Speaker Biographies

Donna Anderson
Donna Anderson
Vice President and Head of Global Corporate Governance
T. Rowe Price Associates

Donna Anderson is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and a global corporate governance analyst in the U.S. Equity Division of T. Rowe Price. In her current role, Donna leads the policy-formation process for proxy voting, shepherds the firm’s engagement efforts with portfolio companies, and is co-chair of the Proxy Committee. She joined the firm in 2007 and has 12 years of investment experience. Prior to joining the firm, Donna was director of equity research services for AIM Investments and was employed by Dyer, Robertson & Lamme Inc. as an equities analyst. She earned a B.A. in Spanish, French, and German from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. Donna also has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Mark Borges
Mark Borges
Principal
Compensia

Mark Borges is a principal with Compensia, Inc., a management consulting firm providing executive compensation advisory services to compensation committees and senior management of knowledge-based companies. From April 2003 until September 2007, he was a principal for Mercer in the firm’s Washington Resource Group in Washington, DC. Previously, Mr. Borges was a Special Counsel in the Office of Rulemaking, Division of Corporation Finance with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Before that, he was General Counsel for ShareData, Inc. Mr. Borges practiced law with the firms of Ware & Friedenrich (now DLA Piper) from 1987 to 1992 and Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop) from 1982 to 1987. From 1981 to 1982, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Marion T. Bennett of the United States Court of Claims in Washington, DC.

Mr. Borges is the author of SEC Executive Compensation Disclosure Rules, first published in June 2008 by the American Bar Association, and a co-author of the Lynn, Borges & Romanek Executive Compensation Disclosure Treatise and Reporting Guide. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a course of the securities law aspects of executive compensation.

A California native, Mr. Borges graduated from Humboldt State University in 1976. He received his J.D. from Santa Clara University in 1979 and an L.L.M. in Taxation from New York University in 1981. He is a member of the American Bar Association.

Carol Bowie
Carol Bowie
Head - Americas Research
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)

Ms. Bowie leads the research group responsible for proxy analysis and vote recommendations for thousands of companies in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. During 2010 and 2011, she led compensation policy and research development at ISS, and previously headed the ISS Governance Institute team, which produces research and information around key issues in corporate governance and coordinates ISS's benchmark policy development. Prior to that, Carol directed ISS's Governance Research Service unit, which she also managed at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) prior to its acquisition by ISS in 2005.

Before joining IRRC, Carol was Director of Publications & Research for Executive Compensation Advisory Services and long-time managing editor of the Executive Compensation Reports newsletter, analyzing trends and developments in executive pay at public companies. She is a frequent speaker on executive compensation and other governance issues, has published articles in journals such as Mergers & Acquisitions and Directorship Magazine, and often provides information and commentary to the business and general press. Carol was named to the National Association of Corporate Directors' 2010 and 2011 Hall of Fame lists as one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance and boardrooms.

Rhonda Brauer
Rhonda Brauer
Senior Managing Director - Corporate Governance
Georgeson

Rhonda Brauer joined Georgeson in May 2008 to focus on helping companies to enhance communications with their shareholders and third-party opinion-makers and to analyze their governance practices in light of the current corporate governance landscape and their own business developments. She also advises management teams and boards on ongoing corporate governance developments and conducts board self-assessments. In addition, Rhonda works with clients to help them obtain their desired shareholder votes on director elections, proxy contests, shareholder proposals, equity compensation plans and other corporate governance matters.

Prior to joining Georgeson, Rhonda held a variety of positions over 15 years in the Legal Department of The New York Times Company, most recently serving as Secretary and Corporate Governance Officer and as a member of the Company's Senior Management Team. She helped to lead the internal team that coordinated the Company's response to a dissident's withhold-the-vote campaign in 2007 and a threatened 2008 proxy fight, which eventually settled. Before that, Rhonda was an associate corporate lawyer with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York, NY and Brussels, Belgium.

