David Baer

President and Founder
Ethos Business Law

David Baer is president and founder of Ethos Business Law, a leader and innovator in providing responsive, relevant legal services to dynamic, progressive companies through business-centric, proactive strategies and deep client commitment. As an award-winning attorney with strategic vision and broad-based background in corporate and business law, he draws on a wealth of experience from a successful legal career both as an attorney with a prestigious full-service law firm in Minneapolis, and as the Chief Legal Officer of a diverse holding company with numerous businesses, subsidiaries, and affiliates.

Mr. Baer holds a BA in Communications and Business, a JD, and an MBA, focusing on finance. A frequent speaker, presenter, and educator for businesses and seminars, he recently was named one of Minnesota Lawyers’ 15 Attorneys of the Year.

Rob Berick

Managing Director
Dix & Eaton

Robert G. Berick is Managing Director of Dix & Eaton, where he provides senior counsel and strategic planning in the area of investor relations, corporate communications, media relations, and issues management for public companies of all “market cap” sizes. A member of the firm’s Leadership Committee, he leads the firm’s investor relations practice.

Mr. Berick has a wealth of experience in helping companies navigate the flow of communications to internal and external publics during such transformational events as acquisitions, divestitures, or leadership transitions, as well as counseling companies during corporate/financial restructurings, proxy fights or shareholder activist issues. He is especially well-versed in assisting organizations going through an initial public offering.

Before joining Dix & Eaton in 2001, Mr. Berick was director of corporate communications and investor relations for Scott Technologies, Inc. (formerly Figgie International Inc.), where he designed and implemented a strategic communications program to reposition the company within the business and financial community. During his tenure at Scott, he also assisted management with the creation and implementation of a new corporate identity; introduced two new CEOs and their respective strategic visions and philosophies to internal and external audiences; served as the company’s primary spokesperson; and managed communications during such extraordinary corporate events as an unsolicited takeover attempt, a stock restructuring and several M&A transactions.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Berick was vice president and director of investor relations for Watt, Roop & Co., where he assisted companies in developing and implementing investor relations, media relations and marketing communications programs. He began his career in the New York office of Hill & Knowlton, Inc., where, as a member of the Financial Relations Division, he assisted such companies as The Readers Digest Association; The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P); Taubman Centers; Quanex Corporation; and Consolidated Natural Gas in implementing their investor relations programs.

Mr. Berick earned a bachelor’s degree in government from St. Lawrence University. A member of the National Investor Relations Institute, he serves on the board of The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio and the marketing committee of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Cleveland.

Cathy H. Conlon

Senior Director, Strategy & Business Development
Broadridge Financial Solutions

Cathy Conlon is Senior Director, Strategy & Business Development at Broadridge, where she helps manage the Corporate Issuer Market Strategy for the company’s Investor Communications Solutions division. As project manager for Virtual Shareholder Meeting, she was responsible for overseeing every aspect of the development of the product, including business requirements and development, technical integration, sales training, marketing launch, and client service issuers.

Ms. Conlon’s background includes sales, client service, and research for major brokerage firms and corporations. She earned her Master’s degree in Finance and her Bachelor’s in Economics from Catholic University in Washington DC.

Serena Ehrlich

Director of Social Programs, Start Up Army
President, NIRI Los Angeles Chapter

Serena Ehrlich is Director of Social Programs at Start Up Army and president of the NIRI Los Angeles Chapter. Her expertise lies in creating and implementing strategies to tap into the new and exciting social media revolution.

During her 14 years at Business Wire, Ms. Ehrlich worked closely with public and private companies, providing guidance on investor and public relations trends, marketing, product development, social media, SOX trends, XBRL, and trade show services. She has worked with some of the largest companies in North America including Alcon, Hasbro, Nortel, Walt Disney, Mattel, and Textron.

Ms. Ehrlich is chairman of the interim Social Media Club Board of Directors as well as a Senior Advisor for the international social network YoungPRPros, and is an eight-year Board Member for the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), first in Dallas and now in Los Angeles. She can be found on Twitter (@serena).

