Panel 2 Biographies

Donna Ackerly

Senior Managing Director at Georgeson, Corporate Proxy

As a senior member of Georgeson's M&A advisory group, Donna Ackerly consults with clients and their financial and legal advisors on corporate governance initiatives, proxy contests, shareholder meetings, tender/exchange offers and other financial transactions. She also advises clients on investor outreach and communication strategies. She has a bachelor's degree in finance from Rider University, attended graduate school there, and serves on the Executive Committee of Rider Women's Leadership Council. She is a member of various professional organizations including the Society of Governance Professionals, NIRI, Shareholder Services Association, and the Financial Women's Association.

Reena Aggarwal

Robert E. McDonough Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Finance, Georgetown University; Director, Georgetown Center for Financial Markets and Policy

Reena Aggarwal specializes in global financial markets, securities market regulation, investment banking, IPOs, institutional investors, exchange demutualization, and corporate governance. She is on the board of FBR & Co., IndexIQ, and Brightwood Capital and previously was interim dean and deputy dean of Georgetown's McDonough School of Business. She also has been a visiting professor of finance at MIT's Sloan School of Management, an academic fellow at FINRA and at the SEC, a visiting research scholar at the International Monetary Fund, and Fulbright Scholar to Brazil. She received a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Maryland and M.M.S. from BITS, India.

John M. Bajkowski

Financial Analyst and President of the American Association of Individual Investors

John Bajkowski has spent more than 25 years at the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), an independent, nonprofit corporation that provides education and information to help individuals become effective managers of their own assets. He writes about selecting and analyzing stocks and serves on advisory committees of the Dividend Investing and Stock Superstars publications. He also served as product manager for Stock Investor, AAII's data and screening service. He has a bachelor's degree in finance and management from DePaul University.

Alan Beller

Senior Counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Alan Beller advises clients in and outside the U.S. on securities, corporate, and governance issues and was a co-author of the white paper published in 2010 by the Council of Institutional Investors regarding client directed voting. As Director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance and senior counselor to the Commission from January 2002 to February 2006, he oversaw the implementation of the corporate provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and securities offering reform. Mr. Beller is a member of the board of directors and audit and risk committees of The Travelers Companies and a member of the board of trustees of the IFRS Foundation.

John Endean

President of the American Business Conference

John Endean heads the American Business Conference (ABC), founded by Arthur Levitt in 1981 as a nonpartisan coalition of chief executives of fast-growing, midsize American companies. Mr. Endean works with ABC members to formulate and communicate the group's policy positions to promote economic growth. He previously worked in the Washington office of CBS, Inc. Mr. Endean is a magna cum laude graduate of Williams College and holds advanced degrees in history and American Studies from Yale University, where his research focused on the intellectual foundation of New Deal policies toward business.

Lawrence Hamermesh

Ruby R. Vale Professor of Corporate and Business Law at Widener Law Delaware

Lawrence Hamermesh teaches business organizations, securities regulation, and professional responsibility. He practiced law at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1976 to 1994. Since 1995 Professor Hamermesh has been a member of the Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association. He is the Reporter for the Corporate Laws Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law and from January 2010 to June 2011, he was senior special counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, where he provided advice on matters of state corporate law.

Cornish F. Hitchcock

Principal, Hitchcock Law Firm PLLC

Con Hitchcock has advised and represented investors on a range of corporate governance issues for more than 30 years and also has worked with several Internet start-up companies. Before starting his own firm in 1998, Mr. Hitchcock was a lawyer with Public Citizen Litigation Group. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a former member of the board of governors of the District of Columbia Bar. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Georgetown University Law Center.

Niels Holch

Partner, Holch & Erickson LLP

Niels Holch represents clients on a wide range of issues before the U.S. Congress and various federal agencies. He also serves as executive director of the Shareholder Communications Coalition and the Coalition of Mutual Fund Investors, both based in Washington, D.C. Before founding his current firm and a predecessor law firm, McGuiness & Holch, he was chief of staff and legislative director for U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Mr. Holch graduated magna cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University, receiving a B.A. in economics and psychology. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center.

James McRitchie

Publisher of CorpGov.net

James McRitchie has been a source of news and commentary for retail and institutional investors through CorpGov.net. He has had a long career with various California agencies, heading legislative, rulemaking, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance, workforce planning, small business development, and other functions. Mr. McRitchie also has served on the board of a grocer, a credit union, a food wholesaler, and various nonprofits.

Nell Minow

Co-Founder, The Corporate Library; Founder and Former Board Member, GMI Ratings

Nell Minow was co-owner and a member of the board of GMI Ratings, (formerly The Corporate Library, which she co-founded and chaired) until it was sold to MSCI in 2014. GMI is an independent research firm that evaluates governance risk and provides data and analysis on corporate boards and corporate governance. GMI's ratings of board effectiveness and accounting risk allow investors, insurers, and analysts to evaluate governance as an element of investment risk.

Robert Schifellite

President, Investor Communication Services, Broadridge Financial Solutions

Robert Schifellite has served in his current role since the ADP spinoff of Broadridge in 2007. He joined Broadridge in 1992 as head of client services and in 1995 was promoted to general manager. Mr. Schifellite was senior vice president and chief operating officer at the Independent Election Corporation of America, a company specializing in proxy communications that Broadridge acquired in 1992. Before that, he was a senior auditor with Deloitte & Touche. He is a Certified Public Accountant and has a bachelor's degree in accounting and an MBA in finance from Hofstra University.

Darla Stuckey

President and CEO of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals

Darla Stuckey joined the Society of Corporate Secretaries in 2009. She was senior vice president, policy and advocacy and later executive vice president and general counsel until assuming her new role in January 2015. Before joining the Society, she was the senior assistant secretary at American Express Company, serving its Nominating and Governance and Public Responsibility Committees and the boards of its two wholly owned subsidiary banks. Ms. Stuckey was the corporate secretary at the New York Stock Exchange from 2002-2004 and the assistant secretary from 2000-2002. She began her career in the securities litigation department at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. She has a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma Christian College, a master's from University of Oklahoma, and law degree from Brooklyn Law School.