People

Brad DuPree, a long-term and much-liked salesperson at Wells Fargo Shareowner Services and, briefly, at newish owner EQ, has been named Director - Business Development at proxy solicitor and advisor Morrow Sodali….adding to the number of industry veterans they have been steadily adding to their team over the past year.

David Dixon, long one of the top salespeople at Wells Fargo Shareowner Services - and one of the best known, most admired and best-connected people in the shareholder servicing community - and at EQ - departed in late January to search for greener pastures elsewhere. A huge loss to EQ, we have to say, and we will be very much looking forward to Dave’s next move.

Di Costa Partners, a strategic advisory and proxy solicitation company focused exclusively on mutual funds, ETFs & closed-end funds and a subsidiary of Morrow Sodali announced the addition of Nicholas Nichols as Managing Director. Nick will be responsible for developing new business opportunities and creating customized solutions for customers in the registered funds space. Prior to joining DCP, Nick was Vice President of the Risk and Compliance Intelligence Group at DST (now SS&C). Previously, he was Chief Operating Officer at KEANE, a leading provider of unclaimed property communications, compliance and consulting services.

He spent over a decade working at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where his focus was mergers, acquisitions and process reengineering activities.

Carol J. Ward, Esq., a former Corporate Secretary at Cigna, Kraft Foods, and most recently, at Mondelez - a former Chair of the Society for Corporate Governance and the recent, and most deserving recipient of Corporate Secretary Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Carol is based in Chicago.

Maria Rizzuti, a former Assistant Secretary at now merged-away Aetna, who smoothly and brilliantly managed their big shareholder meetings for over 10 years, Maria is based in Hartford, Connecticut.

Suzan (Sam) Miller, Esq., - a 12-year veteran and former Corporate Secretary of Intel, who now has her own governance and strategic consulting practice, Miller Consulting Services, a firm she founded in 2018, to work with startups, later-stage companies, and nonprofits as a business, governance and legal consultant, executive coach, and strategic partner, Sam is based in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Anne Bruner, Esq., - based in Houston, recently retired as the former senior counsel and the primary legal advisor to the Financial Reporting, Investor Relations and Executive Compensation groups at Anadarko Petroleum, where she was also responsible for the company’s shareholder meetings - to stay in Houston following Anadarko’s merger with Occidental.

Phillip Allbritten, Esq., who recently retired after a 30-year legal career from Atmos Energy in Dallas as Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary, where he managed their shareholder meeting, and who is now based in his native Oklahoma. Phil is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Rhonda Brauer, one of the best known and most highly regarded people in the Corporate Governance space, has joined the Sustainalytics Engagement Services team - which the firm has been rapidly building out since its acquisition of GES in January 2019. She will work out of the firm’s New York office as the Director of Engagement Services for North America.

Karen Danielson, Manager of Shareowner Services at The Coca-Cola Company, and one of the hardest working, most innovative - and most totally delightful people we know, was honored by the Shareholder Services Association with the Tony Fireman Award - the SSA’s highest honor, at the SSA’s holiday luncheon in NYC on Dec. 5th. Karen is scheduled to retire from Coke in mid-2020…and what a loss to them - AND to the SSA. Although we hear that she has well-developed plans for travel, and for a very exciting and totally different second-career, we are hoping that some ways will be found to keep her “engaged” with our industry…

Amy Borrus, currently the deputy director of the Council of Institutional Investors, will succeed Ken Bertsch as executive director when he retires in August 2020. The board made the decision well in advance of Mr. Bertsch’s retirement to “ensure a seamless leadership transition,” it said in a news release.

Ms. Borrus joined CII as deputy director in 2006 and served as interim executive director from June 2015 to March 2016 — at which point Mr. Bertsch started as executive director, following a highly distinguished career in the corporate governance world, including high-level assignments at Moody’s, CamberView Partners and as a former President of the Society for Corporate Governance.

Former U.S. Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has rejoined the Washington office of law firm Wilmer Hale, where, in addition to his former work - conducting internal investigations for large companies - he will also focus on assessing how organizations function, and whether they are prepared for potential crises, according to a Wilmer Hale spokesperson. It would be hard to imagine a person with a stronger intellect, work ethic, passion for excellence and, above all, the integrity that Mueller will bring to bear in such matters.