Elizabeth Gooding

President
Insight Forums

Elizabeth Gooding is president of Insight Forums, an analyst and consulting firm that establishes business communities for communications professionals in highly-regulated industries.

Previously, she founded Art Plus Technology and established the firm as a premier provider of communication strategy, design, and development services for the financial services industry. Her experience includes information and process design, technology assessment, RFP development and outsourcing evaluations. Ms. Gooding was the editor of e.bill magazine until 2002 and has written for a wide variety of industry publications on process design, cross-channel branding, electronic presentment, content management and technology convergence. Ms. Gooding has helped CIGNA (now Prudential Financial), Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price, among others, to streamline their business process, improve customer retention, and maximize new opportunities for document design, print and Internet technology.

Carl Hagberg

Chairman and CEO
Carl T. Hagberg and Associates

Carl Hagberg is the Chairman and CEO of Carl T. Hagberg and Associates, a firm he founded in 1992 that specializes in Shareholder Services and “Retail Investor Relations.“ He is also the editor and publisher of The Shareholder Service Optimizer, a quarterly newsletter he founded in 1994. Both businesses are dedicated to helping public companies – and their suppliers – deliver better and more cost-effective services to investors.

Mr. Hagberg is considered to be one of the country’s foremost experts on individual investors, on “affinity group” stock ownership programs, on annual meetings and the proxy-voting process, and on techniques and technologies that help to deliver better services to investors, even while reducing costs. He has also served as an expert consultant or expert witness in more than a dozen cases involving securities transfers, exchanges and tender offers, lost and restricted securities and proxy voting matters.

Mr. Hagberg is a panelist of the American Arbitration Association, a member of the American Society of Corporate Secretaries, now the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Officers, (a former National Treasurer and former president of the N.Y. chapter), the CTA, now the SSA, the National Investor Relations Institute, and the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals. He has also served as a mutual fund director and as a director of a California-chartered trust company.

He holds a B.A. in economics from NYU and a M.S. from the Columbia University School of Business.

Matt Kelly

Editor-in-Chief
Compliance Week

Matt Kelly has been editor of Compliance Week since January 2008, and has been working with the magazine in various editorial roles since 2004. During his tenure as editor, the publication has grown to more than 20,000 subscribers and became a "must read" among public company executives responsible for finance, legal, risk, audit, and compliance functions.

Mr. Kelly expanded Compliance Week's international coverage, recruiting expert writers in Japan, London, and throughout the EU. He also created numerous supplements on issues ranging from risk management to electronic discovery. Most recently, he directed the publication of Compliance Week's risk benchmarking reports, which tracked myriad risks – from restatements and internal control weaknesses to audit fees and enforcement and litigation – in nine major industries.

Prior to his role at Compliance Week, Kelly was a reporter and contributor on corporate compliance and technology issues for magazines such as Time, Boston Business Journal, eWeek, and numerous other publications. Earlier in his career, he was associate editor at Mass High Tech and a reporter at the Quincy Patriot-Ledger and at Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover, NH.

William Lutz

Former Deputy Director, Office of Interactive Disclosure
Securities and Exchange Commission

William Lutz is Director of the SEC’s 21st Century Disclosure Initiative and Deputy Director of the SEC Office of Interactive Disclosure. As an expert on plain language, he has worked with numerous corporations and government agencies and has served as an expert witness on language and plain language in legal proceedings. In 1998, he helped prepare the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Plain English Handbook.

Mr. Lutz is Professor Emeritus of English at Rutgers University. He holds a Ph.D. in English and a Doctor of Law degree. He served as editor of the Quarterly Review of Doublespeak for 14 years and is the author or co-author of seventeen books, including Doublespeak Defined; The New Doublespeak: Why No One Knows What Anyone's Saying Anymore; Doublespeak: From Revenue Enhancement to Terminal Living; and The Cambridge Thesaurus of American English. His articles on language have appeared in numerous publications.