Rhonda speaks and writes frequently on corporate governance and proxy solicitation issues. She is a member of the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals, for which she has served (since June 2011) on its Board of Directors, (from 2009-2011) as Chair of its Chapter Task Force, (from 2006-2009) as the Chair of its Corporate Practices Committee, and (from 2006-2007) as a member of its Media Awareness Group. In addition, Rhonda is a member of the Council of Institutional Investors and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, for which she served (from 2008-2009) on its Business Law Section's Corporate Governance Committee Task Force on the Delineation of Governance Roles and Responsibilities.

Rhonda received her J.D., magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington, IN), and her A.B., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences (Ithaca, NY).

Jesse Brill
Jesse Brill
Chair, NASPP and CompensationStandards.com
Publisher, Executive Press

Jesse Brill is recognized as one of the country's leading authorities on insiders' transactions and compensation planning for executives. Mr. Brill is the Publisher-Editor of the nationally acclaimed newsletters The Corporate Counsel and The Corporate Executive, which he has been publishing for over 30 years. His publishing company, Executive Press, also publishes Peter Romeo and Alan Dye's Publications (The Section 16 Treatise and Reporting Guide, The Section 16 Forms and Filings Handbook, The Comprehensive Section 16 Deskbook, and Section 16 Updates newsletter), Compensation Standards newsletter, and Lynn Borges & Romanek's Executive Compensation Disclosure Treatise and Reporting Guide. In addition, Brill's organization is responsible for the highly acclaimed websites, TheCorporateCounsel.net, Section16.net, DealLawyers.com, and CompensationStandards.com.

Mr. Brill is also founder and Chair of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals. He received his law degree from Yale Law School.

Anne Chapman
Vice President, Fund Business Management Group
Capital Research and Management Company

Anne Chapman is Vice President, Fund Business Management Group for the Capital Research and Management Company. Anne joined Cap Re in 1989, as a legal assistant to the coordinator of of Cap Re’s legal and compliance group. For the past 20 years, she has worked with independent directors and Cap Re’s investment professionals in coordinating proxy voting for the American Funds group of mutual funds.

Prior to joining Cap Re, Anne was a legal secretary for the in-house legal department at CalMat Co., the largest sand and gravel company in California (now a subsidiary of Vulcan Materials Company).

Yvonne Chen
Yvonne Chen
Managing Director, New York office
Pearl Meyer & Partners

Yvonne Chen is Managing Director in the New York office of Pearl Meyer & Partners; she joined the firm in 1998. With more than 25 years of business experience, Ms. Chen consults with companies, subsidiaries and joint ventures in the development of compensation objectives, value-based pay and performance alignment, incentive plan design and compensation-related governance matters. Ms. Chen has expertise in executive and director compensation matters and regularly consults with compensation committees of large, publicly-traded companies, as well as a range of mid-sized to smaller companies and privately-held clients in the telecommunications, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, real estate/REIT and utility sectors.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ms. Chen holds an M.B.A. from the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business. Ms. Chen previously was a Principal in the executive compensation practice group at William M. Mercer, Incorporated and held positions at SCA Consulting, KeySpan Corporation and Aetna Life & Casualty Corporation.

Ning Chiu
Ning Chiu
Counsel
Davis Polk & Wardwell

Ms. Chiu is counsel in the Capital Markets Group, with an emphasis on corporate governance and SEC regulations for public companies. She regularly advises major companies on board-related issues, including director independence, securities law compliance, proxy disclosure, shareholder proposals, and the impact of proxy advisory services. Her practice also focuses on new developments and changing best practices in governance matters. She has represented both issuers and underwriters on a number of significant securities transactions, including one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history and advising newly public companies. Her clients have included Aetna, CVS Caremark, General Electric Company, Marsh & McLennan and Morgan Stanley.

Meredith Cross
Meredith Cross
Director, Division of Corporation Finance
SEC

Prior to joining the SEC staff in June 2009, Ms. Cross was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C., where she advised clients on corporate and securities matters and was involved with the full range of issues faced by public and private companies in capital raising and financial reporting. Since rejoining the staff, Ms. Cross has led a broad array of key initiatives, including changes to the proxy rules and a concept release on the U.S. proxy system, and revisions to the disclosure, reporting, and offering process for asset-backed securities. Currently, Ms. Cross is leading the Division's efforts to implement a wide assortment of provisions enacted under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.

