Karen is the Managing Director for The Shareholder Forum and President of Forum Tools, Inc. The Shareholder Forum conducts programs to provide investors and corporate managers the free exchange of information that may be relevant to investor valuation or proxy decision voting. Forum Tools, Inc., an affiliate company, represents the commercial development of openly accessible electronic communication tools in support of shareholder communications.

Karen has held executive positions as Vice President of Investor Relations and Compliance for various technology and Internet companies including DivX, Inc., BakBone Software, and MP3.com, an Internet music company and one of the largest Internet IPO’s. She relocated to San Diego in 1999 from Phoenix where she held executive positions with SpeedFam, a semiconductor capital equipment maker and Atlanta-based UPS.

From 1993 to 1997, Karen was the Assistant Director of Securities for the Arizona Securities Division where she worked with both the Securities and Exchange Commission and NASDAQ on the regulatory side of investor relations, investor education and corporate finance. Karen’s marketing and corporate communications expertise also extended to investment banking as the Director of Corporate Communications for Robertson Stephens from 1991 to 1993 working with their venture capital and mutual fund divisions, as well as the investment banking organization. She began her investor relations career at 3Com Corporation in 1990.

Karen currently serves on the board of directors for the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) San Diego Chapter, Athena San Diego and non-profit Jeans4Justice. Karen is also an Entrepreneur in Residence with UCSD in their Springboard CONNECT program. She is past President for Phoenix-based Enterprise Network, a leading business networking organization, and she has served on various allocation committees for United Way. In addition, Karen was an Adjunct Professor with Phoenix College instructing young entrepreneurs on the art of developing business plans. She held similar teaching positions with the Kauffman Foundation in their FastTrac entrepreneurship programs.

Karen is a member of the Corporate Directors Forum, National Association of Corporate Directors, Association for Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and Athena San Diego. She served on the NIRI National annual conference planning committee for its 2011 national conference and is a recent recipient of the NIRI scholarship from the University of Michigan. She also is a member of the Corporate Governance Peer Group for NIRI National. Karen attended Arizona State University and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Communications and Finance from the University of Phoenix.

Cynthia Jones is the Executive Director of the Securities Transfer Association, (STA), an industry trade organization with over 180 members. Founded in 1911, the STA membership is comprised of commercial stock transfer agents, corporate stock transfer agents, mutual fund transfer agents and companies that provide services to the stock transfer community. STA members maintain records for more than 150,000,000 registered shareholders. As Executive Director, Ms. Jones oversees all activities and communications of the organization, providing members with timely information on regulatory matters, and meeting with the SEC and other industry participants, to give voice to members’ issues and concerns.

Ms. Jones joined the STA in 2005. Prior to taking this position, Ms Jones was a Senior Vice President with Columbia Funds Services, where her responsibilities included fraud prevention, money laundering deterrence, statements, print mail, electronic document delivery and complaint resolution. While working for Columbia, Ms. Jones was Chair of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) Transfer Agent Advisory Committee, a post held for 10 years, and a member of the STA Board of Directors. In her present role, she represents the STA on a number of industry committees. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts.

Joe is a seasoned securities industry professional with over four decades of experience in all matters related to the servicing of equity and debt securities assets.

During the famed “paper crunch,” Joe began his career at what would become The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (“DTCC”), holding many key operational and administration positions, including senior product manager and vice president for DTCC’s asset services product lines, including: securities processing, custodial services, corporate actions, proxy services, cost basis processing, and cash and stock entitlement processing.

As a DTCC senior product manager Joe’s specific responsibilities included “cradle-to-grave” product development, from overall concept design and due-diligence to final rollout. At DTCC, Joe led the industry efforts to implement the final phases of dematerialization and the implementation of the Direct Registration System. These efforts resulted in reducing the burden and risk of maintaining and processing physical certificates, resulting in saving the industry an estimated $400 million annually. For his efforts, Joseph was dubbed “Mr. Demat” by the industry.

After retiring from DTCC in 2009, Joe founded Seagull Securities which provides consulting services to transfer agents, issuers, brokers, banks and service providers for matters relating to operational processing, system enhancements, customer services, business expansion, regulatory compliance, cost basis processing, etc.

In 2010, Joe worked closely with other industry leaders to develop the Proxy Beneficial Data Aggregation Hub (‘the Hub”) concept, in direct response to the SEC’s request for comments on the current state of the U.S. proxy system and needed reforms.

Joe is currently a managing director with the Forum Tools, Inc., developing a portfolio of shareholder and issuer communication applications.

Jackie Walding is a director of Shareholder Services at Prudential Financial, Inc., where she is responsible for Transfer Agent oversight of 1.9 million registered shareholders. In this role, she manages the annual processes for dividend issuance, proxy distribution and the Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Walding has been instrumental in Prudential’s leadership within many areas in the Shareholder Services field, making notable contributions to accomplishments such as the Company’s early adoption of the SEC’s Notice and Access model, which resulted in annualized savings of over $2.5 million. She was also part of the Prudential team recognized at the 2011 Corporate Governance Awards for Best Proxy Statement.

Walding has helped to create and implement new ideas to engage the registered shareholder base, such Prudential’s vote incentive program, which offers registered shareholders the choice of an eco-friendly tote bag or a tree planted in their honor by American Forests when they vote their proxy. Over the past two years, this program has resulted in a 9% increase in quorum, an increase of 100,000 first-time shareholder voters, 229,000 trees planted by American Forests, and 205,000 shareholders carrying Prudential-branded eco-friendly tote bags.

With more than 10 years of experience in the Shareholder Services field, Walding is highly skilled in corporate actions related to base management and is considered an expert in the field of abandoned property. Prior to her role in Shareholder Services, Jackie spend 13 years in other areas of Prudential in various roles that included business analyst for Prudential’s demutualization and underwriter in Prudential’s former property and casualty insurance business.