vargas and has completed a Master's Degree in accounting from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

In 2010, she taught international accounting in post-graduate's courses at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

Ms Santos has experience in writing academic articles. Recently, she served as a conferencist in Seminário Latino-Americano Adoção de IFRSs: Avanços e Desafios, organized by CFC – Conselho Federal de Contabilidade (Accounting Federal Board).

Chief Economist & Market Strategist
MKM Partners, LLC

 
Biography
Michael T. Darda joined MKM Partners, LLC in December 2003 as Chief Economist and Market Strategist. Before coming to MKM, Mr. Darda worked as Chief Economist and Director of International Research Polyconomics, Inc. Before joining Polyconomics, Inc., Mr. Darda worked in the Wisconsin State Legislature as a Staff Economist and Press Secretary.

Mr. Darda is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and also has been published in the Washington Times and the Financial Times. Mr. Darda is quoted frequently in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other publications. He is a frequent guest on CNBC and appears regularly on Bloomberg financial television and radio.

He graduated with honors in economics, journalism and public relations from the University of Wisconsin.

Senior Vice President
Raymond James & Associates

 
Biography
Sam Darkatsh joined the Raymond James furnishings group practice in June 1999 and currently focuses on the home & building products and wholesale industrial distribution sectors. He has twice been recognized for his coverage of this sector in the StarMine Top Analyst survey.

Mr. Darkatsh's previous experience includes nearly five years in retail as a financial consultant with PaineWebber and Merrill Lynch Private Client.

He holds a B.S. degree in corporate accounting and finance from Juniata College, and he earned an M.B.A. with a dual concentration in equity research and finance from the University of Florida.

Director, Investor Relations
Loews Corporation

 
Biography
Darren Daugherty joined Loews Corporation in 2006 as Director, Investor Relations. Loews is a diversified holding company based in New York, with a market cap of approximately $17 billion.

Loews had two classes of stock, including its Carolina Group tracking stock, prior to the spin-off of its Lorillard subsidiary in 2008. Darren managed the investor relations programs for both. He has supported investor communications throughout various corporate transactions, including the Lorillard spin-off and subsequent exchange offer, as well as the acquisition of Loews' HighMount E&P subsidiary.

Previously, Darren worked at AT&T in various financial roles, including investor relations, as a member of the company's Financial Leadership Program. Prior to joining AT&T, he spent several years in the semiconductor industry managing new product design and development for Teccor Electronics.

Darren received an MBA from the SMU Cox School of Business and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Senior Vice President
Fleishman-Hillard

 
Biography
Scott Deitz has more than 25 years of public relations and financial communications experience including comprehensive investor relations activities, merger and acquisition communications, reputation management, media relations, employee communications, government affairs, crisis communications, special events, executive coaching, change management, and speech writing. His skills are global in scope, with experience at Fortune 500 public companies and businesses that are leaders in their sectors.

Mr. Deitz works in the Corporate Issues and Financial Communications group. His projects include counseling corporate executives on strategic and day-to-day investor relations and financial communications activities; strategic public relations; advancing and managing company reputations; and implementing and assessing effective approaches to valuation, public policy, and sustainability. He has also been active in advancing the interests of community and international not-for-profit organizations.

Mr. Deitz joined Fleishman-Hillard in 2010 after nearly five years at Owens Corning, a global leader in residential and commercial building materials and glass fiber reinforcements engineered for use in composite materials. He successfully guided Owens Corning back to Wall Street as a publicly traded NYSE company and enhanced the company's reputation following its 2006 emergence from asbestos-related bankruptcy. At Owens Corning, Mr. Deitz led all aspects of the investor relations and corporate communications functions. He was a member of the company's operating committee, disclosure committee, business code of conduct council, and product stewardship organization. He was also a founding member of the company's sustainability council.

During his 14 years in the pulp and paper industry, Mr. Deitz launched and sustained the ADR listing on the New York Stock Exchange of Finland-based Stora Enso, the world's leading diversified forest products company. He also led the employee communications, public relations, government affairs, and financial communications activities on behalf of U.S.-based Consolidated Papers before its acquisition by Stora Enso.

Mr. Deitz holds a bachelor's degree in communications education, with an emphasis in public relations and journalism from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has studied at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and Sweden's Krauthammer International. Mr. Deitz lectures in various academic settings. He is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Vice President, Investor Relations
Jack in the Box

 
Biography
Carol DiRaimo joined Jack in the Box Inc. as vice president of investor relations & corporate communications in July 2008. Prior to joining Jack in the Box, she was vice president of investor relations for Applebee's International, Inc. She spent 14 years with Applebee's and served in a variety of capacities, including financial planning & reporting, treasury and corporate analysis, before heading the investor relations function. Ms. DiRaimo has more than 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry, having previously worked for Gilbert/Robinson. A certified public accountant (Bronze Medalist 1983, State of Missouri), Ms. DiRaimo has six years of public accounting experience with Deloitte.

Ms. DiRaimo was named to the Institutional Investor All-America Executive Team in 2011 and 2010. Also in 2011, IR Magazine honored Ms. DiRaimo as "Best Investor Relations Officer" for a small cap company. She received an honorable mention for this award in 2009 while Jack in the Box received an honorable mention for "Most Progress in Investor Relations" in 2010 and 2009. IR Magazine also recognized Ms. DiRaimo and Applebee's while she was an executive at that company. For four consecutive years – from 2004 to 2007 – she was named "Best Investor Relations Officer" for a small to mid cap company while Applebee's earned "Best Overall Investor Relations" honors for a small cap company. In 2006, Institutional Investor Magazine named Applebee's one of America's Most Shareholder-Friendly Companies.

Ms. DiRaimo holds a bachelor's degree in accounting, summa cum laude, from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and she received an Executive Fellows MBA from Rockhurst University in Kansas City.

Ms. DiRaimo has served on the Board of Directors of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) since 2006. In 2010, Ms. DiRaimo was elected to the Board of Trustees of Rockhurst University where she serves on the Advancement, Audit and Finance Committees.

Board Term

2006 - 2011

Board Committees

Audit/Finance, Chair

Compensation

Executive

Membership and Chapter Services

Annual Conference Committee

Co-Chair, 2006

Senior Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
IMPAX Laboratories

 
Biography
Mark Donohue is Senior Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for Impax Laboratories, a specialty pharmaceuticals company that develops both brand and generic products. Mr. Donohue joined Impax in April of 2008 and has led the effort to restore investor confidence and positively promote the company following security delisting and financial reporting issues.

Prior to joining the Company, he had been director of investor relations for Dow Jones & Co., a global publisher of business and financial news and information. He was responsible for developing and executing a global investor relations program.

Prior to joining Dow Jones in early 2001, he was vice president, investor relations, with Summit Bancorp, the 25th largest U.S. regional bank before its merger with FleetBoston. Before getting his start in the investor relations field in early 1999, he worked in corporate finance at Covance, Inc., after beginning his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young.

Mr. Donohue earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Villanova University and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Pennsylvania. He also served four years active duty in the United States Air Force as an air traffic controller. He currently serves on the NIRI IR Update Magazine Editorial Advisory Board and on the NIRI Philadelphia Chapter Advisory Board. He previously served on the board of the Philadelphia Chapter from 2006 to 2010, and was the Chapter's President from 2008 to 2010. Mr. Donohue was also NIRI's 2010 University of Michigan Theory and Practice of IR Program Scholarship recipient.

Vice President
Motorola Solutions, Inc.

 
Biography
Shep serves as the VP of Investor Relations for Motorola Solutions (MSI). He is responsible for executing Motorola Solution's global investor communications program. Shep also provides guidance regarding MSI's operating results and business strategies to institutional investors and sell-side securities analysts. Prior to Motorola Solutions, he spent 12 years at Dell, Inc. in various roles, including Investor Relations, Corporate Planning, Services Marketing and Corporate Audit. Shep earned an MBA in finance from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor of science in accounting from Kansas State University. He is also a CPA in the state of Texas.

Director, Investor Relations
SAP AG

 
Biography
Friederike Edelmann joined SAP's investor relations team in 2002. She is responsible for SAP's individual investor program in the U.S., for SAP's communication with socially responsible investors (SRI), SAP's annual report, and SAP's investor relations Web site.

Before joining SAP, Ms. Edelmann was with Mannheimer Versicherung as a specialist for public and investor relations. Prior to that, she was with technology start-up InterComponentWare as head of investor relations. From 1997 to 2000, Ms. Edelmann was with SAP's consulting partner Realtech holding several positions in marketing, public relations and investor relations. Prior to Realtech, Ms. Edelmann worked as a sales representative at Unisys.

Ms. Edelmann received a Bachelor of Business Administration – Dual Degree from Accadis Business School in Germany and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) as well as a Master's Degree from GSBA Zurich, Switzerland.

Currently, Ms. Edelmann is serving on the Board of Directors of NIRI New York as Vice President Membership.

Vice President, Investor Relations Communications Services
Thomson Reuters

 
Biography
No bio available

Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets
Stephens, Inc.

 
Biography
Mr. Ellis has extensive experience with Initial Public Offerings and other public capital raises. He joined Stephens in 2007 as a Managing Director in the Capital Markets Group which oversees public capital raises for Stephens' clients. Prior to Stephens, Mr. Ellis was a Co-founder of ELM Capital, a boutique investment bank focused on private placements and M&A transactions. Previously Mr. Ellis worked at Morgan Keegan, Dain Rauscher Wessels, and RBC Capital Markets. Mr. Ellis earned an MBA from The Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virg\inia, a JD from the University Of Virginia School Of Law and a BA from Birmingham-Southern College.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Integrys Energy Group, Inc.

 
Biography
Steven P. Eschbach, CFA, joined Integrys Energy Group, Inc. in May 2007 as Vice President of Investor Relations. He came to Integrys Energy Group with a diversified financial and corporate communications background. Most recently, he was an independent consultant for his own firm, Eschbach & Associates, LLC, where he advised clients on various investor relations programs and appeared as a financial expert witness in a utility rate case for the State of Connecticut.

Steve has held the lead investor relations role for several technology and energy companies such as FuelCell Energy, Inc., RMI.NET, Inc., Kinder Morgan, Inc., and Yankee Energy System, Inc. Prior to his investor relations roles at these companies, he was an expert financial witness in public utility rate cases for the State of Connecticut where he prepared and defended testimony in over a dozen proceedings on financial issues such as rate of return on rate base, return on equity, capital structure and other accounting topics.

As the company's principal contact with the financial community, Steve leads Integrys Energy Group's investor relations program to increase visibility and enhance perception of the company with the investment community. He works closely with the senior management team to address finance-related matters in strategic and financial planning, speeches, presentations, and printed material. He also delivers finance-related speeches and presentations and works to establish and develop relationships with analysts, portfolio managers, brokers, and investors.

Steve has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Connecticut (1980); and holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Hartford (1985).

Steve has been a member of the National Investor Relations Institute since 1997 and is a past President of its Rocky Mountain and Connecticut/Westchester chapters. He currently serves as the Vice President – Membership for the Chicago Chapter. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a current member of the CFA Institute's Chicago Society. Steve is a co-leader of the Career Transition Ministry of St. Raphael's Parish in Naperville, IL. Steve also was a strategic advisor to the Sacred Heart Parish Pastoral Council in Southbury, Connecticut, and a voting board member of the Town of Southbury Pension and Investment Advisory Committee.

Steve lives in Naperville, Illinois, with his wife, Kathy, and has three adult children – Matthew, Sarah, and David.

Principal
Fine Communications

 
Biography
David Fine is the principal of Fine Communications Inc. - a communications firm specializing in high-quality investor presentations. Clients span virtually every industry and range in size from small, high-growth startups to some of the world's largest companies. David works with companies in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Europe and Australia developing presentations for their own local markets as well as for international audiences. The presentations are used to communicate with investors at investor conferences, one-on-ones and investor roadshows.

Fine brings over twenty years experience in investor relations and corporate communications.

Fine has served as a director on the national board of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI), and is a past President of the Ontario Chapter of CIRI. He has written articles on business presentations, conducts seminars for NASDAQ, the AMEX, NIRI and CIRI and co-authored Point, Click & Wow - A Guide to Brilliant Laptop Presentations.

formerly Vice President of Investor Relations & Compliance
DivX Inc.

 
Biography
Karen is formerly the Vice President of Investor Relations and Compliance for DivX, Inc., a leading digital media company in San Diego. Karen joined DivX in 2007. She held the similar position of Vice President of Investor Relations and Compliance for four years with BakBone Software, a company which develops disaster recovery software globally for businesses across all vertical markets.

Prior to her position with BakBone, she was the Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for MP3.com, an Internet music company and one of the largest Internet IPO's. Karen relocated to San Diego in 1999 from Phoenix where she was the Director of Investor Relations for SpeedFam, a semiconductor capital equipment maker.

Karen's investor relations, corporate communications, marketing and financial services experience spans over 20 years including her position with the Arizona Securities Division as Assistant Director where she worked with both the Securities and Exchange Commission and NASDAQ on the regulatory side of investor relations. Karen's expertise also extends to the investment banking world as the Director of Corporate Communications for Robertson Stephens from 1991 to 1993 working with their venture capital and mutual funds, as well as their investment banking business. She began her investor relations career at 3com Corporation in Santa Clara in 1990.

She is a graduate of the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications and finance and is currently on the Board of Directors for the San Diego Chapter of NIRI. Karen also serves on the National Investor Relations Institute annual conference planning committee for its 2010 national conference to be held in San Diego. She is the recipient of the National Investor Relations Institute scholarship from the University of Michigan covering the Theory and Practice of Investor Relations.

Strategic Planning Director & Investor Relations Officer
Marfrig Alimentos SA

 
Biography
Mr. Florence dos Santos is the current President of IBRI - the Brazilian Institute of Investor Relations (Instituto Brasileiro de Relacoes com Investidores) and works for Marfrig (BOVESPA: MRFG3) -- one of the largest global food companies -- as the Strategic Planning Director and investor Relations Officer. He worked at Grupo Pao de Acucar from 1984 to 2000, as the Financial Planning and the Investor Relations Executive Officer, followed by two years at UOL Inc. (Grupo Folha de Sao Paulo) as an investor relations executive officer more recently until February 2007 as an adjunct investor relations executive officer at Brasil Telecom.

He had been a member of the board of Grupo Pao de Acucar from 1995 to 1999; of UOL - Grupo Folha in 2001and of the IBRI, from 1998 to 2001, of which he is currently Chief Executive Officer. He was also a member of the Advisory Board of Dentalcorp from 2002 to 2006 and of the Fiscal Board from IBRI from 2007 to 2008.

Mr. Florence dos Santos holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Escola Politecnica da Universidade de Sao Paulo and in Business from Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. He also holds a post graduation in Finance from Mackenzie and an MBA in General Strategy from IBMEC Sao Paulo.