Ms. Cross also worked in the Division of Corporation Finance prior to joining Wilmer Hale. She began her previous tenure at the SEC in September 1990 as an Attorney Fellow in the Office of Chief Counsel, and served in a variety of capacities within the Division, including Deputy Chief Counsel, Chief Counsel, Associate Director, and finally, Deputy Director. Before her previous tenure at the SEC, Ms. Cross worked in private practice in the securities department of King & Spalding in Atlanta. She earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Duke University in 1979, and her law degree in 1982 from Vanderbilt University Law School.

Art Crozier
Art Crozier
Co-Chair and Co-Founder
Innisfree M&A

Arthur Crozier is a co-founder and Co-Chairman of Innisfree M&A Incorporated and of its wholly owned subsidiary, Lake Isle M&A Incorporated, a full-service proxy solicitation and investor relations firm.

Mr. Crozier's practice includes the representation of U.S. and international clients in a wide variety of transactions, including Annual and Special Meetings, friendly and hostile acquisitions, as well as proxy fights. In addition, he counsels an international roster of clients on corporate governance and executive compensation issues.

Before entering the proxy solicitation/investor relations field, Mr. Crozier was an attorney in private practice specializing in corporate and securities law matters, particularly proxy contests and M&A transactions.

Don Delves
Don Delves
President
The Delves Group

Don Delves, as President and Founder of The Delves Group, provides expertise in measuring performance, designing innovative pay and incentive systems, and helping companies get what they pay for with their compensation dollars. He works with boards, compensation committees, senior executives, and sales forces to improve their effectiveness and reassess the way they are organized, directed, and rewarded.

In his book, Stock Options & the New Rules of Corporate Accountability (McGraw Hill, August 2003), he pinpoints the problems of the current system and outlines steps that will dramatically improve the weak link between executive pay and performance. Prior to founding The Delves Group, he started and managed the Chicago office of iQuantic, was a Senior Consultant at Sibson and Co., an executive compensation consultant with Towers Perrin, served as a manager in personal financial planning and taxation with Arthur Anderson & Co., and served as a financial consultant to middle market companies for Harris Bank.

Mr. Delves is a CPA, holds an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago, and earned a BA, summa cum laude, in economics from DePauw University. He serves on the Chicago Compensation Association board, and is involved in a variety of civic and community organizations.

Howard Dicker
Howard Dicker
Partner
Weil Gotshal & Manges

Howard Dicker has a diverse corporate practice, including mergers & acquisitions, financings, securities offerings, venture capital investments and restructurings. He also advises numerous companies regarding securities law issues, disclosure and compliance matters as well as on executive compensation and corporate governance.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Dicker was an auditor and tax consultant at Price Waterhouse in New York. There, he focused on broker-dealers in securities and commodities. He is licensed as a certified public accountant.

Mr. Dicker's recent publications include "Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance," which is Chapter 3 in A Practical Guide to SEC Proxy and Compensation Rules, 3rd Edition, 2005 Supplement (with Robert Todd Lang and Spencer G. Smul), published by Aspen.

He is also active in various bar associations and committees and speaks and writes on a variety of topics in corporate and securities law.

Marty Dunn
Marty Dunn
Partner
O'Melveny & Myers

Martin Dunn is a partner in O'Melveny & Myers's Washington, DC office and a member of the Capital Markets Practice. Prior to joining O'Melveny, he spent 20 years in various positions at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), most recently as Deputy Director, and former Acting Director, of the Division of Corporation Finance. As Deputy Director, he supervised that Division's Offices of Chief Counsel, Chief Accountant, Mergers and Acquisitions, International Corporate Finance, Rulemaking, Small Business, and Enforcement Liaison.