Industry veteran Patrick Tracey - who had moved from Computershare to Carta (a provider of services to non-public companies) a year ago - has signed on as Director of Business Development at proxy solicitor and advisor Morrow Sodali. A wonderful fit for Pat, who is a new business developer and business maintainer par excellence, a big loss to Carta, which seems to have trimmed back its original plans to compete in the suddenly over-crowded public-company T-A world - and a very big win for Morrow Sodali. (Full disclosure, your editor in chief hired Pat away from Morrow in the 1980s, to help launch the entry of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. into the then-booming business of “converting” Mutually-Owned Banks and Thrifts into shareholder-owned entities. Despite a very belated entry, Manny Hanny quickly grew into the top-provider of “Thrift Conversions” and the subsequent transfer agency services by a huge margin, and where Pat played a major role in the success.)

T. Boone Pickens, the legendary corporate raider and greenmailer who, in the 1980s, in quick succession - used his mid-sized Mesa Petroleum Company to launch hostile takeovers against Cities Service, Gulf Oil, Phillips Petroleum and Unocal - passed away in September at 91. While all of his takeover efforts failed to be consummated, he made over $900 million in “greenmail payments” for himself and his associates…then moved on to found the United Shareholders Association (USA) to lobby for more rights for individual investors - and to accuse big business of “misappropriating your money.” Your editor will never forget the times the old Manny Amy Borrus and Ken Bertsch.

Hanny’s T-A department lent desks and phones to both Phillips and Unocal brass, to make calls to shareholders in the early evenings, urging them to turn Boone down. Equally unforgettable was the big launch of USA - in the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel in D.C. - where an overflowing roomful of business folks paid $500 a ticket for a drink and a speech, while Boone’s richest investors were wined and dined in high style for three full days, for free. Ultimately, USA (and Ralph Whitworth - originally Boone’s young go-fer) quite properly denounced him - for using the very tactics he railed against to defend against a takeover of Mesa - which ultimately ousted him. A quote from Forbes magazine in the NY Times obit summed his style up neatly: “I have always believed that it is important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.” A truly unique and unforgettable character!

David Smith, who served nearly 20 years (1991 - 2001) as President & CEO of the Society of Corporate Secretaries (…and Governance Professionals, as its name was amended later in his career) passed away peacefully and surrounded by his family in early December, his youngest son Jenner reported, following an 18 month illness. David was a wonderful friend and mentor to many Society members, and a truly kind, caring and collegial man - who was an active leader at the Church of St. James the Less in Scarsdale NY for many years and who led the Society with distinction. Most important to note, David was one of the very first people to realize that the corporate governance movement was not just a threat to the “old Society” - but also presented the biggest opportunity ever in terms of new opportunities for career advancement, much greater visibility and importance, where Society members were concerned. David was the 2011 honoree at the annual End of Annual Meeting Celebration and Benefit for Fountain House and Fountain Gallery, sponsored annually by the greater NY financial services industry. Here’s a link to the video, where David’s gracious and typically modest comments begin about minute 6.3 or so: https://youtu.be/zHb7gqlPox4?t=6m49s

Gretchen Morgenson, the inimitable, Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter, has left the New York Times, after a 20-year stint. For a quick review of her past efforts to report much-needed corrections of marketplace practices - including her prize-winning coverage of the 2001 period of bubble investing - see the January 9, 2009 interview in Columbia Journalism Review‘s The Audit; “You’ve got to keep hammering” and her farewell column in the Dec. 12^th New York Times, “Reflections of a Truth Seeker.” Happily, for fans of Ms. Morgenson’s rock’em sock’em reporting style, she will be continuing her work as senior special writer on the Wall Street Journal‘s investigative team.