Vice President, Investor Relations
FedEx Corporation

 
Biography
Mickey Foster is vice president of Investor Relations for FedEx Corporation. He is responsible for all aspects of FedEx's investor relations programs. Prior to joining FedEx, Foster provided strategic direction for the investor programs of some of the world's most recognized companies including ARCO, Pacific Enterprises, Hanson and Millennium Chemicals. He has over 25 years experience working with the financial community in investor relations.

A native of Texas, Foster earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's in finance from Texas A&M University. In addition, he received a master's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California. Foster is a past chairman of the National Investor Relations Institute, the president of the Investor Relations Association, and a founding and current member of National Investor Relations Institute's Senior Roundtable.

In 2011, Foster was awarded Institutional Investor's "Best Investor Relations Professional Award" within his industry sector, and IR Magazine's "Lifetime Achievement" award.

Managing Partner
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher

 
Biography
Joele Frank is the founder and managing partner of Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, a leading strategic financial corporate communications firm specializing in investor relations, financial public relations, and transaction and crisis communications. Since its founding in 2000, Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher has consistently ranked as one of the top M&A firms, and recently ranked first among PR firms in M&A transactions by value for the first nine months of 2010, having advised on a total of $99.6 billion worth of M&A transactions.(1) The firm was also named Crisis Agency of the Year for 2009.(2) Ms. Frank has been included in PR Week's PR Power List for the past three years and is a member of Inside PR's Hall of Fame as an All-Star for Investor Relations.

Ms. Frank has played a major role in more than 1,000 special situations. Noteworthy client assignments have included representing: Airgas in its defense against the unsolicited offer and proxy contest from Air Products; Avis Budget Group with respect to its proposal to acquire Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group; PotashCorp in its defense against the unsolicited offer from BHP Billiton; Microsoft in its proposal to acquire Yahoo!; SIRIUS in its merger with XM; Merck in its merger with Schering-Plough; NRG in its defense against Exelon; the Haas Family Trust in connection with Dow Chemical's acquisition of Rohm & Haas; Verizon in its acquisition of MCI (facing a competing proposal from Qwest); PeopleSoft in its defense against Oracle; and the William R. Hewlett Trust in its opposition to the HP/Compaq merger.

With respect to proxy contests and shareholder activism, Ms. Frank has advised, among many others, Lionsgate in its defense against Carl Icahn, Target during its proxy contest against Pershing Square Capital Management, and Motorola during its proxy contest against Carl Icahn.

Prior to founding Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, Ms. Frank was Vice Chairman of Abernathy MacGregor Frank, where she led the firm's mergers and acquisitions and crisis communications practices. Previously, Ms. Frank was a Managing Director at Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart, a corporate and financial public relations firm. Ms. Frank spent seven years in AT&T's treasury department and worked closely with the investment community during the divestiture of the Bell System. She began her corporate career as a senior financial analyst at Allied Chemical. Before that, Ms. Frank specialized in DNA replication as a research biochemist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Ms. Frank has an A.B. in chemistry from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA in finance from Long Island University. She is a member of the Financial Women's Association and The Economic Club of New York.

(1) MergerMarkets, October 2010
(2) The Holmes Report, April 2009

Senior Vice President, Partner & Global Industry Analyst
Wellington Management Company, LLP

 
Biography
As a global industry analyst in Global Industry Research, Ann specializes in the health care services industry. She conducts fundamental analysis on the companies within her industry and makes buy/sell recommendations to portfolio managers based on her findings and market conditions. Ann is a member of Wellington Management's health care team that manages health and biotechnology sector mutual funds and hedge funds, and she currently serves as coordinator for several of the team-managed portfolios.

Prior to joining Wellington Management in 1998, Ann was a health care analyst with BT Alex. Brown (1995 - 1998). She was an investment banker and, subsequently, a health care analyst at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis (1992 - 1995). Previously, she was a financial analyst with Citibank N.A. (1991 - 1992) and an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (1987 - 1989).

Ann received her MS in finance and applied economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan, 1991) and her BS in accounting from Boston College (1987).

Vice President, Investor Relations & Treasurer
CNO Financial

 
Biography
Scott Galovic is Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer of CNO Financial Group, a holding company whose insurance subsidiaries serve working American families and seniors by helping them protect against financial adversity and provide for a more secure retirement.

Scott has managed the investor relations function since joining the company in 2008 and in March 2010 was promoted to Treasurer, adding responsibility for cash management, and the corporate insurance program. He also participates as a member of the company's Capital Management Committee.

Scott has over 20 years of experience in insurance and financial services, primarily focused on the life and health insurance industry. His previous positions include two years as Vice President/Controller of Irwin Union Bank, seven years as Controller at Golden Rule Insurance Company, and five years in various finance and accounting roles at Anthem, Inc. (now Wellpoint).

Scott received his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Indiana University. He holds a CPA certification, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Indiana State Society of CPAs. A Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI), he also is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute and the Association of Insurance and Financial Analysts.

Partner
Deloitte

 
Biography
D.J. Gannon is a partner with Deloitte LLP, and the Deputy Managing Partner of the U.S. Regulatory and Public Policy group. Mr. Gannon specializes in global financial reporting, regulatory and public policy issues. He is a thought leader in global issues and is active in speaking and writing on a variety of global financial reporting topics, in particular IFRS. Mr. Gannon has been quoted in a number of national and global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Financial Times. He also has appeared on FOX Business News.

He also is a leader in the U.S. accounting profession, serving on or chairing various committees involving international financial reporting issues and IFRS. He currently chairs the U.S. Center for Audit Quality's IFRS Working Group, and previously chaired the CAQ's International Practices Task Force, and the AICPA's Accounting Standards Executive Committee's Short-Term International Convergence Task Force.

He has served in a variety of national and global technical roles within the firm. He has been a U.S. National Office Accounting Consultation partner, has served as a concurring reviewer on a number of clients that use IFRS, and was previously on the firm's Global IFRS Leadership Team. He also has served as a partner in the firm's SEC Services group, where he oversaw the review of SEC filings involving foreign registrants that use IFRS.

From November 1997 through June 2000, he served as a Professional Accounting Fellow in the Office of the Chief Accountant of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In this capacity, he worked as a liaison with international accounting and auditing standard-setting bodies. He participated in the research and development of SEC staff positions on international accounting and reporting issues, consulted with foreign registrants on a variety of accounting, auditing and reporting matters, and assisted in the development of the SEC's Concept Release, International Accounting Standards. He also participated extensively in the activities of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and worked on the IOSCO assessment report on the International Accounting Standards Committee's "core standards."

Senior Vice President/Group Executive, Investor Relations
MasterCard Inc.

 
Biography
Barbara Gasper is senior vice president/group executive, investor relations, for MasterCard Incorporated, Purchase, New York.

Gasper joined MasterCard in 2006 as group executive, investor relations. Her responsibilities include cultivating relationships with the investment community, educating and updating investors about the company and providing feedback on how the market views the company. Gasper also works closely with Global Communications to manage and direct the flow of financial and other information about MasterCard in the public domain.

Gasper joined MasterCard from Ford Motor Company where she was the vice president of investor relations overseeing all aspects of the investor relations program for the multi-billion dollar global company.

Prior to Ford Motor Company, Gasper held executive investor relations positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Group, Lucent Technologies and Raytheon. She also spent over 20 years at Lukens Inc. where she worked in both engineering and corporate finance roles, including the Assistant Treasurer and Treasurer.

Gasper is a member of the Senior Roundtable and the Speaker's Bureau of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). Before joining MasterCard, she served on a number of community boards, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Gasper holds a BS in Mathematics from Bucknell University and an MBA from Widener University.

Board Term

2008 - 2012

Board Committees

Executive

Membership

Professional Development, chair

ECM
Liquidnet

 
Biography
Andrew Geissler is a member of Liquidnet's Equity Capital Markets team and is responsible for expanding Liquidnet's relationships with issuers and delivering to them Liquidnet's full range of corporate finance solutions. Andrew has 20 years of private and public capital markets experience across a variety of areas. Prior to joining Liquidnet, Andrew was a Managing Director at Knight Capital Group where he built the corporate trade execution desk, delivering to corporations origination, structuring and execution expertise for at-the-market primary offerings, block trades, corporate share repurchase programs and quiet accumulations. He also was responsible for the monetization of concentrated equity positions, private equity dispositions and restricted stock transactions. He also ran Knight's institutional restricted stock desk. Prior to joining Knight, Andrew was a Managing Director in the Special Equity Transactions Group at Citigroup Global Markets. In this capacity he was responsible for cash and structured corporate share repurchase programs, principal block trades, restricted stock transactions, quiet accumulations, monetizing concentrated equity positions and venture capital distributions. Prior to Citigroup, Andrew was in the Equity Capital Markets group at PaineWebber, overseeing all phases of equity new issuance, and prior to that, was in the Industrial Group in PaineWebber's Investment Banking Division. He began his career in the Corporate Finance Group of The Prudential Insurance Company where he was a member of the Financial Restructuring Group. Andrew was an Alumni Memorial Scholar at Colgate University and holds a B.A. in Mathematical Economics with Honors. He obtained his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Manager, Investor Relations
Cameco (Canada)

 
Biography
Rachelle is the Manager, Investor Relations for Cameco Corporation, one of the world's largest uranium producers and a significant supplier of conversion services. She has been with Cameco and in investor relations for just over five years. She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and is a Certified Management Accountant.

Director
Brunswick Group

 
Biography
Jason Golz, CFA, is a Director in the San Francisco office of the Brunswick Group. He has 15 years of relevant technology, communications and capital market experience and has advised over 50 companies large and small, public and private, domestic and international on corporate reputation matters, transactions and investor relations. Previously, Jason was a Vice President on the Capital Markets team at FD, where he also served as a member of the FD Research team, an internal group which handles high-value research and analysis studies for the firm, its clients and the public. He developed FD's IPO Prep™ program, designed to prepare private company management teams for the communication rigors of being public. Jason also develops communications strategies for clients through transactions, crisis events and shareholder activism. He graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA with a BA in Business and Economics. He was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2004.

Partner
Blank Rome, LLP

 
Biography
Keith Gottfried concentrates his practice primarily on public company matters, including without limitation mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, securities regulation, shareholder activism, and NYSE and Nasdaq compliance.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Gottfried has worked on a number of high-profile mergers and acquisition transactions, representing private and public companies across a broad range of industries and sectors. Mr. Gottfried advises clients on various types of M&A transactions, including stock acquisitions, asset acquisitions, stock-for-stock mergers, cash-election mergers, tender offers, divestitures, auctions and cross-border transactions. In addition to representing acquirers and targets, he has represented some of the leading investment banks in their role as financial advisor to the acquirer or target in connection with an M&A transaction. He also represents clients in connection with proxy contests and other contests for corporate control as well as the implementation of stockholder rights plans and other types of defensive strategies. In addition, Mr. Gottfried counsels clients with respect to corporate governance issues, securities law compliance, SEC reporting issues and New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq compliance.

From October 2005 to November 2006, Mr. Gottfried served as the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was nominated to this position by President George W. Bush on July 29, 2005 and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 7, 2005. At HUD, Mr. Gottfried led a nationwide organization of approximately 400 attorneys and 300 non-attorneys headquartered in Washington, D.C., along with ten regional offices and close to forty field offices throughout the country.

From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Gottfried served in senior executive positions at Borland Software Corporation, a publicly-held global provider of software development solutions located in Cupertino, California. After having represented Borland as its outside counsel, Mr. Gottfried joined the company's executive management team in June 2000 as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary and was responsible for all aspects of the company's worldwide legal function.

Prior to joining Borland Software, Mr. Gottfried was a corporate attorney in the New York office of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP for nearly seven years. While at Skadden Arps, Mr. Gottfried was a member of the firm's mergers & acquisitions group. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gottfried was a corporate attorney with the Philadelphia office of Blank Rome where he concentrated his practiced on general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and securities regulation. Mr. Gottfried is also a former accountant and practiced public accounting with the accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP prior to attending law school.

Mr. Gottfried holds a law degree, cum laude, from Boston University's School of Law where he was a named an Edward F. Hennessey Distinguished Scholar of Law and a G. Joseph Tauro Scholar of Law. Mr. Gottfried also holds an M.B.A., high honors, from Boston University's Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Economics, concentrated in accounting, from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Senior Vice President, Director of Investor Relations
Huntington Bancshares, Inc.

 
Biography
Jay S. Gould, an investor relations professional for more than 25 years, is senior vice president/director of investor relations for Huntington Bancshares Inc., in Columbus, Ohio, joining them in October 2001. He is responsible for all aspects of communication and establishing and maintaining relationships with shareholders, investors, and analysts regarding the financial performance and strategies of Huntington.

Prior to his current position, Jay joined Chicago-based Bank One Corporation in 1996, as senior vice president/director of investor relations. Beginning in 1992, he was senior vice president/director of investor relations for Cleveland-based KeyCorp (previously Society Corporation). Beginning in 1977, Jay held various financial and corporate planning positions at Los Angeles-based Security Pacific Corporation and was senior vice president/director of investor relations from 1981 to 1992. Prior to that he held various positions within the thrift industry where his career began in 1965.

Jay is a graduate of the California State University-Northridge where he received both M.S.-Finance (1972) and B.S.-Business Administration/Finance (1969) degrees.

He is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and the NIRI Columbus, Ohio chapter. He previously served as a member of the NIRI National Board, its External Affairs and Finance committees, and Ethics Council. He was a member of the Investor Relations Association (New York City) and director and president of the Bank Investor Relations Association (New York City).

Head of Issuer Services & Equity Capital Markets
Liquidnet Holdings, Inc.

 
Biography
Steve Greenblatt is the Head of Issuer Services and Equity Capital Markets (ECM) at Liquidnet Holdings, Inc. In this role, he oversees Liquidnet's research offering targeting corporate issuers, portfolio managers and analysts and is responsible for the growth of the company's ECM business.

Since joining the company in early 2001, he has held various roles, most recently serving as Head of Liquidnet's Corporate Strategy Group where he oversaw the development of new products and businesses. He also was co-Head of Global Equities and led the US Sales team.

Steve brings nearly twenty years of experience in financial services application development, middleware technology, consulting and solution integration. Prior to joining Liquidnet, Steve served as Vice President of Armonie Software, a company he co-founded in 1999. Previously, he served as the Head of Implementation for VIE Systems and NEON, and in management roles with JP Morgan and Andersen Consulting. Previously, he served as the Head of Implementation for VIE Systems and NEON, and in management roles with JP Morgan and Andersen Consulting.

Steve holds a B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Herbalife

 
Biography
Amy Greene is vice president of investor relations for Herbalife. She has global responsibility for all investment community communications including institutional marketing and interaction.