Alan Dye
Alan Dye
Partner
Hogan Lovells

Alan is Editor of Section16.net and a Partner with Hogan Lovells L.L.P., a Washington, D.C. law firm, where he specializes in securities matters. Before joining Hogan Lovells, Alan spent two years at the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance and served for two years as Special Counsel to the SEC Chairman. Prior to that, Alan served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ellsworth A. Van Graafeiland of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Alan is an active member of the American Bar Association, serving as Chairman of the Securities, Commodities and Exchanges Committee of its Administrative Law Section and as a member of the Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities of its Business Law Section.

He has written extensively on various issues under the federal securities laws, including his co-authorship of the Section 16 Treatise and Reporting Guide (Executive Press 1994), the Section 16 Forms and Filings Handbook (Executive Press 2000), and the Comprehensive Section 16 Deskbook (Executive Press 2000). Alan, together with Peter Romeo, also manages the content of Section16.net, a website for Section 16 practitioners and compliance officers. He is a frequent lecturer at professional seminars and was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center from 1991-1996.

Michelle Edkins
Michelle Edkins
Managing Director, Global Head of Corporate Governance & Responsible Investment
BlackRock

Michelle Edkins is a Managing Director at BlackRock and Head of its Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team of 20 specialists based in five key regions internationally. Michelle is responsible for the team’s engagement and proxy voting activities in relation to the companies in which BlackRock invests on behalf of clients. She is an active participant in the public corporate governance debate and regularly speaks and writes on the importance of good stewardship for company performance. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network and of the Investment Committees of the Association of British Insurers and of Eumedion in the Netherlands.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2009, Michelle was for four years Managing Director at Governance for Owners, an independent partnership offering products that support responsible long-term share ownership. She started her corporate governance career in 1997 at Hermes Pensions Management, where she spent eight years, initially as the head of the corporate governance team and thereafter as Director of Institutional Relations. An economist by training, Michelle previously worked for New Zealand’s central bank and the British High Commission in Wellington.

Ed Hauder
Senior Attorney
Exequity

Ed is known industry-wide as a leading advisor on executive compensation matters. He serves on CompensationStandards.com’s Executive Compensation Task Force, maintains his acclaimed Equity Compensation Blog, EdwardHauder.com, as well as his Say-on-Pay.com blog, and is a practical thought leader on compensation matters.

Ed has consulted with companies in multiple industries on all aspects of executive and director compensation. He focuses on helping companies design compensation programs that achieve their strategic goals and objectives, while at the same time keeping them out of the penalty box with shareholders and the media. Ed also helps companies understand and find practical solutions for technical matters impacting compensation, e.g., financial accounting, securities, tax, and corporate governance issues. His expertise includes ISS compensation modeling and policies, which enabled him to create the Flexible Share Authorization to maximize equity plan flexibility.

Keith Higgins
Keith Higgins
Partner
Ropes & Gray

Keith Higgins, a partner in the Boston office of Ropes & Gray LLP, has more than 20 years of experience counseling public companies in securities offerings, mergers and acquisition, corporate governance and executive compensation. He has been recognized as one of the top IPO lawyers in the country by The IPO Journal and is listed in the current editions of The Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA America's Leading Business Lawyers.

Mr. Higgins also frequently writes and lectures about securities law, corporate governance and executive compensation. He is the Chair of the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the American Bar Association's Business Law Section.

Wendy Hilburn
Wendy Hilburn
Principal
Frederic W. Cook & Co.

Ms. Hilburn, a Principal in the New York office, began her career with the firm in 1979, following positions in the human resources and corporate planning departments of International Paper Company. Ending a leave begun in 1988, she rejoined the firm in 1996. Ms. Hilburn received a B.S. from Duke University and an M.B.A. from New York University.

Beth Ising
Beth Ising
Partner
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Beth Ising is a partner in the Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance practice group in Gibson Dunn's Washington, D.C. office. Her practice focuses on corporate governance, securities regulation and disclosure issues as well as executive compensation (including Section 16 and Rule 144), mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies, and public offerings and private placements of equity securities. She also advises several local non-profit organizations on corporate governance issues. Ms. Ising was recently named as one of ten "Rising Stars of Corporate Governance" for 2009 by Yale School of Management's Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance.