Will Markunas

Vice President & Manager, Financial Printing Services
BNY Mellon Shareowner Services

Will Markunas is the Vice President and Manager of Financial Printing Services at BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, where he oversees the printing and SEC filings of communication materials on behalf of the company’s corporate issuers. He also manages the daily production process for its comprehensive Notice & Access Services, including the publishing of interactive Web sites for hosting proxy materials, fulfillment of shareholder requests, and the e-delivery of shareholder materials via email. He also is responsible for the printing and distribution of shareholder reports on behalf of the company’s investment management clients.

Prior to joining Shareowner Services, Mr. Markunas worked for a division of ADP (now Broadridge), managing and building an internal financial composition and SEC EDGAR filing department. Prior to joining ADP, he owned and operated his own financial printing services business for more than 10 years, working with many investment management companies in preparing shareholder reports for distribution and filing with the SEC. He was one of the original filing agents on the SEC’s EDGAR filing system when introduced in the early 1990s.

Education: Baruch College and NYU Graphic Services Program.

Jeff Morgan

President & CEO
National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI)

Jeff Morgan is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). In this role, he 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, Mr. 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).

Mr. Morgan is a member and Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives, and serves on the NYSE Individual Investors Advisory Committee. A Pennsylvania native, he holds a BS in Finance and Information Technology from Susquehanna University and a Masters Degree program in Nonprofit Management.

Mark Orlowski

Founder & Executive Director
Sustainable Endowments Institute

Mark Orlowski is Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Cambridge, MA-based nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices.

Mr. Orlowski heads a team that authors the Institute’s annual College Sustainability Report Card, which evaluates and grades key elements of sustainability at U.S. and Canadian universities. The Report Card, which has been reported on in Forbes Magazine and the New York Times, is designed to help schools learn from each other’s experiences and adapt campus and endowment sustainability policies that work.

Since the Institute’s founding as a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in 2005, Mr. Orlowski has spoken at more than 75 colleges in 30 states and at dozens conferences including the National Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit, and the Meeting of the Ohio Business Deans. He also has worked with students, faculty, administrators, and trustees at numerous schools on a range of sustainability initiatives. Mr. Orlowski also serves on the board of Proxy Democracy, a nonprofit Web site that brings transparency to corporate proxy voting.

Ronald M. Schneider

Director, Business Development
Proxy Solicitation and Meeting Services
BNY Mellon Shareowner Services

Ron Schneider has provided his extensive experience to public companies of all sizes that faced difficult and sensitive proxy solicitations involving compensation, corporate governance, shareowner activism and control issues. He has managed more than 1,500 proxy solicitations and 200 tender or exchange offers.

With success in greater than 76% of his more than 30 proxy fight assignments, he has among the highest winning percentages in the industry on behalf of clients facing such issues.

Mr. Schneider joined BNY Mellon Shareowner Services in 2000 as Senior Analyst in its proxy solicitation group. He was named Senior Manager for the group in 2002, and in 2004, he became Product Manager. In his current role, he serves his clients as senior consultant on proxy-related issues.

Mr. Schneider’s prior experience includes four years at The Financial Relations Board, 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, where he served as its first “Issuer Liaison” with responsibility for its relationships with issuer companies. Mr. Schneider also has 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.

Mr. Schneider earned a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University in 1978.

Glen Wittenberg

Vice President
Broadridge Financial Solutions

Glen Wittenberg is a Vice President with Broadridge Financial Solutions, where he manages a team of sales representatives that serve corporate issuers in the Central United States. In the 10 years he has been with Broadridge, has met with many issuers and has attended hundreds of annual meetings.

Mr. Wittenberg has spoken at many industry events through the Society of Corporate Secretaries, National Investor Relations Institute, Shareholder Services Association, and the Midwest Securities Transfer Association. Prior to working at Broadridge, he was an Account Executive with FedEx Corporation. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a degree in business administration.