Greene joined Herbalife with a keen understanding of publicly-traded companies in the direct selling industry, having spent over 15 years on Wall Street as a senior equity analyst. She served as senior analyst at Avondale LLC covering food, restaurants, and the direct selling industries.

Greene gained earlier financial experience at Financeware, a financial planning technology company, where she was founder and chief executive officer. She started her career working at Wheat First/First Union covering the food, beverage and tobacco industries.

Greene holds a Bachelor of Science in politics from Randolph Macon Woman's College.

Chairman
Groh Asset Management

 
Biography
Roger Groh has been Chairman and CIO of Groh Asset Management, Inc since 1994. Roger also serves as CIO of Mandarin Pacific Asset Management LLC. Groh began his career as an equity analyst for CIGNA in 1979, then Dean Witter, American Express and in 1986 was named managing partner and CIO at Van Kasper Advisers (now Wells Fargo Securities). Groh also founded and was CIO at Montgomery Global Securities, LLC.

All of those firms used the same basic investment principles of identifying companies which could reasonably be expected to increase sales regularly over long periods of time and then paying a fair price for those investments.

Roger was a member of the Barron's Million Dollar Roundtable and former contributor to the Federal Reserve Board Advisory Council. For twenty years Roger appeared on CNBC and CNN eventually moving into television and movies. Groh lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family.

President
FINEO Investor Relations Advisors

 
Biography
A Certified Financial Analyst, Anne Guimard also holds a PhD in international finance from the University of Dauphine in Paris (France). With over 15 years of experience as a Chief Investor Relations Officer at multi-listed groups and as financial analyst in equity research and Mergers & Acquisitions at leading investments banks, she decided to become an entrepreneur and founded FINEO in 1999. The firm is exclusively staffed with senior capital market experts and exclusively focuses on strategic Investor Relations issues, offering selected companies worldwide the independent, high value-added advice they need to effectively compete for capital on a global scale.

She has developed FINEO's proprietary training courses, opened The School of Investor Relations in 2010, and regularly speaks at international seminars on Investor Relations.

Anne's latest book, Investor Relations: Principles and International Best practices of Financial Communications - (published by Palgrave), is on NIRI's recommended reading list.

She is a member of the Investor Relations Society in the UK, the National Investor Relations Institute in the US and the French Securities Analysts' Association.

Global Head of IR Services
Thomson Reuters

 
Biography
No bio available

Body Language Expert
Author, Educator & Big Personality

 
Biography
Jan Latiolais Hargrave teaches you the ways in which your body communicates to the world around you. Her information could help you to "read" your customers, your family, your students, your associates, in fact, everyone around you. Author of Let Me See Your Body Talk, Freeway of Love, Judge The Jury and Strictly Business Body Language, this popular speaker, distinguished educator, talk-show guest of The Lifetime Channel, Fox News, The Maury Povich Show, The Montel Williams Show, Great Day Houston, E-Entertainment Television and The Ricki Lake Show, describes for you all "hidden messages" you use in your everyday life and shows you how to stop the lies and uncover the truth—in any conversation or situation.

Working with thousands in the field of personal growth and self-expression through seminars and workshops for the past 10 years, Ms. Hargrave continues to inspire many of today's leading corporations, such as Lockheed Martin, Merrill Lynch, Starbucks, Rockwell, ESPN, Sun Life Financial Distributors, Exxon, Chase Manhattan Bank, NASA, El Paso Energy, Bank of America, and at the USA MWR Training and Development Center in Heidelberg, Germany. Her expertise concerning nonverbal communication in the courtroom and witness preparation, plus her membership in the American College of Forensic Examiners, proves to be the topics of interest in her presentations to the Honolulu Police Department, the Louisiana Attorney General's Office, and various legal Bench and Bar Associations across the country.

The Cajun French Ms. Hargrave was born to French-Acadian parents in the unique "Joie de Vivre" (Joy of Life) culture of southwest Louisiana and as a result, sprinkles her captivating presentations with entertaining Ragin' Cajun folkloric tales. Jan received her Bachelor's degree, Master's degree and Specialist degree in Business/Psychology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is presently CEO of Jan Hargrave & Associates, a Houston-based consulting firm, and served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston for eight years.

Nonverbal communication--Body Language--often communicates a different message from the spoken word. Jan proves with her contagious warmth, wit, and humor that there is a method, and a style, to success. Bring your body, your curiosity, your sense of humor and learn what your body...and the body of others...is communicating to the world.

Miami Bureau Chief
Bloomberg News

 
Biography
Jerry Hart is the Miami bureau chief for Bloomberg News, covering state and local finance in the southeast U.S. and Puerto Rico since 2008.

He's been with Bloomberg News since 1994, serving in a variety of positions including leader for financial-industry news in New York, senior editor for markets and economies in London, Paris deputy bureau chief, news director for Bloomberg Radio and a trainer of writers and editors in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Before joining Bloomberg, Jerry was an assistant business editor at The New York Times. He began his career as a metro reporter at the Miami Herald in 1968, after which he worked at newspapers in Boston, San Francisco and New York.

He holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in mass communications from the University of Miami, where he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.

CEO
Issuer Advisory Group

 
Biography
Pat Healy is Chief Executive Officer at Issuer Advisory Group, which was founded in 1995 and has advised more than 100 companies with an aggregate market capitalization in excess of $500 billion dollars on all aspects of the market listing process. Issuer Advisory Group is dedicated to ensuring that companies receive the very best in trading, services and advocacy no matter where their stock is listed.

An experienced executive with over twenty years on Wall Street, Mr. Healy is a former CFO, holds a CPA, an MBA and served on the faculty of the McDonough Business School of Georgetown University for eight years.

A passionate advocate and champion of the issuer, Mr. Healy often muses that he is both the most liked and most disliked individual at both the NYSE and Nasdaq.

President, CEO & Founder
Q4 Web Systems

 
Biography
Darrell Heaps is a co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Q4 Web Systems. An experienced entrepreneur with a history of successfully starting, building and selling communication based companies. Under Darrell's leadership, Q4 has grown from a startup to a leading provider of on-demand software that helps publicly traded companies increase efficiency and reduce risk related to corporate disclosure and regulatory compliance. An increasing number of North America's largest issuers rely on Q4 solutions to help manage disclosure controls and procedures. In March 2008 Q4 was named one of Canada's Top 25 Up and Coming Software Companies by Branham300 and Backbone magazine. As CEO of Q4, Darrell's responsibilities include setting priorities, measuring performance, raising capital and recruiting tier-one talent.

Prior to Q4, Darrell founded NKaos Interactive Media. One of Canada's earliest web development and marketing companies, NKaos won numerous marketing awards while developing sophisticated web programs for some of Canada's largest companies. In 2001, Darrell merged NKaos with a corporate communications firm to form Weave Communications, where he served as President until 2005.

Darrell studied Business and Computer Science at York University and has regularly been quoted in Canada's leading business publications.

Director, Investor Relations
Athena Health

 
Biography
Jennifer Heizer is Director of Investor Relations at athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), the leading provider of Internet-based business services for physician practices. Jennifer is responsible for building athena's first investor relations program since the company's IPO in September of 2007. Prior to joining athenahealth, Jennifer was Senior Investor Relations Analyst at Akamai Technologies, Inc., a managed service provider for Internet content delivery and application acceleration. Formerly, Jennifer coordinated investor relations and launched cash management initiatives at Mercury Computer Systems, Inc.

Jennifer holds an MBA degree from Babson College with a concentration in global management. She also earned a BS degree in Information Design and Corporate Communication with minors in Finance and International Studies from Bentley College. Jennifer is an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and served on the NIRI Boston Chapter Board of Directors from 2006-2010.

Vice President
Broadridge

 
Biography
Chris Hummel is Vice President of the Western Region for Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. Chris brings to public corporations technology driven services designed to increase the effectiveness of shareholder communications and respond to the preferences and interests of shareholders. Fundamental to his role is helping corporations respond to economic and regulatory changes with emphasis on proxy processing, Transfer Agent services and electronic communication sourced through the Virtual Meeting, Shareholder Forum and Mobile ProxyVote. He is also responsible for the registered proxy business, providing Issuers with solutions that make it possible to consolidate both beneficial and registered processing environments. Prior to joining Broadridge, Chris was with Federated Investors, an investment management company. He is a member of the San Francisco and Silicon Valley NIRI chapters and a member of the Society of Corporate Secretaries.

Investor Relations Officer & Senior Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis and Competitive Analysis
Tempur-Pedic International

 
Biography
Barry Hytinen currently serves as Senior Vice President, Global Business Development and Investor Relations at Tempur-Pedic International. He joined the company to lead all investor outreach efforts in 2005. Prior to joining Tempur-Pedic, he served as CFO of a venture-backed software company. Earlier in his career, he held finance and corporate development positions at Vignette and General Electric. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Syracuse University. He has been a NIRI member for five years and serves on the 2011 Annual Conference Committee.

CEO
Johnson Strategic Communications

 
Biography
Dick Johnson has practiced investor relations for 20 years, first as the IRO for a NYSE-listed company and then as a consultant with Johnson Strategic Communications. Clients range from a global pharmaceutical giant to Midwestern microcaps – and those firms are variously listed on NYSE, NASDAQ and European exchanges.

Mr. Johnson's first love professionally is writing, and helping companies interact with capital markets is his second. Before entering IR and corporate communications, Mr. Johnson was a newspaper reporter and editor. He has a bachelor's degree in Economics from Princeton, and an MBA in Finance and Management from Rockhurst. Mr. Johnson writes a blog on communicating with investors at IRcafe.com.

Core Products - Investment Banking and Corporations/Former REIT Analyst
Bloomberg

 
Biography
No bio available

Founder
IRWebReport.com

 
Biography
No bio available

Deputy CEO, Depositary Receipts
Bank of New York Mellon

 
Biography
Chris Kearns, Managing Director, Deputy CEO for BNY Mellon's Depositary Receipts business, based in New York. In this capacity, Chris has profitability responsibility for this business and manages the sales, relationship management, product management, and global service delivery functions.

Chris, a British citizen, has 23 years experience in the Financial Services industry, the last 20 years of which have been spent in BNY Mellon's DR business.

Chris joined The Bank of New York in London in 1989 in the International Private Banking Division. In 1991, he moved to the DR business where he had sales responsibility in a number of European markets, including Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. In Russia, he established the DR franchise in 1994, which has grown to become the largest in the business.

In 2003, he moved to Hong Kong to lead sales and marketing for DRs in Asia, and was made business head for the region in 2008. He was relocated to New York in 2010.

President
Corporate Board Member

 
Biography
TK Kerstetter is president of Corporate Board Member, an NYSE Euronext Company focused on corporate board thought leadership issues and governance trends. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, Corporate Board Member publishes the industry leading Corporate Board Member magazine, in addition to managing a director and C-suite officer database, board research services, and an extensive events and conference education operation.

Currently, Mr. Kerstetter is the producer and co-host of "This Week in the Boardroom," a weekly on-demand web show filmed at the New York Stock Exchange, and chairs Corporate Board Member's Academic Council. He also authors "The Board Blog" (www.boardmember.com) for corporate directors.

A graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, he previously served as president and director of the $2 billion publically held Wilmington Savings Fund Society spanning a 20 year banking career.

Prior to joining Corporate Board Member, Mr. Kerstetter founded the Bank Directors Training Center in Wilmington, DE. In 1994, he authored a guidebook titled, Ten Commandments for Bank Directors: the "Official" Guide Regulators Won't Publish, which was released as a monograph by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Mr. Kerstetter has appeared on both CNBC and Fox Business News addressing Corporate Board Member's annual "What Directors Think" research and various board trends. His director and board governance articles have been highlighted in numerous publications, and he has conducted more than 200 speeches and presentations for national and state associations, public and private companies, and governance-related or banking organizations.

Investor Relations Manager
Microsoft Corporation

 
Biography
Dennie Kimbrough has spent over ten years with the Investor Relations team for Microsoft. She is responsible for shareholder services. Her responsibilities include managing the investor relations website, communications with the retail shareholders and shareholder analysis.

Partner
Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, Attorneys and Counselors

 
Biography
Daniel Kinel serves clients in all aspects of public and private financing, securities law compliance, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital transactions, and investment advisor regulation. His broad experience includes:

* Assisting public companies with respect to compliance under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

* Representing clients in connection with merger and acquisition transactions.

* Advising clients, ranging from newly formed entities to public companies, on general corporate matters, including venture capital, commercial financing, licensing, and contractual issues.

* Representing issuers in connection with public offerings of securities.

* Advising underwriters in connection with public offerings of securities.

* Representing issuers in connection with private placements of securities, including offerings under Rule 144A and Regulation D.

* Representing broker/dealers in connection with private placements of securities for both public and private companies.

* Advising public companies with respect to NYSE, NYSE Amex and NASDAQ compliance.

* Representing venture capital funds in connection with investments in developing companies.

* Counseling clients in connection with Securities Exchange Act of 1934 disclosure issues.

* Counseling clients regarding corporate governance matters.

Kinel received his law degree cum laude at The American University's Washington College of Law. Kinel also graduated cum laude with a Bachelors Degree from Brandeis University. He is the Chair of Harter Secrest & Emery LLP's Diversity Committee and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Monroe County Bar Association. Kinel is a member of various not for profit boards and is a regular speaker on issues related to securities law compliance and corporate governance.

Director of Listings
BATS Exchange

 
Biography
Brian King is the Director of Listings at BATS Exchange, a U.S. equities exchange operated by BATS Global Markets, the third-largest stock market operator in the world. Mr. King helped to develop and currently oversees all aspects of the BATS Listings program that will launch in the fourth quarter of this year.

Mr. King joined BATS in January 2007 as a director of sales and has been an integral part of BATS' growth. A key member of the BATS sales team, Mr. King managed relationships with some of the company's largest clients and worked directly with both traditional and high-frequency market makers. Mr. King also helped support some of the key business development efforts for BATS.

Mr. King graduated from Florida State University and spent much of the early part of his career managing funds through a personally owned company, Fortress Financial.

Principal
Walek & Associates

 
Biography
Mary Beth is a Principal at Walek & Associates. She provides ongoing public and investor relations counsel to public and private companies, and to those in M&A, crises, restructurings, IPOs and other transactions. In addition, she is responsible for the firm's professional services and financial services clients.

Mary Beth has over twenty years experience in corporate and investor communications. She has developed and executed hundreds of investor and media relations and corporate communications programs for domestic and non-U.S. issuers. Mary Beth founded Corporate Perception Research LLC, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley, providing independent, high-quality shareholder perception research to corporate boards and officers. She acted as Global Thought Leader for Pragmatic Corporate Governance, a global corporate governance implementation tool. Previously, she counseled clients at Abernathy MacGregor in landmark global merger and crisis situations, and for financial and alternative investment firms. She was a Senior Managing Director and oversaw the financial services practice at Hill & Knowlton. Prior to that, she advised international and domestic clients at Georgeson and Company, and headed the firm's international practice.