Blair Jones
Blair Jones
Managing Principal
Semler Brossy

Blair Jones focuses on helping clients motivate and retain their talent in ways that contribute to sustained shareholder value creation. She has particular expertise in performance management and executive rewards design. She has worked with leadership teams across a number of industries, including healthcare, retail, telecommunications, professional services and consumer products. She works extensively with companies in transition. Ms. Jones joined Sibson Consulting in 1991. Prior to that time, she worked for Bain & Company, helping clients develop pricing and marketing strategies. She holds a bachelor's degree with highest honors from Williams College and has spoken at the WorldatWork and National Association for Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP) National Conferences on the topics of leadership rewards and talent management. She has also presented at the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) Global Equity Conference, as well as to a variety of industry groups. She has published in many journals including Directors and Boards, World at Work Journal, Workspan, The Journal of Business Strategy and The Corporate Board. She has also been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and forbes.com, KiplingerForecasts.com, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and HR Executive.

Ira Kay
Ira Kay
Managing Partner
Pay Governance LLC

Ira Kay is one of the nation's foremost experts on executive compensation, and is a Managing Partner at Pay Governance. Ira served as the global director of Watson Wyatt's Executive Compensation practice for 16 years. He works closely with the boards and management to help them develop executive compensation programs that increase shareholder value. His clients include premier American and global corporations ranging across various industries, including telecommunications, financial services, retail, defense, technology, consulting, insurance, business services, consumer products, media, food, transportation, among others.

Ira writes and speaks regularly on executive compensation issues. His most recent co-authored book, "Myths and Realities of Executive Compensation," documents the realities of executive pay in the United States and the forces that have shaped pay in recent years. He is also the author of "The Human Capital Edge, CEO Pay and Shareholder Value: Helping the U.S. Win the Global Economic War", and "Value at the Top: Solutions to the Executive Compensation Crisis." Ira has presented analysis of executive compensation issues before the Federal Reserve Board, the S.E.C., the F.A.S.B. and a U.S. Senate subcommittee. He is often quoted in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, The Economist, and other leading publications. His articles have been published in the Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly.

Ira holds a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in economics from Wayne State University.

Mike Kesner
Mike Kesner
Principal, Human Capital Advisory Services
Deloitte Consulting LLP

Mike Kesner is the principal in charge of firm's Executive Compensation practice. He has over 26 years' experience working with companies on a wide range of executive compensation issues, including assessment of competitive pay levels, incentive compensation plan design, executive employment agreements and severance benefits, and deferred compensation plans. Mike also has experience with recruitment and retention arrangements, supplemental executive retirement programs, benefit security techniques, board of directors compensation and change-in-control pay issues. He is the independent advisor to the compensation committee of the board of directors on executive compensation matters at several Fortune 500 companies.

Mike has authored articles published in the Harvard Business Review, CFO Magazine, Directors and Boards, National Association of Corporate Directors' newsletter, and served on the NACD's Blue Ribbon Commission on executive pay. He is also a co-author of a chapter in A Practical Guide to SEC Proxy and Compensation Rules. He has often been a guest speaker on compensation and benefit matters at conferences sponsored by the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute, American Bar Association, PLI, Executive Enterprises, Garrett Law Institute (Northwestern University), Tulane Corporate Law Institute and Tennessee Law Institute. Mike is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Illinois CPA Society, and the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals. He received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois.

James Kim
James Kim
Head, San Francisco Office
Frederic W. Cook & Co.

Mr. Kim is the head of the San Francisco office of Frederic W. Cook & Co., a nationally-recognized consulting firm specializing in executive compensation. The firm was founded in 1973, and has since advised over 2,000 clients, including currently over 20% of the Fortune 1000. Mr. Kim joined the firm in 1998. During his tenure, he has advised over 150 clients across a broad range of industries and business stages. He has been a frequent speaker at national conferences, including the annual NASPP event since 2005. He holds a BA and MBA from The University of Chicago.

Dave Lynn
Dave Lynn
Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Editor, TheCorporateCounsel.net

Dave Lynn is a partner in the Washington D.C. Office of Morrison & Foerster, and is Co-Chair of the firm's Global Public Companies practice. Mr. Lynn is also Editor of TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and The Corporate Executive, and is the co-author of The Executive Compensation Disclosure Treatise and Reporting Guide. His practice is focused on advising a wide range of clients on SEC matters, securities transactions and corporate governance.

Mr. Lynn was the Chief Counsel of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance from 2003-2007, where he led the rulemaking team that drafted sweeping revisions to the SEC’s executive compensation and related party disclosure rules. Mr. Lynn initially served on the SEC Staff from 1995-2000 as an Attorney-Advisor and subsequently a Special Counsel in the Division of Corporation Finance. While in private practice from 2000-2003, he advised clients on SEC investigations, securities transactions, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. Mr. Lynn has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught a course in corporate governance.

Bob McCormick
Bob McCormick
Chief Policy Officer
Glass Lewis & Co.

Prior to joining Glass Lewis, Bob McCormick was the Director of Investment Proxy Research at Fidelity Management & Research Co., which he joined in 1997. At Fidelity, he managed the proxy voting of more than 700 retail and mutual fund accounts, holding 4,000 domestic and international securities worth in excess of $1 trillion. Prior to joining Fidelity, McCormick was a staff attorney at Keenan, Powers & Andrews and Prudential Securities Incorporated, both in New York City. McCormick is an attorney who earned his law degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law after graduating with honors from Providence College. He serves on the International Corporate Governance Network’s Cross-Border Voting Practices and Securities Lending committees.

Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Director and Co-Founder
The Corporate Library/GMI

Nell Minow was named one of the 20 most influential people in corporate governance by Directorship magazine and has been dubbed "the queen of good corporate governance" by BusinessWeek online. Prior to co-founding GMI's predecessor firm, The Corporate Library, Ms. Minow was a Principal of Lens, a $100 million investment firm that took positions in underperforming companies and used shareholder activism to increase their value.

Her other professional experience includes serving as President of Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. and as an attorney at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Justice. She has received a number of awards, including Albany Law School's Kate Stoneman Award, awarded to individuals in the legal profession who have demonstrated a commitment to actively seeking change and expanding opportunities for women. Ms. Minow was also the sole recipient of the International Corporate Governance Network Award in 2008 for exceptional achievement in the field of corporate governance. She has authored more than 200 articles and co-authored three books with Robert A.G. Monks, most recently the 5th edition of an MBA textbook called Corporate Governance. Ms. Minow is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Chicago Law School.

Ron Mueller
Ron Mueller
Partner
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Ron Mueller is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  Mr. Mueller works in the corporate/securities area with an emphasis on proxy and disclosure issues, corporate governance, executive compensation (including Section 16 and Rule 144) and corporate transactions.

From September 1989 to June 1991, Mr. Mueller separated from the firm to work as legal counsel to Commissioner Edward H. Fleischman at the United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). While at the SEC, Mr. Mueller worked on many of the matters before the Commission, including enforcement matters and regulatory initiatives.

Mr. Mueller is admitted to practice before the courts of New York and Washington, D.C., and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association and the American Bar Association.  As well, he is a member of the Subcommittee on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation of the Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities (Section of Business Law, American Bar Association) and a member of the American Society of Corporate Secretaries.

Mr. Mueller has written articles and spoken at seminars about a variety of securities law issues, including trends and developments in proxy disclosures and proxy contests, the SEC's disclosure requirements, corporate governance developments, and executive compensation disclosure rules.  Mr. Mueller is a contributing author to A Practical Guide to Section 16, Aspen Law & Business; A Practical Guide to SEC Proxy and Compensation Rules, Aspen Law & Business; and Federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Insider Reporting and Short-Swing Trading, Matthew Bender.

Mr. Mueller received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1986, where he was both a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar and a James Kent Scholar, and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University in 1982.