Her note on international corporate governance has been cited by the World Economic Forum, international governance scholars, state bar associations and corporate governance and international trade texts. Mary Beth received her MS and MA at Iona College and her law degree from New York Law School, where she was a member of the International Law Journal. She is an adjunct instructor at NYU and at the Iona College School of Mass Communication. A board member of the National Investor Relations Institute and chair of its advocacy committee, Mary Beth teaches NIRI's popular "Regulations 101" class.

She is a member of the American Bar Association.

Board Term

2010 - 2014

Board Committees

Advocacy, chair

Nominating

Professional Development

Managing Director
BofA Merrill Lynch

 
Biography
Richard has been at Merrill Lynch (now BoA Merrill Lynch) for nearly twenty five years and has spent his entire career servicing international investors on US equities. He started covering clients in the UK, Nordic and Benelux countries and became Head of Desk in 1996, responsible for the EMEA franchise.

He was promoted to Managing Director in 1999. In 2008, his role was expanded whereupon he assumed responsibility for Americas' Equities Distribution outside the Americas. Prior to joining, Richard worked for Arthur Andersen after he graduated from Oxford University.

Senior Vice President Investor Relations
CIT

 
Biography
Stephen Klimas is Senior Vice President, Investor Relations for CIT Group and has managed all facets of the company's Investor Relation's program. Mr. Klimas has been part of the company's Investor Relation's group since the company's initial public offering in 2002 and was actively involved in the company's 2009 restructuring.

Prior to his role in Investor Relations, Mr. Klimas spent five years in CIT's Treasury department where he held various roles including Vice-President, Capital Markets where he managed the company's global debt programs, derivative portfolio and short-term investments.

Prior to joining CIT, Mr. Klimas was employed by Beneficial Management Corporation where held various Treasury management positions after completing the company's financial management training program.

Mr. Klimas graduated Summa Cum Laude from the College of New Jersey with a Bachelor's degree in Finance and received his MBA from Lehigh University.

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 
Biography
Jenny R. Kobin is vice president, investor relations and corporate communications for Inspire Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Kobin has more than 15 years experience working with the investment community, including broad investor relations roles in diverse industries including banking, software and healthcare, at companies ranging from small to large market capitalization with listings on NASDAQ and NYSE.

Prior to Inspire, Kobin served as director of investor relations and corporate communications at TriPath Imaging, Inc.; director of investor relations at SciQuest, Inc. and CCB Financial Corp. and manager of investor communications at Bank of America Corp. Kobin began her career in investment banking with J.C. Bradford & Co. (now part of UBS Securities) and worked on initial public offerings and private placements.

Kobin is co-founder and past president of the NIRI Triangle Chapter of North Carolina and was co-founder, treasurer and board director of the NIRI-Charlotte Chapter. She helped to create SouthEast Invest, an annual investor conference bringing together leading public companies based in the Southeast with regional institutional investors.

Kobin received a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Director of Investor Relations
Interactive Data Corporation

 
Biography
Andrew M. Kramer is director of investor relations at Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC), a leading provider of financial market data, analytics and related solutions with a market capitalization of approximately $2.5 billion. He has over 15 years of investor relations experience in both corporate and agency settings.

Since March 2004, Kramer has overseen Interactive Data Corporation's communications with the investment community, including financial analysts, institutional investors, stockbrokers and individual investors. His responsibilities also include managing all aspects of the company's quarterly communications with investors, coordinating major investor events and meetings, acting as a company spokesperson and developing key positioning materials, such as award-winning annual reports and investor presentations.

Prior to joining Interactive Data, Kramer was director of investor relations at Sycamore Networks, Inc., a leading provider of optical networking equipment. Previously Kramer was director of investor relations for ArrowPoint Communications, a fast-growing networking equipment company that was acquired by Cisco Systems several months after its initial public offering. Prior to that, he spent more than eight years at Sharon Merrill Associates, New England's largest investor relations consulting firm, where he held a variety of account and senior management positions.

Kramer is ardent supporter of the investor relations profession. For the past three years, he has taught a graduate-level course on investor relations at Boston University. He has been a featured speaker at investor relations events, and is often quoted in leading trade publications on timely investor relations and corporate communications topics.

From 2002 through 2006, Kramer served on the Board of Directors for NIRI's Boston Chapter where his term included a year as chapter president.

Kramer received a B.A. degree in communication as well as an M.B.A. degree from Boston College.

Kramer's NIRI National Board Term runs from 2010 to 2014, and he serves on the Audit/Finance, Issues, and Membership and Chapter Services Board Committees.

Board Term

2010 - 2012

Board Committees

Advocacy

Audit/Finance

Communications

Manager, Investor Relations
Agnico-Eagle Mines

 
Biography
Dmitry Kushnir is the Manager of Investor Relations at Agnico-Eagle Mines. He is a CFA Charterholder and has been in investor relations since 2008. Dmitry's capital markets knowledge has been developed through previous roles in Equity Research and Investment Banking. As a result, he strongly believes that buy-side and sell-side are well served by detailed, easily accessible financial and operating information from the issuers. In his current role, Dmitry developed a "Financial and Operating Database," an online tool that provides a vast array of key data to stakeholders in a model-like format. The successful adoption and usage of the database have led to its transformation into a key communication method for Agnico-Eagle.

Vice President, Investor Relations, Treasury & Global Finance
Brinker

 
Biography
Tony Laday currently serves as Vice President of Investor Relations, Treasury and Global Finance. In this role, he manages financial and strategic analysis for the Global Development team as well as oversees financial communication externally with Wall Street, banking relations, share repurchase and daily cash flow. Since joining the Brinker team in 2007 as Senior Director of Planning and Analysis, Tony has held a variety of positions including Senior Director of Planning & Ops Analysis and Senior Director of Global Finance.

Before his time with Brinker, he worked for American Airlines, A.H. Belo Corp, J.C. Penney and NationsBank serving in a variety of financial roles with increasing responsibility. His most recent employment was with FedEx-Kinko's as Director of Pricing Strategy.

Tony received both his Bachelor of Business Administration and MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Outside of work, Tony loves giving back to the community and serves on the Board of Directors for Bryan?s House, a nonprofit dedicated to the needs of children and their families by providing medically-managed child care, and the Community Council of Greater Dallas, an organization leading collaboration and communications to improve the quality of life for people to access the services they need.

Director, Investor Relations
Fluor Corporation

 
Biography
Jason Landkamer is the director of investor relations for Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR). In this role, he is responsible for communicating with the financial community, targeting potential investors, corporate message development and sell-side analyst relations.

Jason has over 16 years experience in finance related roles, including 12 years in investor relations.

Since joining Fluor in 2006, Jason has helped the company increase the level of communication and interaction with the investment community through multiple perception study and outreach initiatives both domestic and international. Additionally, he also serves on Fluor's sustainability committee and designs and produces the company's annual report.

Prior to joining Fluor, Jason was with AmeriCredit Corp. for seven years in various investor relations roles, including three years as AVP of investor relations.

Jason graduated from Oklahoma State University with a B.S. in Finance. He has been an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) since 2000 and has served on the NIRI D*FW Chapter Board of Directors since 2004 in a number of capacities including at-large board member, Treasurer, Executive Vice President and President.

Analyst
Jefferies

 
Biography
Mr. Lane joined Jefferies in August 2007 as a Managing Director in Equity Research covering the Consumer Products industry. Previously, he was a Managing Director and Consumer Products equity analyst at Avondale Partners for five years. He spent the preceding nine years with Merrill Lynch, most recently covering Beverage companies and previously Cosmetics & Household Products companies. He began his career as an equity analyst at PNC Bank in 1989. Mr. Lane has ranked as a top analyst in the 1997, 1999, 2005, 2006, and 2007 "Best on the Street" Analyst Survey by The Wall Street Journal, as well as in the 2004, 2006 & 2010 Starmine analyst awards. He has an MBA in Finance from Loyola College and a BSBA in Management Systems and Economics from University of Richmond, and is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Covidien, Plc

 
Biography
Coleman N. Lannum is vice president of Investor Relations at Covidien plc, a leading global healthcare products company. The business, formerly known as Tyco Healthcare, separated from parent company, Tyco International, on June 29, 2007. Lannum has headed investor relations since September 2006.

In 2005, he served as senior health care investment analyst for American Express Asset Management. Earlier, he was senior portfolio manager, senior analyst and senior vice president at Putnam Investments. In addition, he was the healthcare specialist for Putnam's Large Cap Value group.

Before joining Putnam in 1997, Lannum led the investor relations effort at Mallinckrodt, Inc.

Prior to Mallinckrodt, Lannum was senior investment officer and healthcare analyst with Boatmen's Trust Company and also was an equity analyst at Edward Jones and Company.

A Chartered Financial Analyst, Lannum holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Washington University's Olin School of Business in St. Louis, Mo., and a master's degree in Business Administration from A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Head of Global Research
Société Générale

 
Biography
Global Head of Research and Member of Capital Markets Executive Committee, Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking

Patrick Legland has held the position of Global Head of Cross-Asset Research since the department was created in July 2009. The Cross-Asset Research department merges all Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking Research entities: Equity, Credit, Derivatives, FX, Rates Research, Commodities, Strategy, Economy, Quant and others. It aims to provide clients with deeper analysis and more insight by leveraging the expertise of SG's 270 analysts, strategists, economists and quants specialists through a genuine cross-asset mindset.

Patrick Legland was previously in charge of Global Cash Equity. He joined Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking in January 2003 as Head of Pan-European Equity Research. Before joining SGCIB, Patrick Legland was the Managing Director responsible for French research at UBS Warburg and the Head of its European Technology Research. Between 1993 and 2000, Patrick worked for Paribas Capital Markets where he was initially responsible for French product, before moving on to manage the Global Asian research department in Hong Kong and then heading the Paribas pan-European research office in London. Prior to this, Patrick Legland was a financial analyst at Phillips & Drew in London.

Born in 1963, Patrick Legland is a member of the French investment analyst society, SFAF, and been President of the SFAF's Professional Ethics Commission. He is also a board member of Club Finance HEC. Patrick is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Lille.

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Sony Corporation of America

 
Biography
Investor Relations and Corporate Communications executive with extensive experience in crisis management, M&A and other strategic and financial transactions across diversified industries.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Levenson has been deeply involved with both the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and the Investor Relations Association (IRA). He served on the NIRI Board of Directors, as chair of its external affairs committee, as chair of its Senior Roundtable and as an officer and director of its Boston and Fairfield/Westchester Chapters. For the IRA, he served in each of the officer roles, including president, and subsequently as a director.

In 2005, Mr. Levenson co-chaired the CFAI/NIRI Joint Taskforce on Issuer and Analyst Relations which published Best Practice Guidelines subsequently endorsed by both the NYSE and NASDAQ.

In 2006, Mr. Levenson participated in the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics and CFA Centre for Financial Market Integrity Symposium on "Short-termism" in the financial markets.

Mr. Levenson currently serves on the Disclosure Advisory Board for PRNewswire, and he is the NIRI representative on the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, a group that advises the FASB Board on projects on their agenda or soon to be elevated to their agenda.

Head of Sustainability
Fairmount Minerals

 
Biography
Kristin Lewis is the Manager of Sustainable Development at Fairmount Minerals Ltd., headquartered in Chardon, Ohio. In this position, Kristin manages the communications and public relations relative to sustainable development, both internally and to Fairmount's growing external stakeholder group.

Fairmount Minerals is the leading producer of industrial sand for oil and gas, foundry, glass, pool filter and various other markets.

An alumnus of Ohio University, Kristin holds a Bachelors of Business Administration with a degree in Management Information Systems (MIS). She also received her Masters degree from Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management in Positive Organization Development. This internationally recognized program focuses on sustainable development, emotional intelligence, appreciative inquiry and transformational leadership.

Kristin is also actively involved in the community serving as Co-Chair on the advisory board of directors for America SCORES Cleveland, which is an affiliate to America SCORES; a nationwide program. The program uses poetry and soccer as tools to teach literacy, life skills, and the importance of community service to inner-city elementary school children. Additionally, Kristin serves on the executive committee for the Fairmount Foundation to determine fund allocation.
Kristin resides in Twinsburg, Ohio with her husband, Colin and daughter, Isabel.

Vice President, Corporate Communications
Forest City Enterprises, Inc.

 
Biography
Jeff Linton is vice president, corporate communication, for Forest City Enterprises, Inc. He is responsible for communications planning and strategy, corporate identity, issues management, investor relations and media relations. In addition, he provides strategic guidance to key associate communication initiatives.

Before joining Forest City in 2007, Linton was managing director of Dix & Eaton, a nationally known public relations and investor relations consultancy. He has nearly 30 years of progressive experience as a communications and public relations professional.
Linton has a bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Valeant Pharmaceutical International

 
Biography
Laurie Little is the Vice President, Investor Relations at Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., a $14 billion, multi-national specialty pharmaceutical company focused on Dermatology, Neurology and Branded Generics. In addition to her global communication responsibilities at Valeant, Laurie managed the entire communication process during restructuring efforts and nearly complete turnover of management team in 2008, as well as integration efforts for over twenty company acquisitions in the past three years, including a merger with Biovail Corporation in 2010. Laurie was included to Institutional Investor's All-American Executive Team as IR Professional, Pharmaceuticals, Second Place, as voted by the Buy-Side in 2010.

Prior to Valeant, Laurie was most recently the Senior Director, Investor Relations for Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the business of acquiring, developing and commercializing prescription drug products for the treatment of cancer and other unmet medical needs. Laurie was responsible for establishing and managing the Company's internal and external communications program with the investment community, shareholders and employees, in addition to maintaining disclosure and corporate governance policies.

In addition, Laurie was Sr. Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for SICOR Inc. where she was responsible for all communications with the investment community and the media, as well as overseeing the administration of the Company's employee stock option plan and employee stock purchase program.

Laurie is also an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and served on the Board for the Orange County Chapter for six years. Laurie received her BA degree in business administration from California State University, Fullerton and a MBA degree from the George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

Founder & Global Director of Research
Integrity Research Associates

 
Biography
Mike is one of the leading experts on the investment research industry. In addition to founding Integrity Research, Mike is on the board of directors of Investorside Research Association, the non-profit trade association for the independent research industry, and a frequent speaker on research industry trends and developments.

Mike has over twenty five years of research industry experience. He started the predecessor to Integrity Research, a financial services consulting firm, in 2000 and formed Integrity Research in 2003. Prior to Integrity, Mike was CEO and President of Garban Information Systems, a provider of fixed income, money market and foreign exchange analytics; Managing Director, Research, for Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., an economic research firm; and head of strategic planning for Standard & Poor's. He started his career with MMS International, a fixed income research provider, where he was a financial market analyst, sales manager, and product manager.
In addition to being a frequent speaker on research topics, Mike is quoted widely in news sources, including Reuters, Institutional Investor, Bloomberg, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, and Business Week. Mike graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1981.