Reid Pearson
Head of Corporate Governance/Advisory Services
Alliance Advisors

Reid Pearson heads up Alliance Advisors' corporate governance and advisory services department, working closely with clients on equity compensation issues, corporate governance, shareholder activism topics and proxy fights. A respected figure in the field, Reid is a frequent speaker on corporate governance topics and equity compensation issues.

Prior to joining Alliance Advisors, Reid garnered ten years of experience at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), and five years with the Altman group. His positions at ISS included Director of Custom Research, Senior Analyst, Director of Client Relations, and Manager of Strategic Partnerships. Reid was a member of the proxy policy committee and oversaw the development and execution of the proxy voting guidelines of multiple institutional investors. Reid also worked with corporate issuers and their advisors to develop shareholder friendly compensation plans.

Broc Romanek
Broc Romanek
Editor
CompensationStandards.com

Mr. Romanek is Editor of TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, DealLawyers.com and InvestorRelationships.com. He also serves as Editor for these print newsletters: Deal Lawyers; Compensation Standards and the Corporate Governance Advisor. He is Commissioner of TheCorporateCounsel.net's "Blue Justice League."

Broc is a two-time past Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals (and currently is VP- Program Chair of that chapter) and has served on that Chapter's board for 12 years. He is a former member of the Society's National Board of Directors (having served two terms). He also is a Past Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel's Corporate & Securities Law Committee and formerly was on the Advisory Council for the SEC Historical Society. He has taught a class in corporate governance for the George Mason University Executive MBA program and currently teaches a Securities Regulation course at George Mason Law School.

Before his time at TheCorporateCounsel.net, Mr. Romanek was Founder and Editor of RealCorporateLawyer.com. In addition, he has served as Assistant General Counsel at a Fortune 50 company, was in the Office of Chief Counsel of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, acted as Counselor to former SEC Commissioner Unger and was in private practice.

He frequently writes and speaks about corporate and securities law and has been blogging for over nine years on TheCorporateCounsel.net (and maintains four other blogs as well). He has a BBA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of Maryland.

Scott Spector
Scott Spector
Partner
Fenwick & West

Mr. Spector focuses his practice on serving technology and software clients in establishing and administering equity compensation and other employee benefit arrangements. His practice emphasizes mergers and acquisitions, the compensation issues that arise in connection with such transactions, representing executives in employment negotiations and corporate governance matters involving executive compensation matters.

Martha Steinman
Martha Steinman
Partner
Hogan Lovells

Martha Steinman is a Partner of Hogan Lovells LLP. A significant portion of Ms. Steinman's practice is in the area of equity compensation. Additionally, she works with clients to negotiate employment and severance agreements, design compensation packages, and on retirement planning. She has extensive experience in advising publicly held companies and their Boards of Directors on the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and corporate governance issues, on their executive compensation and other employee benefit arrangements.

Ms. Steinman is President of the New York/New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals and Chair of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law.

Laura Thatcher
Laura Thatcher
Partner
Alston & Bird

Laura Thatcher leads Alston & Bird's executive compensation practice, having developed this area of legal specialty in 1995 from her many years’ experience in securities and acquisitions. Today, Laura is recognized as one of the nation's experts on executive compensation and is extensively quoted by major business news publications throughout the world.

Ms. Thatcher leads the executive compensation practice with a distinct and individualized focus on the tax, securities, accounting, corporate governance and labor laws and regulations that have a direct effect on executive compensation. She and her team have daily experience in the compensation matters that are part of every corporate environment: advising boards and management with regard to equity-based and other incentive compensation arrangements; nonqualified deferred compensation; executive employment, separation and change-in-control agreements; proxy and 8-K reporting of executive compensation arrangements; Section 16 reporting and insider trading regulation; corporate governance issues; and director and officer indemnification and fiduciary concerns. Her team stays up to the minute on fast-breaking issues and makes sure our clients are among the first to know of and understand how new developments affect them. Her team also serves an essential role in virtually all major M&A transactions in the firm, providing analysis of equity incentives and guidance as to the most efficient treatment of executive transitions under golden parachute rules.