Assistant Vice President, Investor Relations
Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc.

 
Biography
Nicole McIntosh is Assistant Vice President of investor relations at Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc., one of the oldest asset management companies in the United States. A seasoned professional, Ms. McIntosh is responsible for all aspects of the company's investor relations program. With nearly 20 years of business and financial experience, Ms. McIntosh joined the investor relations department in 1999 where she established the company's first formal investor relations program. Ms. McIntosh began her career at Waddell & Reed in 1998 as a business analyst in the Corporate Reporting and Analysis department and her knowledge of the company's financial reporting and corporate structure has proven invaluable to both internal and external audiences. Prior to joining Waddell & Reed, she served as staff accountant for six years at a major oil company in Eastern Canada. Ms. McIntosh is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and currently serves as Audit Committee Chairperson. In 2000, she co-founded the NIRI/Kansas City Chapter and served as its President from 2006 – 2008. In 2007, she was awarded the University of Michigan Theory and Practice of Investor Relations Scholarship. In 2009, she served as co-chairman for the NIRI Annual Conference. Ms. McIntosh holds a Business and Accounting degree from Canada, a B.A. in Management with Magna Cum Laude honors from the University of Ottawa, and an M.B.A. from Webster University. She is a native of Québec, Canada and is fluent in French.

Board Term

2008 - 2012

Board Committees

Advocacy

Audit, chair

Communications

Annual Conference Committee

Co-Chair, 2009

ECM
Liquidnet

 
Biography
Brian came to Wall Street in 2000 as a co-founder of Jaywalk Incorporated, a firm that aggregated and distributed independent stock research to institutional and individual investors.

Brian remained with the firm for 5 years following the firm's acquisition by Bank of New York in 2001 and went on to help spearhead non-traditional equity research platforms at the NASDAQ Stock Market and Credit Suisse. In 2009, Brian joined Liquidnet's Corporate Strategy Group which is building an innovative equity capital markets business to assist issuers in getting the most out of their share transactions. Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida.

Senior Counsel - Division of Enforcement
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Miami Regional Office

 
Biography
Steven Meiner is a Senior Counsel with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, Miami Regional Office. As a member of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, Steve investigates possible violations of securities laws, recommends Commission action when appropriate, either in a federal court or before an administrative law judge, and negotiates settlements. Prior to joining the SEC, Steve was a litigator with the New York law firms of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and Dewey Ballantine LLP.

Director, Investor Relations Counsel
Citi

 
Biography
Beate Melten is Director – Investor Relations Counsel for Citi's Depositary Receipt Services business. In this role, she advises Citi's DR clients on all aspects of establishing a successful international IR program. Melten combines in-depth knowledge of the DR market with a broad-based background in IR and corporate communications.

Melten joined the Citi team in January 2006, after having worked for seven years as Manager of IR for CEMEX, a leading Mexican building solutions provider. At CEMEX, she launched an award-winning Retail IR initiative in the U.S. market, setting the standard for companies around the globe. Additional career highlights include positions at BMG, the music division of Germany's media giant Bertelsmann and Deutsche Bank.

Melten holds an MA in Sociology from Georg August University in Goettingen, Germany.

Vice President & Director, Investor Relations
Fahlgren Mortine Investor Relations

 
Biography
Carol provides strategic investor relations, corporate communications and crisis management counsel to a variety of clients and leads the firm's practices in those areas. Prior to joining Fahlgren Mortine, she was director of investor relations and corporate communications for Lexford Residential Trust, director of corporate marketing and communications for Cardinal Realty Services, Inc. and director of marketing services for the Knights Inn motel chain. Carol is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute and its National Roundtable for Strategic Communications and Reputation Management, a trustee of Columbus Landmarks Foundation and a four-year judge in The Ohio State University's Center for Entrepreneurship Deloitte Business Plan Competition.

Director of Investor Relations
Belden Corporation

 
Biography
Frank's career includes nearly 15 years in the energy industry with Amoco Corporation (now part of BP plc) and Landmark Graphics Corporation (now part of Halliburton). Landmark provided his introduction to treasury and investor relations (IR). His 15 years of treasury and IR experience includes corporate roles with Dell Inc., Hoover's Inc. (now part of D&B), and Select Comfort Corporation. In addition, he has managed his own IR practice and has agency experience serving clients' investor relations requirements in an outsourced capacity. Throughout Frank's career, he has managed all aspects of IR including start-up/pre-IPO companies, reverse mergers, M&A transactions and executive officer transitions.

Frank has a BBA in Accounting from Western Illinois University and an MBA in Finance from The University of Chicago.

Frank has served on the board and was president of the NIRI Twin Cities chapter in 2008-2010 and the NIRI Austin chapter in 2002-2003. He was invited to present at the 2002 and 2010 NIRI annual conferences on the topic of investor targeting and was published on the topic in the Spring 2003 edition of Strategic Investor Relations magazine. In addition, his targeting methods were the subject of a 2007 "best practices" case study by the Corporate Executive Board's Investor Relations Roundtable.

Associate Professor
Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

 
Biography
Gregory S. Miller is an Associate Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. His research focuses on financial communication; that is, how managers communicate their view of the firm and its activities to outsiders. His work has been designed to understand both the results of effective communication and how effectiveness is achieved.

Greg's research has been published in top peer reviewed journals such as The Accounting Review, The Journal of Accounting and Economics, and The Journal of Accounting Research. He has presented at over 60 academic institutions and conferences. His work has also been published in practitioner journals such as Harvard Business Review and Investor Relations Quarterly. He was a key note speaker at numerous practitioner conferences in the US and Europe and was the focus of two CNBC Asia specials. Professor Miller has authored over twenty cases and sold over 100,000 copies. They have been taught at top global business schools including Michigan, Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, INSEAD and the University of Peking. Greg has been quoted or cited in a numerous popular press publications including U.S. News and World Reports, Business Week, the International Herald Tribune, CFO magazine, IR Magazine, The Detroit Free Press, The Washington Post and Morgunbladid.

Greg is an Associate Editor (or on the Editorial Board) of The Accounting Review, The Journal of Accounting and Economics, and The Journal of Accounting Research.

Greg teaches in the MBA core at Ross school and in the Masters of Accounting, Doctoral and Supply Chain management programs. He is the Co-director of the Ross School/NIRI executive education program on effective investor relations. He previously taught in the MBA, Doctoral and Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School. He has consulted or provided executive education to a wide range of firms from around the globe.

Greg earned his PhD in 1998 at the University of Michigan. Prior to that, he earned a BS in Accounting at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and spent four years as an auditor in the Cincinnati office of Arthur Andersen where he earned his CPA.

Director, Investor Relations
Dell, Inc.

 
Biography
Frank serves as director, Investor Relations for Dell Inc. He is currently responsible for executing Dell's global investor communications program with buy-side investors, debt investors and sell-side analysts. Dell's Investor Relations is involved in global industry conferences, a large-scale analyst conference, on-site investor visits, quarterly earnings, the annual shareholders' meeting, strategic research projects, a broad competitive analysis function and Dellshares (the first investor relations blog in the United States).

Frank meets with institutional investors regularly and provides insight into Dell's operating results and business strategy.

Frank has been with Dell for seven years and has served in the investor relations function for the past four years. Prior to Investor Relations, he was a member of Michael Dell's chairman communications team within Dell's corporate communications organization. Frank also managed global pricing for the financials vertical within Dell's Large Enterprise business.

Prior to Dell, Frank spent two years as division controller for Air Liquide America Electronics L.P. and five years at The Dow Chemical Company in various product research and technical sales capacities.

Frank earned a MBA in finance and marketing from Northwestern University and a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Head of Investor Relations
BASF (Germany)

 
Biography
Magdalena Moll is Head of Investor Relations at BASF SE. She studied business administration at the University of Vienna and went on to receive an MBA from the University of Miami in the United States. After gaining eight years of work experience in the United States, she returned to Europe in 1992 to head the Investor Relations department at Mannesmann AG in Duesseldorf, Germany. In February 1999, she joined Henkel KGaA, where she was responsible for the capital market and investor relations activities. In August 2003, Magdalena Moll became Head of Investor Relations at BASF. In this position, she reports directly to Dr. Kurt Bock who took over as Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE in May 2011. Magdalena Moll is Vice President of the German Investor Relations Association (DIRK).

President & CEO
NIRI

 
Biography
Jeff Morgan is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). He became NIRI's CEO in January 2008 after a successful track record of more than 18 years in professional association management.

Jeff is responsible for defining and executing a plan to achieve the vision for NIRI's future, keeping NIRI ahead of key regulations and profession trends, recognizing and leveraging NIRI's many chapters to more effectively represent the profession, and ensuring NIRI conforms with the highest standards of transparency and provides maximum value to members.

Prior to joining NIRI, Morgan was Chief Operating Officer of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) for almost nine years. He was also Executive Vice President of the Institute for Financial Markets (IFM), an affiliate of the FIA. Prior to joining FIA, Jeff served as the number two staff officer of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA).

As COO of the FIA, Jeff was responsible for all business operations of the organization and led various industry initiatives, including the industry's business continuity efforts. As chief staff executive for the IFM, Morgan was responsible for working with trustees and staff to implement the mission of the organization in the areas of financial services education, ethics and data services.

A Pennsylvania native, Jeff received his bachelor's degree in Business Administration in 1982 with an emphasis in Finance and Information Technology from Susquehanna University. Morgan was awarded his Masters Degree program in Nonprofit Management from Eastern University in 2008.

Morgan is a member and Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives, and serves on the NYSE Individual Investors Advisory Committee. Jeff resides in Crownsville, Maryland with his wife Susan of 24 years and has two children in college.

Member of Board of Directors
Jo-Ann Stores, Inc.

 
Biography
Patricia Morrison is executive vice president and chief information officer of Cardinal Health, a Fortune 17 health care products and services company dedicated to improving the cost-effectiveness of health care. In this role, Morrison is responsible for the company's enterprise-wide information technology. She reports to George Barrett, chairman and chief executive officer of Cardinal Health.

Most recently, Morrison was EVP and CIO for Motorola, where she oversaw all strategic, operational and financial aspects of the company's information technology architecture, systems, tools, processes and infrastructure. During her tenure, Motorola focused the IT portfolio on expansion of retail channel capability, enabled the transformation to a global single supply chain and successfully integrated many key acquisitions and divestitures. Her previous experience also includes CIO of Office Depot, Inc.; and senior-level information technology positions at General Electric Co., PepsiCo, Inc., The Procter & Gamble Co. and The Quaker Oats Co.

Morrison currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Jo-Ann Stores, Inc., where she chairs the governance committee. She is also on the board of governors for Lumity, a non-profit organization that provides IT services to other non-profits in Chicago.

Morrison's reach within the IT and business community has spanned 25 years, across four different industries. A respected and experienced IT professional, she was named 2007 CIO of the Year by the Executives' Club of Chicago and the Association of Information Technology Professionals. She was also inducted to the CIO Magazine Hall of Fame in 2008. She has dedicated her career to using technology to solving business problems.

Morrison holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and statistics and a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education from Miami University.

VP, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Incyte Corporation

 
Biography
For the past twenty years, Pam Murphy has directed the corporate communications and investor relations programs for multiple NASDAQ-listed emerging biopharmaceutical companies. She is currently vice president of corporate communications and investor relations at Incyte Corporation, located in Wilmington, Delaware. She is responsible for Incyte's corporate communications, reputation management and relationships with investors, the media and patient advocacy groups.

She has designed and implemented numerous communications and IR programs that resulted in improved access to the capital markets, expanded analyst coverage and increased institutional investor support. Additional benefits from these programs included improved access to strategic partners, the media and key employees.

Because of the inherent volatility that occurs in emerging biotech companies, she has gained a great deal of experience in the areas of reputation management and crisis communications and knows firsthand the risks associated with losing the trust of investors and analysts.

She is a prior Board Member of the National Investor Relations Institute and remains an active member. She was instrumental in forming NIRI's Roundtable for Strategic Communication and Reputation Management with the organization's prior CEO, Lou Thomson. She is on the Board of Directors for Delaware BIO and chairs its communications committee.

CFO & Chief Compliance Officer
Spartan Motors, Inc. (USA)

 
Biography
Joseph Nowicki joined Spartan Motors, Inc. in July 2009 as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, and Chief Compliance Officer. He has over 20 years of progressive financial experience covering a wide breadth of disciplines and has had broad involvement across the organization in manufacturing operations, physical distribution, information technology, purchasing, sales and distribution, and human resources. Prior to joining Spartan Motors, Mr. Nowicki spent 17 years with Herman Miller, Inc., a publicly traded office furniture manufacturer. He held several senior management positions with Herman Miller including Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. In addition, he has held corporate finance positions with General Motors and IBM, and also worked in Consulting and Public Accounting.

Vice President & Manager, Relationship Management Department
Wells Fargo

 
Biography
Deborah ($Deb$) O'Donnell is a vice president and manager in the Relationship Management department of Wells Fargo Shareowner Services. She is responsible for managing Relationship Managers who work directly with clients. Deb is also responsible for overseeing and giving thought leadership to strategic revenue initiatives, as well as client facing communications and events.

Shareowner Services has been the stock transfer unit of Wells Fargo since 1929. Offering a complete array of services, the group serves more than 850 issuers with 8.2 million shareholders. Clients benefit from our consultative approach and best-in-class service delivered through a rigorous process of quality and balancing controls as illustrated by their consistent, top rankings in industry surveys.

Deb has been with Wells Fargo more than 27 years. Upon re-joining Wells Fargo in 1998, she assumed her current position in the Relationship Management group. She previously worked in various lending and management positions. Deb joined Wells Fargo in the Management and Credit Training Program. She also spent three years as the national marketing director for Finova Capital Corporation.

Deb earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal arts and Master of Arts in College Teaching degree from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. She is a graduate of Finova Institute at the University of Arizona, Graduate School of Business.

Deb is a member of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and sits on the Corporate Practices Committee.

Deb resides in Bloomington, Minn., with her husband and four children.

Senior Vice President & Chief Sustainability, IR & Communications Officer
IHS, Inc.

 
Biography
Jane Okun Bomba is Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Process Officer at IHS. She is a seasoned executive with 26 years of experience in investor relations, integrated communications, brand, and corporate finance, including financial planning and analysis, and accounting. Jane has held the top investor relations position at several firms and joined IHS in 2004 as SVP, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. After helping IHS complete a successful IPO, Jane assumed the newly created position of Chief Customer Process Officer and is driving the development and implementation of a single global ERP including identifying best practices, re-engineering associated business processes and replacing over 40 distinct billing and financial systems in 17 locations around the world.

Prior to joining IHS, Jane was a partner with Genesis, Inc. and headed investor relations at Velocom, Inc., MediaOne Group, and Northwest Airlines. Jane also held several management positions in corporate finance at both Northwest Airlines and American Airlines. She started her professional career as a CPA with Price Waterhouse in Detroit.

A native of New York City, Jane holds both a BGS and an MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She also completed graduate studies at the Stockholm School of Economics. Jane serves on the boards of the National Investor Relations Institute - Rocky Mountain chapter, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and the Denver Economic Development Corporation.

Board Term
2011 - 2015

Board Committees
Communications
Compensation
Membership

Director, Investor Relations and Marketing
Liquidnet Holdings Inc.

 
Biography
Nicole Olson is the Investor Relations Officer at Liquidnet. Nicole joined Liquidnet in 2004 to lead international marketing/ communications for the company's European, Canadian and Asian operations, and took on the role of IRO in early 2008. Prior to joining Liquidnet, Nicole worked in Investor Relations at w-Technologies, a financial technology company, and at Padilla Speer Beardsley, an IR consultancy. Nicole has more than 12 years of related experience and holds a B.A. in Business and Journalism from the University of St. Thomas.

Member of NIRI Ethics Council & Senior Counselor
The Abernathy MacGregor Group

 
Biography
David Olson was most recently senior vice president, Corporate Communications and an executive officer of Health Net, Inc., one of the nation's largest publicly traded managed health care companies. Mr. Olson has broad experience ranging from investors relations to crisis and financial communications with an especially deep expertise in the health care sector.

At Health Net, Mr. Olson was responsible for the company's investor relations function and internal and external communications, and also oversaw government relations and charitable contributions. He was previously vice president, Investor and Public Relations, for Health Systems International, Inc. (HSI), one of Health Net's predecessor companies. Prior to joining HSI in 1994, he was vice president, Corporate Communications for National Medical Enterprises, Inc. (NME), having joined NME in 1989 as director of Shareholder Communications.

Previously he was a vice president with a leading investor relations firm, and served more than five years with FCS Laboratories, Inc., as director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations.

He began his career in New York with Carl Byoir and Associates, the J. Walter Thompson Company and Burson Marsteller. Mr. Olson is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Senior Roundtable and has served on the NIRI Board of Directors. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Rolling Hills Preparatory School and the Board of the Children's Burn Foundation. Mr. Olson holds a B.A. in English from Washington and Lee University.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Deutsche Telekom, Inc.

 
Biography
Nils Paellmann, based in New York, is Vice President, Investor Relations of Deutsche Telekom. He has been heading up the New York Investor Relations office of Deutsche Telekom since its inception in 1998. Since 2003 Nils is also responsible for the investor relations of T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom's U.S. subsidiary. Deutsche Telekom (Bloomberg: DTE GY, DTEGY US) is Europe's largest integrated telecommunications carrier with a strong presence in Europe and the US. Nils is also serving as a Director on the Board of the New York chapter of NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute). He served as President of the chapter in 2008/9. Nils has a PhD in Finance from the Stern School of Business of New York University. Prior to Deutsche Telekom, he worked for four-and-a-half years in corporate finance at E.ON AG in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Managing Director
Patino Associates

 
Biography
With nearly ten years of experience in executive recruiting, Michael Patino has worked with a variety of clients from global Fortune 500 corporations to start-up/high growth companies to trade associations to not-for-profit foundations and associations. He has conducted searches for clients from a wide range of industries - financial services, healthcare, energy, aerospace and defense, technology, manufacturing and consumer products and services.

Prior to launching Patino Associates, Michael was a consultant in the Corporate Communications Practice of Spencer Stuart, and before that developed the Corporate Communications Practice at Russell Reynolds Associates. Previously, Michael was an Account Manager with the Corporate Executive Board, a "best practices" consulting firm where he was responsible for over sixty relationships with Fortune 1000 firms. Before that, Michael worked as the Director of Special Projects in the Sports Division of E.J. Krause & Associates. Michael began his career in public relations at Entertainment Weekly, a Time Inc. publication.

Michael received his B.A. degree from Princeton University.

Michael and his wife, Karyn, live in Fairfax, VA with their two children, E.J. and Callie.

Vice President
JP Morgan

 
Biography
Ivan is a vice president in the IR Advisory Services team of J.P. Morgan's Depositary Receipts Group. He has 15 years of investor relations experience. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Ivan was an advisor at Georgeson & Co., Thomson Financial and Capital MS&L, where he counseled small- to large-cap clients in Asia, Europe, U.S. and Latin America. In addition to his extensive IR experience, Ivan has an expertise in financial media relations.

Ivan advises J.P. Morgan DR clients on various aspects of investor relations: Formulating an IR strategy; building an effective IR infrastructure; training executives new to investor relations; creating effective investor communications materials, such as roadshow presentations; developing disclosure policies; analyzing changes in institutional ownership; and using the financial media to raise visibility in the capital markets.

Ivan is the editor of J.P. Morgan's DR Advisor Quarterly, a publication focused on investor relations and other issues important to DR issuers. He also writes papers on SEC regulatory developments and serves as an expert speaker at IR conferences around the world.

Ivan holds an MBA with honors from Fordham University and is a member of the National Investor Relations Institute.

Corporate Access Industry Professional

 
Biography
Mark Pellegrino was most recently a Director and Head of Corporate Access in the Americas for Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. In his four years at Deutsche Bank he specialized in advising corporates in North and South America on their global investor opportunities. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank Mr. Pellegrino was a member of the US Corporate Marketing division of Citigroup Inc. Previous to that, he was a corporate consultant at Thomson Financial specializing in shareholder analytics and targeting. Mr. Pellegrino is a graduate of Princeton University and is based in New York City.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Safeway Inc.

 
Biography
Christiane Pelz is Vice President, Investor Relations of Safeway Inc.. Prior to joining Safeway in 2008, Ms. Pelz was Vice President at LHA, an investor relations agency. She previously worked at The Citigroup Private Bank, which she joined as Vice President in 2001 after doing strategic planning and business development at a start-up venture. From 1996-1999, she was an associate in investment banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Europe. She began her career as an analyst at Berkeley International Capital Corporation and Oracle Corporation.

Ms. Pelz received a dual graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania: an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of Business and an MA in International Studies from The School of Arts & Sciences' Lauder Institute. She earned a BS in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel
EMC Corporation

 
Biography
Susan Permut is Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary at EMC Corporation in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. EMC is a NYSE listed company with 2010 revenues of $17 billion and approximately 48,500 employees in more than 60 countries. EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information.

Ms. Permut provides legal support for key committees of the Board of Directors and for the full Board of Directors. She also supervises a staff that provides legal services regarding corporate governance; general corporate matters; securities law; corporate compliance; investor relations and public relations matters; mergers, acquisitions & investments; employment law and real
estate.

Ms. Permut is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the State Bar Association of California. She is a member of the Boston Bar Association and a past co-chair of its Corporate Law Committee (2007-2009). Ms. Permut served on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (1995-2010) and is a past chair of its Sponsorship Committee (2008-2010). She has also served as a member of the Executive Council of the ACC National Corporate and Securities Law Committee. Ms. Permut is on the Board of Directors of the Council of Institutional Investors and serves on its Policies Committee. She is an Advisory Board Member of the Eastern New England Chapter of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. Ms. Permut also serves on the Board of Trustees of Dean College, in Franklin, MA and serves on its Governance Committee.

Ms. Permut has served as chair of various educational programs and conferences and has spoken on corporate governance and shareholder relations topics. She was a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on the Delineation between the Roles of Shareholders and Boards of Directors (2009) and represented EMC on the Working Group on the Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation (2007-2008).

Ms. Permut was recognized by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as an In-House Leader in the Law in March of 2008. She leads the team which won Corporate Secretary Magazine's 2009 Corporate Governance Team of the Year (Large Cap Company) and was honored by Boston Women's Business in January of 2010 as one of the Top 10 Corporate Lawyers in the region.

At EMC, Ms. Permut is a member of the Women's Leadership Forum and has served on the Women's Mentoring Circles and the G&A Six Sigma Council. Ms. Permut oversees the legal department's relationship with the coop program at Northeastern University Law School and has spoken at Northeastern law school and the Northeastern corporate MBA program at EMC.

Prior to joining EMC, Ms. Permut served as an attorney at Damon Corporation in Needham, Massachusetts; an associate at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, Massachusetts; and an associate at Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, California.

Ms. Permut received a B.S. from Cornell University and was awarded a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Senior Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations
Safeway Inc.

 
Biography
Melissa C. Plaisance is Senior Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations for Safeway Inc., a Fortune 100 company with sales of $40.9 billion in 2009. Ms. Plaisance is an Executive Officer of Safeway, and has responsibility for the Treasury and Investor Relations departments. In addition to overseeing the company's corporate finance, banking, cash management and investor relations activities, she is involved in strategic development, and is a member of the company's Pension/Benefits and Disclosure Committees.

Ms. Plaisance originally joined Safeway in September 1990 as Director of Investor Relations, and was promoted to Vice President of Investor Relations in 1993. She became Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Public Affairs in 1995, and had responsibility for the company's media relations, government relations and community relations. She was appointed to her current position in 2000. In early 2004, Ms. Plaisance briefly left Safeway to become Senior Vice President, Finance and Corporate Communications at Del Monte Foods Company in San Francisco. She returned to Safeway in October of 2004 to resume her present position.

Prior to joining Safeway, Ms. Plaisance was a relationship manager with Bankers Trust (now part of Deutsche Bank), where she held positions in New York and San Francisco before becoming a Vice President in the bank's leveraged buyout group in Los Angeles. She graduated cum laude from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA with a BS in Business Administration and received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Ms. Plaisance has been a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) since 1990. She served as an officer and member-at-large of the San Francisco Chapter of NIRI, served twice on the NIRI Annual Conference Committee, and is now a member of the NIRI Senior Roundtable.

Business Editor
Orlando Sentinel

 
Biography
Ned has worked at the Orlando Sentinel since 1984. He was the paper's assistant business editor and then its deputy business editor for several years, and has been its business editor since 1995. In between, he was the paper's political editor, national-foreign editor, and health-environment-space-technology editor.

He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, with a bachelor's degree in honors English, and is currently working on a master's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Before joining the Sentinel, he was a news assistant at the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin; a reporter and assignment editor for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn.; and a copy editor for the Dallas Times Herald.

Working in a window-less newsroom, he likes to spend his free time outdoors, running, bicycling or backpacking. An Eagle Scout, he has been a registered leader with the Boy Scouts of America for the past 21 years and was the first Central Floridian to receive the BSA's national Russell C. Hill Award for outstanding contributions to character education.

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Spectrum Brands

 
Biography
David Prichard is vice president, investor relations and corporate communications for Spectrum Brands Holdings, a $3 billion consumer products company with market-leading and widely trusted brands sold by the world's top 25 retailers and available in more than one million stores in more than 120 countries.

Prichard has some 20 years of public company experience with senior-level positions in directing investor relations and corporate communications/public relations departments for a number of multi-national and small- and mid-cap companies across a range of industries, including health care, chemicals, agriculture, consumer goods, consumer staples, and automotive/industrial.

Prichard has reported to and counseled numerous CEOs and CFOs to help increase the marketability of their respective companies' stock, attract a more stable and less concentrated shareholder base, secure broader sell-side analyst coverage, and help achieve the highest potential valuation by developing strategic investor messaging, positioning, and targeting programs and tactics. He has served his companies as the chief spokesperson for the financial and business media and has significant experience in transaction-based investor relations and in company situations involving significant change and crisis communication.

A member of NIRI's Board of Directors, Prichard was co-chair of NIRI's 2010 Annual Conference and is a past president and long-time director of the Chicago Chapter of NIRI.

Board Term

2008 - 2012

Board Committees

Membership, Chair

Nominating

Professional Development
Annual Conference Committee

Co-Chair, 2010

Partner
Cooley LLP

 
Biography
Mr. Przesmicki regularly represents public and private companies in a broad range of corporate governance matters, mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions.

Mr. Przesmicki has represented issuers and underwriters in public company financings and initial public offerings involving the sale of approximately $2 billion in equity and debt securities. He has handled a significant number of merger and acquisition transactions, including buyer and sell-side deals, and managed numerous venture capital financings for private company clients. He also has extensive experience managing complex transactions including option-exchange tender offers, debt redemptions, joint ventures and strategic commercial transactions.

He is counsel to companies in diverse industries, including diagnostics, enterprise software, medical devices, life sciences, semiconductor, consumer software and web services.

Mr. Przesmicki was previously Vice President of Legal Affairs at MP3.com, Inc., where he led a 12 person legal team, including seven attorneys. At MP3.com, he was responsible for all of the company's legal affairs, including: general corporate governance, SEC and Nasdaq compliance matters; securities/financing transactions; strategic investments; commercial transactions; joint ventures; content acquisition issues; international operations; website maintenance and compliance matters; real estate and facilities matters; patent and trademark prosecution; mergers and acquisitions; human resources counseling; contests and sweepstakes; and litigation matters. His role also involved active support of the company's accounting, finance, tax, banking, insurance, investor relations, lobbying and business development activities.

Mr. Przesmicki was recognized in the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Corporate Law.

Mr. Przesmicki received his law degree, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an associate editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. In 1989, he received a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Przesmicki served as an officer in the United States Navy.

Mr. Przesmicki is a partner in the Cooley Business department and a member of the Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Public Offerings and Debt Securities Transactions practice groups. He joined the Firm in 1995 and is resident in the San Diego office. He is a member of the State Bar of California and the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Corporate Finance Senior Expert
McKinsey

 
Biography
Werner is a Corporate Finance Senior Expert in McKinsey's New York office. He is one of the leaders of the Corporate Performance Center (CPC), a group of consultants that specialize in financial and capital markets analysis and valuation. The CPC helps clients identify and prioritize value creating corporate strategies and understand how investors value the company. Werner works with teams and clients who need support for in-depth financial analyses, corporate and business unit valuation, M&A, capital structure, and Capital Market Diagnostics. He focuses his work on the High-Tech, Industrial, and Pharma sectors. Werner is one of the leaders of our investor relations service line and also has extensive experience in leading financial restructuring, Chapter 11, and performance improvement engagements.

In addition to the client work, Werner is a leader for McKinsey's corporate finance core skills training, the finance module of our Mini-MBA training for hires with non-traditional background, the Firm's online valuation course, and various other training programs. Werner authored several articles on corporate finance topics such as value creation from M&A, capital structure, multiples, and shareholder management. He is member of the editorial board for McKinsey on Finance, the Firm's quarterly publication on Corporate Finance Topics. He is also a lecturer for Finance at Cornell University.

Prior to the CPC, Werner worked in the Berlin, Germany, office from 1995 – 1997, in the Frankfurt, Germany, office from 1999 – 2000 and in the Boston office from 2000 to 2003. Werner holds a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, a Masters of Engineering degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, and a Masters of Management degree in Finance and Accounting from Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is married and has three sons.

Consultant

 
Biography
As a key influencer of the investor relations profession in the United States, Reynolds joined a distinguished group of the senior-most investor relations professionals in the country as a member of the National Investor Relations Institute's (NIRI) Senior Roundtable Forum in 2003. A dynamic lecturer, keynote speaker, media expert on employment issues, and frequent contributor to global professional journals and newsletters, Reynolds has been featured on CNBC's "Power Lunch", CNN-TV, Bloomberg TV, Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto," Fortune.com, and myriad other TV network affiliate broadcast news programs, as well as key publications such as the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. She also is author of the book, "Be Hunted! 12 Secrets to Getting on the Headhunter's Radar Screen", and is a contributing author to the book, "Navigating Your Career," in which she wrote the chapter, How to take charge when a headhunter calls.

Formerly, Reynolds was senior vice president of Communications at The Irvine Company; CEO of The Repovich-Reynolds Group, a recognized North American executive search firm that specialized in investor relations, finance, and corporate communications recruitment and consulting with companies that ranged in size from pre-IPO to the mega-cap entities in all industry sectors; and, earlier in her career she served as a senior executive at Hill & Knowlton, Inc.

Reynolds has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Managing Director, Asia-Pacific
Ipreo

 
Biography
Justin Reynolds has worked in the fields of Corporate Governance, Director Remuneration and Shareholder Voting throughout EUMESA and APAC for over 13 years. He joined Ipreo from Sodali Ltd, a consulting firm in Corporate Governance and Shareholder Transactions in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, where he led Business Development, Strategic Partnerships and Governance Consulting. Prior to Sodali, Reynolds was a Director at RiskMetrics Group, ISS Governance Services Corporate business, advising corporate issuers on environmental, social and governance related equity and debt risk. His extensive experience also includes stints at Mourant (in equity compensation), and Georgeson (in proxy solicitation), where he was instrumental in the founding of the Sydney and Johannesburg offices.

Partner
Baker & McKenzie

 
Biography
Thomas Rice is a member of the Firm's Global Corporate & Securities Practice in the New York office. He focuses his practice on corporate and U.S. securities law and counsels clients in a variety of industries, including the aerospace, telecommunication, resource and finance industries. Mr. Rice represents multinational corporations and government entities in SEC regulatory matters, institutional private placements, investments, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, and equity offerings.

Representative Legal Matters
Represented two bulge bracket investment banks, Joint Lead Managers and Initial Purchasers on the offer and sale of USD500,000,000 Step Up Subordinated Callable Notes due 2017, offered by a Turkish finance company organized at the instruction of a major Turkish bank.

Represented a student loan lender with respect to the issuance of private loan asset backed notes.
Advised the acquirer in a successful going private merger transaction involving the acquisition of a distribution company traded on the Nasdaq Global Market.

Provide advice to a number of leading US funding management groups involving arbitrage and trading activities.

Represented PRC-based wind power company in successful PIPEs offering.

Publications, Presentations & Articles
Mr. Rice is the co-author of "New Direction in SEC Policy Expands Disclosure Requirements Foreign Issuers Face in the United States," The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, 2001.

Education & Bar Admittance
Mr. Rice received his J.D. from New York University in 1985, where he served on the Moot Court Board from 1983 to 1984 and was a Moot Court Editor from 1984 to1985. Mr. Rice received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1982, Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to practice in the State of New York.

President
Rivel Research Group

 
Biography
Brian joined Rivel Research Group in 1994 and became president in 2000. Since that time, he has been responsible for guiding the direction of the organization toward becoming the preeminent investment community research provider. Brian's vision of conducting strategic research for top tier companies is being realized as Rivel Research Group has now worked with over half of the Fortune 100. He plays a crucial role in helping management and IR evaluate performance, formulate strategy and identify opportunities to achieve corporate objectives directed toward key investor constituencies. Brian is a frequent presenter to directors, management teams and communications professionals on how research can add value to an organization by building competitive advantage. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Boston University.

Investor Relations Officer
CEMEX

 
Biography
Lucy Rodriguez is currently a Director of Investor Relations for CEMEX. She has been with the company for five years. Prior to CEMEX, Lucy spent fourteen years as a Managing Director with Citicorp Securities Inc. and Santander Investment Securities.

She is a veteran of Emerging Markets Finance where she is credited with the execution of several billion dollars of fundraisings for emerging market issuers over the past twenty years. Lucy holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Trinity College in Hartford, Ct. and a Masters Degree in International Relations from Columbia University as well as a Masters in Business Administration from New York University.

Chief Finance & Investor Relations Officer
Cemig

 
Biography
Luiz Fernando Rolla is Cemig's Chief Finance and Investor Relations Officer. He earned his degree in electrical engineering in 1974, from Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG), followed by postgraduate courses in engineering economics and data processing. He has worked for Cemig since 1975, when he was involved in the planning of the electricity system, coordination and evaluation of projects financed by the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, KFW and Eletrobrás. He has taken part in the raising of finance in international markets, especially in placement of Eurobonds and block trades of shares.

He took over responsibility for Cemig's Investor Relations Department in 1987, and was responsible for putting the Company's Level 1 and 2 ADR programs in place (including the listing of Cemig's shares on the New York Stock Exchange), for the decision by Cemig, in 2001, to adopt the requirements of São Paulo Stock Exchange Level 1 Corporate Governance listing, and for the listing of the company's shares on the stock exchanges of Madrid and Barcelona, in 2002.

He was appointed Cemig's Chief Officer for Finance and Investor Relations in 2007.

In 2008 a survey by Investor Relations Magazine elected him "The Best CFO" in the Electricity and Utilities segment, and he was awarded the "O Equilibrista" prize – loosely translated, "The Balancing Act Trophy" – by the Brazilian Financial Executives Institute (IBEF).

In 2009 he was elected "Best IR Professional" by Apimec, the Brazilian Association of Investment and Capital Market Analysts and Executives; and also "Best Investor Relations Executive" in a survey by IR Magazine.

Also in 2009, he was elected President of IBRI – the Brazilian Investor Relations Institute.

Manager, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
NTT DOCOMO USA, Inc

 
Biography
As the "point man" in outreach to English-speaking investors, Curtis spearheads the North American Investor Relations activities for NTT DOCOMO, INC. (TSE: 9437; NYSE: DCM) During his 22+ years in IR, Curtis worked on both the corporate and agency sides in the U.S. as well as in Japan. In Tokyo, he worked for nine years at an American IR boutique providing IR services and counseling for U.S. and European companies seeking to expand their IR outreach into Japan and Asia.

Curtis holds a B.A. in History from Lafayette College.

Vice President, Investor Relations
GeoEye

 
Biography
Mr. Scherago has a strong background in finance and investments with more than 23 years of experience in the finance, venture, and public equity markets. He has significant experience interacting with senior institutional equity portfolio managers at pension funds, foundations, hedge funds, and mutual funds. Prior to joining GeoEye, he served as an investment manager with Ironbound Capital Management where he was responsible for evaluating and recommending mid- and large-capitalization companies for inclusion in a $1 billion global value hedge fund. Mr. Scherago was a senior research analyst at Furman Selz, Inc., Robertson Stephens, Dean Witter, Prudential Securities Inc., First Albany Capital and a portfolio manager at the Paribas U.S. Growth Fund.

CEO
Loyal3

 
Biography
No bio available

Senior Vice President
Phoenix Advisory Partners

 
Biography
Ron has provided his extensive experience to public companies of all sizes that were faced with difficult and sensitive proxy solicitations involving compensation, corporate governance, shareholder activism and control issues. He has managed more than 1,500 proxy solicitations and 200 tender or exchange offers. Ron's clients have been successful in over 70% of the 30 proxy fight assignments he has advised on, which is among the highest winning percentages in the industry on behalf of clients facing such issues.

Ron joined Phoenix Advisory Partners in August 2010 as Senior Vice President. Ron provides thought leadership on emerging governance, proxy and regulatory issues, and advises clients and their advisors on the particular issues they are facing.

Ron's prior experience includes nine years at BNY Mellon, where he advised the company and many of its clients on proxy, governance and activism issues. Prior to that, Ron spent four years at The Financial Relations Board (FRB), a leading investor relations agency. There he managed its proxy solicitation, corporate governance and stock surveillance practice. Before that, he was a consultant to important proxy intermediary ADP Investor Communication Services (now known as Broadridge), where he served as its first $Issuer Liaison$ with responsibility for its relationships with issuer companies. Earlier, Ron held increasingly senior positions at major proxy solicitation firms Morrow & Company, D.F. King and Georgeson & Company, where he served on its first Board of Directors.

Ron earned B.A. in Economics from Princeton University, 1978.

Senior Director, Investor Relations
JDSU

 
Biography
Michelle Levine Schwartz is director, investor relations of JDSU, Milipitas, California, and has over 20 years of experience in finance and investor relations. Schwartz's investor relations experience spans both counseling and corporate investor relations positions with a focus on the technology industry. Prior to JDSU, she served as senior manager and director, investor relations for Juniper Networks, and before this was director, West Coast Operations for Burns McClellan, a public relations and investor relations communications consultancy. She has also served as director, investor relations for Aerogen, Inc., account supervisor for Ketchum, Inc., assistant vice president, Fixed Income Derivatives Trading Group, at Nomura Securities, and treasury analyst in the Treasurer's Office for Dean Witter Reynolds. She is a past board member and two-term president of the NIRI Silicon Valley Chapter. Schwartz received her Masters in Business Administration in Finance from Pace University Lubin School of Business and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from SUNY Binghamton.

Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations
Intel Corporation

 
Biography
Kevin Sellers is vice president and director of Investor Relations for Intel Corporation. He has held this role since 2007.

In his preceding position, Sellers was director of Corporate Brand Strategy. In that role he also managed Intel's Corporate Market Research function and its Global Technology Marketing team. He served as director of marketing for Intel in Japan for several years, including managing the company's advertising, public relations, market research, brand strategy and retail marketing functions.

Prior to his service in Japan, Sellers was a senior manager in Intel's worldwide pricing and business planning organization. Outside of marketing, he has held a number of other operational and finance-related posts during his Intel career. Sellers speaks Korean, basic Japanese and has lived in Asia nearly 10 years.
Kevin joined Intel in 1991 as a financial analyst. He received his bachelor's degree in finance in 1989 and his master's in Business Administration in 1991, both from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Vice President, Business Development & Corporate Communications
Safeguard Scientifics

 
Biography
At Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE), a diversified financial services holding company based in the Philadelphia suburbs that provides growth capital to life sciences and technology businesses, John is responsible for business development strategies and fundraising activities, as well as planning, executing and managing all investor, public relations and marketing communications initiatives.

Throughout his 18-year career, John has achieved exceptional results. Specifically at Safeguard, John has played a critical role in the turnaround of the company since the economic malaise of the dot-come era. Since John joined the company in 2006, Safeguard's stock price increased from an average of $11.47 per share, to a 52-week high of $17.08 per share in 2011 (adjusted for the 1:6 reverse split that took effect in August 2009). In addition, Safeguard now has six sell-side analysts who follow the company (up from one), who have issued near-term price targets ranging from $21 to $25 per share. Safeguard's average daily dollar volume has increased sixfold, and its market capitalization has increased approximately 170% and now hovers around $400 million.

Prior to joining Safeguard, he was Vice President of Investor Relations at The Reynolds and Reynolds Company, a $3 billion software and services corporation. During his tenure, he led communications campaigns for 11 mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $2.8 billion in aggregate. As the company's business model transformed, John developed and implemented investor targeting programs and communications strategies that increased sell-side coverage, boosted trading volume, increased institutional ownership and shifted shareholder orientation from Value to GARP and Growth Investors, ultimately driving valuation.

Previously, John was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of U.S. operations for National Public Relations, Inc., Canada's largest full-service investor and public relations consultancy. He had full P&L, business development and client services responsibilities. Before National Public Relations, John was an investor relations and corporate communications account executive for Thomson Financial / Georgeson & Company, and Robert Marston Corporate Communications, both based in New York City, where his clients included Apache Energy, Merrill Lynch and MasterCard International.

John has been a keynote speaker at numerous investor relations conferences in the U.S. and Canada. He has spoken on topics including initial public offerings and led the lecture series $The Evolving Role of IR Practitioners in Corporate America$ at Susquehanna and Seton Hall universities. John has also been interviewed by numerous industry and regional publications, including IR Magazine and the Philadelphia Business Journal. He earned a B.A. degree from Susquehanna University where he was named the Department of Communications Most Outstanding Student for 1992 - 1993.

Senior Director, Investor Relations
Tessera, Inc.

 
Biography
Moriah Shilton is currently Senior Director of Investor Relations for Tessera Technologies, Inc., a technology miniaturization company in San Jose, CA. She has more than 15 years business and legal experience, including over 10 years in investor relations. At Tessera, she heads up the company's investor relations program where she is the primary contact for its investors and analysts and is responsible for all financial communication. Prior to Tessera, she was Vice President at Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates, one of the nation's leading independent investor relations firm, where she managed multiple investor relations programs for small cap technology companies. She graduated with honors from Dartmouth College. Her post graduate work includes financial and accounting courses at UC Berkeley Extension.

Outside activities include classical music, hiking, snowboarding and anything Tahoe. She is currently Treasurer of Symphony Parnassus.

Partner
Phoenix Advisory Partners

 
Biography
John Siemann is currently President and Partner at Phoenix Advisory Partners, a recently-formed proxy solicitation and corporate governance advisory firm. Mr. Siemann began his career in 1985 as Vice President and head of the proxy solicitation and stock watch departments for The Carter Organization, perhaps the most high-profile solicitation firm of the "corporate raider" era. In 1990 he helped found Beacon Hill Partners, a small, specialized New York City-based solicitation firm, and followed that with service as a Managing Director at Georgeson, Inc. from 2000 through mid-2007. Most recently, he was Partner and Chief Operating Officer at The Laurel Hill Advisory Group, a proxy solicitation and corporate governance advisory firm.

Over the past 25 years Mr. Siemann has had the opportunity to be involved in more than one thousand solicitations, ranging from routine election of directors to major takeover contests. He is currently involved in providing solicitation and corporate governance advisory services to a broad range of clients and has been in the forefront of analyzing and detailing the new direction of institutional activists and how to prepare for the new proxy environment.

Mr. Siemann holds a Bachelors degree from Fordham University, an MA degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Director, Investor Relations
Constant Contact

 
Biography
Jeremiah is Director of Investor Relations and Internal Communications at Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT), a leading provider of affordable, easy-to-use Engagement Marketing™ tools that help small organizations create and grow customer relationships. He joined Constant Contact in February 2008, shortly after its IPO, and established the first in-house investor relations function for the company. As the company continued to grow at a rapid pace, significantly expanding the number of employees and office locations, he was tasked with establishing the first internal communications department for the company in June of 2010 . In these roles he leads all aspects of investor relations and internal communications for the company, including developing strategy, implementing technologies, creating messaging and managing all financial, investor and employee communications.

Prior to joining Constant Contact, he managed the investor relations efforts for RSA Security, a software security company, until its acquisition by EMC for $2.3 billion. During his tenure at RSA Security, Mr. Sisitsky directed all aspects of the company's investor relations efforts and successfully helped lead the company's investor communications through two acquisitions, a stock option investigation and ultimately, the sale of the company. He started his career on an equity capital markets desk, where he helped originate and execute equity and equity hybrid securities. He has also worked for several public small-cap and micro-cap software companies in various strategic planning, financial planning and analysis and investor relations roles.

Mr. Sisitsky is actively involved in the National Investor Relations Institute, and is a board member of NIRI Boston. He received his undergraduate degree in business, with an emphasis on finance and a minor in economics, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a master's degree in business administration from Boston University.

Staff Director, Investor Relations
FedEx Corporation

 
Biography
Jeffrey K. Smith, CFA is staff director, Investor
Relations for FedEx Corp. He has primary responsibility for institutional investors in the eastern United States, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, he also oversees financial media outreach, the annual report production and the corporation's individual investor programs. He joined the FedEx investor relations team in July 1998.

Prior to joining FedEx, Smith administered First Tennessee Bank's mutual fund family. He has nearly 20 years experience working with the financial community.

A native of Memphis, he earned a bachelor's and master's degree in business administration from the University of Memphis and has been a CFA charterholder since 2001. Smith is a past president of the CFA Society of Memphis and a member of the National Investor Relations Institute.

Partner
Brunswick Group

 
Biography
Rachelle specializes in digital and social media communications. She is an expert at developing social media strategies for companies in the highly regulated pharmaceutical, financial and consumer product sectors.

At Brunswick Group, Rachelle is responsible for collaborating with colleagues, clients and partners on engaging in conversational communications through the use of blogs, online communities, social networks, search engines and mobile devices.

Prior to Brunswick Group, Rachelle led the Digital Practice at Cohn & Wolfe, a WPP company. She counseled Colgate-Palmolive, GSK, McKesson, and others on establishing global social media policies for thought leadership, reputation management, CSR, and brand communications purposes.

Rachelle received her BS in Journalism from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and is currently an adjunct professor for New York University's Public Relations and Corporate Communications graduate program.

Global Industry Analsyt
Wellington Management Company

 
Biography
As an analyst in Global Industry Research, Suzanne is responsible for conducting fundamental analysis for the companies in the diversified industrials space. Suzanne makes buy/sell recommendations to portfolio managers based on her findings and market conditions. In addition, she is also responsible for managing diversified industrials sub-portfolios in research-based investment accounts. Suzanne received a BA in Economics and Spanish from Tufts University and earned her SM in finance and accounting from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan).

Principal
Stillings Communications

 
Biography
Susan is a senior international communications executive. She collaborates with internal IR and PR teams to enhance their communications with the Street and public, with the goal of improved shareholder value and better brand recognition. Susan has extensive experience listing companies, domestic and Chinese, on U.S. exchanges. She helps set companies up for success at listing and importantly after listing. This year, she re-launched Stillings Communications, a bi-coastal communications consultancy based in San Francisco and New York. She is also a partner in Asia Bridge Capital, an IR firm offering advice to Chinese companies listed in the U.S.

Companies that Susan has helped bring public include: China Ming Yang Wind Power $350M NYSE listing, Charm Communications $80M Nasdaq listing, Sun-Tech Power NYSE listing with a current market cap of $2.0B and Talecris Biotherapeutics $1.1B Nasdaq listing. She has also worked on high-profile contested and friendly M&A situations as well as CEO changes. Her notable experience includes the PeopleSoft / Oracle, Oregon Steel / Evraz and Dubai World / MGMMirage transactions. In addition, she has extensive in-house experience having started her communications career running IR and corporate communications for tech companies Iomega and Merisel.

Susan has worked across industries, including personal technology, web-hosted solutions, financial technology, semiconductors, wind and solar power, distribution, biotechnology and medical devices, among others. She brings strong multicultural sensitivities to her work, having worked with numerous Chinese companies, plus Middle Eastern, Japanese, European and Russian companies.

Most recently, Susan was a partner with Brunswick Group in New York and prior to that, she ran Edelman's global financial practice. Previously, as managing director of Ogilvy Financial's Asia Pacific region based in Hong Kong, her clients included Baidu, Shenzhen Development Bank, GE Money and New Oriental Education and Technology Group. She began her career in investment banking, where she honed her financial analysis, valuation and document negotiation skills as a VP with Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank). Susan is a Charter Financial Analyst and a member of NIRI. Her MBA and bachelor's degrees are from the University of Michigan.

VP, Global Investor Relations
EMC Corporation

 
Biography
Anthony Takazawa is the Vice President of Investor Relations at EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC). EMC is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. EMC reported revenues of $17 Billion in 2010 and at its current market capitalization is one of the top 10 most valuable enterprise technology companies in the world.

Takazawa oversees the global operations of the EMC Investor Relations team. Under his direction, EMC has been honored with many awards for excellence in IR including several years of top ratings in Institutional Investor Magazine's IR rankings. He is active in investor relations matters as a frequent commentator/guest speaker regarding varied IR related topics such as disclosure practices, market structure, corporate governance, shareholder activism and social media. He is member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and served as an Officer and Director of the NIRI Boston Chapter.

Anthony joined EMC from Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank) where he was Vice President, head of Mid-Cap Equity and Equity Portfolio Manager. Previously, he was an Investment Officer at Phoenix Investment Counsel serving various roles including Equity Portfolio Manager and Director of Equity Research.

Takazawa holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is a graduate of the Applied Security Analysis Program, and a BBA from the University of Notre Dame. He has also earned a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute.

Manager, Investor Relations
Hasbro, Inc.

 
Biography
Alexia Taxiarchos is the Manager of Investor Relations at Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), a branded play company providing children and families around the world with a wide-range of immersive entertainment offerings based on the Company's world class brand portfolio. In this position, Alexia is responsible for developing and implementing the company's investor relations program and supports the company's interaction with the investment community. Before joining Hasbro she was a Senior Associate at Sharon Merrill Associates, a nationally recognized investor relations and corporate communications strategic advisory firm. Prior to joining Sharon Merrill Associates, Alexia was the Investor Relations Research and Reporting Manager at TIM Hellas Telecommunications S.A., in Athens, Greece.

Alexia holds a bachelor of arts degree in English and International Relations from Boston College and a master of arts degree in International Relations from Boston University.

Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Global Investor Relations
Ipreo

 
Biography
Chris Taylor is Executive Vice President, Managing Director at Ipreo, a leading provider of market intelligence and IR technology to companies around the world. Chris came to Ipreo through the acquisition of CapitalBridge in February 2008, where he served as Managing Director, responsible for the global operations of the firm. During his 15 year tenure there, Chris was a key orchestrator of the firm's growth and transformation into one of the preeminent brands in market intelligence. In his role at Ipreo, Chris oversees the corporate global investor relations services and products offered to listed companies around the world from its offices in New York, London, Paris, Vienna and Tokyo. In recent years, Chris has been an active speaker on relevant investor relations topics at multiple industry events.

Vice President, Investor Relations
Office Depot

 
Biography
Brian K. Turcotte is Vice President, Investor Relations for Office Depot. His primary responsibility is to manage the company's global investor relations function. He joined the Office Depot investor relations team in August 2007.

Prior to joining Office Depot, Brian was an equity analyst covering North American, European and Latin American forest products companies at Xylem Global Partners in New York. Prior to joining Xylem, he spent over 20 years with International Paper in a number of management positions including finance, sales, marketing and manufacturing.

Brian earned a joint bachelor's degree in engineering from the State University of New York at Syracuse and Syracuse University, and a master's degree in business administration from New York University's Stern School of Business. He has been a member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) since 1995 and is a former Connecticut/Westchester NIRI chapter board member.

Director, Investor Relations
Stanley Black and Decker

 
Biography
Kate White Vanek joined The Stanley Works in mid-2008 before the early 2010 acquisition of Black & Decker, which doubled the size of the Company. Previously, she was a Vice President at Bear Stearns on the credit products sales team marketing credit default swaps (CDS) and, before that, she was a Manager with Thomson Reuters in the Capital Markets Intelligence group focusing on IR consulting. Kate has an MBA from Columbia Business School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from The University of Richmond.

Partner
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

 
Biography
Michael I. Verde concentrates his practice in the areas of insurance, risk management and fraud.

On the insurance side, Mr. Verde has experience in large, complex coverage and defense litigations for both insurers and policyholders. These matters have involved business and contingent business interruption claims, police civil liability, directors' and officers' liability, mass tort, catastrophic property loss, airline liability and technology claims. He has also headed other types of litigation related to the insurance industry, including reinsurance disputes, broker disputes, broker E & O claims, and broker employment contract disputes. He also regularly reviews clients' insurance policies in order to make sure businesses are receiving appropriate comprehensive coverage for the risks they are likely to face.

On the fraud and risk management side, Mr. Verde has handled complex international and domestic fraud claims for both domestic and foreign clients, initiating both criminal prosecutions and civil recoveries. Mr. Verde took leave from the Firm for a few years to head the New York office of a London based private investigation group, and uses those contacts as well as his own law enforcement connections (Mr. Verde was a sergeant in the New York City Police Department before becoming a lawyer) to provide investigative support and advice to clients who have either been victimized by fraud or want to put effective safeguards in place.

As a result of his work in both areas, Mr. Verde has trial and appellate experience in state and federal courts in a variety of jurisdictions.

Lectures and Articles
Mr. Verde has spoken on insurance issues at ABA and Mealey's conferences, as well as at an International Bar Association meeting in Berlin and at a forum on U.S. Law in Johannesburg. He speaks regularly on risk management and terrorism insurance issues. In November 2009, Mr. Verde participated in a panel on $Reassessing Insurance Strategies in a New Era of Risk & Uncertainty,$ presented by InsureHedge, and in August 2010 authored $13 Characteristics of a Great Chief Compliance Officer$ for Corporate Compliance Insights.

Education
Mr. Verde earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University cum laude (B.A., 1980). He earned his law degree from New York Law School, magna cum laude (J.D., 1988), where he was an editor and contributor to the New York Law Review.

Head of Investor Relations
Newcrest Mining Limited

 
Biography
No bio available

Vice President, Investor Relations
Textron Inc.

 
Biography
Douglas Wilburne was appointed vice president, investor relations in April 2000. His responsibilities include communicating Textron's strategy and financial performance to investment and business communities worldwide, including Wall Street analysts, institutional investors and business/financial media. In addition, he serves on Textron's enterprise-wide Finance Council.

From 1997 to 1999, Wilburne headed investor relations for AMP Incorporated, where he led the company's global investor relations program and guided the company through its merger with Tyco International. Prior to joining AMP, he spent 20 years at Bell Atlantic Corporation, where he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in engineering, operations, regulatory and finance. He served as Bell Atlantic's director of investor relations beginning in 1996.

Wilburne earned a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University, an M.B.A. in Finance from Drexel University and completed Textron's Global Leadership Forum at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Providence Society of Financial Analysts and the National Investor Relations Institute.

Board Term

2007 - 2011

Board Committee

Executive, chair

Compensation, chair

Nominating, chair

Investor Relations Officer
Paranapanema

 
Biography
Professional career developed in large listed companies, as Investor Relations Officer in Brazil - IRO since 1992, being since 2007 at present working for Paranapanema S.A.(copper metallurgy); Grendene S.A (footwear manufacturer); COTEMINAS (textile); VCP S.A. – Votorantin Celulose e Papel (pulp &paper); AMBEV (beverages); Unibanco and Iochpe (financial); Investment and Credit Analysis manager and Senior Economist. MA in International Finance in London, 1996 (University of Westminster); Specialization in Industrial Economics, 1984 and BA in Economics, 1979 (UFRGS) and courses in Economic Development Policies and The Politics of Global Finance at London School of Economics -LSE - London. Vice-president in the Board of Directors of IBRI – Brazilian Investor Relations Institute; Member of the subcommittee of Global IR at NIRI; and Associated and member of ABRASCA, APIMEC, IBEF and IBGC.

Senior Analyst - Banks and Brokers/Former Buyside/Portfolio Managers
Bloomberg

 
Biography
No bio available

Vice President, Investor Relations
Dell Inc.

 
Biography
Robert (Rob) L. Williams II serves as vice president of Investor Relations for Dell Inc. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the investor relations function and executing Dell's global investor communications program in conjunction with the chief financial officer and senior management. Dell's Investor Relations is involved in global industry conferences, a large-scale analyst conference, on-site investor visits, quarterly earnings, the annual shareholders' meeting, strategic research projects and a broad competitive analysis function. Mr. Williams also provides guidance regarding Dell's operating results and business strategies to global institutional investors and sell-side securities analysts.

Mr. Williams is a 18-year Dell veteran and has served as vice president of investor relations for the past eight years. Prior to joining investor relations in 1995, Mr. Williams held positions in corporate treasury, finance and marketing at Dell. He serves as president of the Austin-San Antonio chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute and is an active national speaker on topics ranging from strategic impact of investor relations to social media.

Mr. Williams received a bachelor's of business administration degree in management from the University of Texas and a master's of science degree in finance from Texas A&M University.

Chief Financial Officer
PAETEC

 
Biography
Keith M. Wilson serves PAETEC as Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President and Treasurer, and is responsible for maintaining and reporting the financial health of the company and overseeing corporate assets. In this role, Mr. Wilson is responsible for such finance-related departments as Treasury, Accounting, Corporate Finance, Network Cost, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Investor Relations. Additionally, Mr. Wilson serves as a Director for PAETEC's Board and oversees the operations and strategy for the company's energy subsidiary, PAETEC Energy.

Prior to joining PAETEC in January 2001, Mr. Wilson most recently served as Vice President and head of the Telecommunications Finance Group at Union Bank of California, where he focused on sourcing and providing capital for telecommunications services companies in the wireline, wireless, and data-services markets. Mr. Wilson also has held positions with First Dominion Capital, NationsBank, Bank of Boston, and Fleet Bank. Mr. Wilson received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, where he was a Nisbet Scholar, and a master's degree from The University of Michigan. In 2010, Mr. Wilson was named "CFO of the Year" by the New Jersey Tech Council based on his outstanding contributions to PAETEC's performance and accomplishments.

Mr. Wilson serves on the PAETEC Holding Corp.'s Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and as Vice Chairman for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also former Chairman of the Dickinson Fund Advisory Committee, and former Board Member of the McAndrews Fund for Athletics, both of Dickinson College.

Personal Finance Editor
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