Renee Walton, who most recently served as Publisher & Director of Sales at IR Media Group, the publisher of Corporate Secretary Magazine, joined the Society for Corporate Governance in January as Director, Sponsorship and Strategic Relationships. She will “support [the Society’s] sponsorship efforts while developing new ways to partner with our service providers to benefit our Society members…. Renee’s expertise and extensive industry relationships make her well-positioned for the exciting challenges of this new role,” the Society noted, and we could not agree more wholeheartedly

The Society release also announced the appointment of Andrew Fitzsimons, “who joins as Senior Director, Administration & Human Resources…and who comes to the Society with over twenty years of legal administration management experience - first at Prudential Financial and then at Bank of New York Mellon. Andrew most recently served as Chief of Staff/CAO to BNY Mellon’s legal department [and] will be responsible for the human resources and financial functions, audit committee support, certification project management and other strategic initiatives. He started his career at Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Crown Prosecution Service in the U.K., following his graduation from Harlington College in England.”

“As the Society welcomes Andrew and Renee, we say goodbye to Olga Holmes, the Society’s Human Resources and Operations Director, who will retire in January after serving the Society for 21 years in several capacities.” Olga supported a total of five Society Presidents, according to their year-end release, and most ably so. We wish her the very best in her retirement.

Martin Glotzer, a very long-term and sometimes long-winded but always genial and polite serial-shareholder meeting-attender - aka “gadfly,” as he was OK, and even proud of being called - died in February, in Chicago, at 89. His devoted wife Pearl, a truly delightful gadfly with an unforgettable “show-business-like” persona, passed away a few months later, in July, at 88 - leaving two children and three grandchildren. Marty was especially proud of being one of the first “corporate raiders” - the very first, he claimed - having wrested away the management and control of the Cincinnati Union Stockyards Corporation in a proxy fight, way back in the 1970s. For some early photos of the Glotzers in action, go to https://www.optimizeronline.com/article/103133/the-original-shareholder-activists-and-the-founders-of-the-modern-corporate-go

Daniel Dixon - the son of Dave Dixon - currently one of Wells Fargo Bank’s top sales-stars in its Shareowner Service Group, who will surely be a super-nova for Equiniti too - recently signed with the Boston Celtics top development team, the Maine Red Claws. All of Dave’s many fans are rooting for imminent stardom for Daniel - a recent William & Mary grad who has been averaging 13 points per game. So if you get NBA TV, tune in the Maine Red Claws, enjoy the action, and root like mad for Daniel….

Keane UP names Kevin Ryan as Chief Executive Officer: Prior to being named as CEO, Ryan served, since 2014, as Keane’s Chief Financial Officer. “Kevin positions Keane for sustained growth and success. He has a proven ability to understand the business at a deeper level and drive results,” said Robert Belke, Chairman of Keane’s Board of Directors. “Through Kevin’s operational leadership and financial acumen, Keane saw record revenues in 2016 for its unclaimed property reporting division and continued expansion within its National Consulting & Advisory Services Group. We’re confident that Kevin’s strategic vision and leadership will allow Keane to strengthen and grow the services we deliver in a continuously regulated industry” the April 5th Press Release noted.

William H. Hinman, who recently retired as a partner in the Silicon Valley office of Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, LLP has been named as the new director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. “Bill is widely recognized for his judgment and expertise in the area of corporate finance. He also is a proven leader, mentor, and counselor. I know the SEC and the people it serves will benefit greatly from his valuable experience,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton in the SEC’s press release. “He has spent the last 37 years working in our public and private markets, and he understands the SEC’s mission to promote capital formation while ensuring that investors have the information necessary to make informed decisions.”

Michael Goedecke, a securities industry veteran based in California - formerly with the Harris Trust and later the BNY-Mellon transfer agency sales teams, then as the West Coast sales rep for NASDAQ - has signed on with Broadridge Financial Solutions as a T-A sales rep. A really fine and knowledgeable guy.

Richard Ferlauto, one of the pioneers of the corporate governance movement and a leading spokesman for “socially responsible investment” passed away in his sleep on May 8th, at 60 years of age. A true innovator, and one of the most thoughtful and respected voices in the industry, Rich began his career as a community organizer and affordable housing activist. After an 11 year stint at ISS, he worked for union rights and rose to the position of Director of Corporate Governance and Pension Investments for AFSCME(American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees). He also helped launch the Office of Investments of the AFL-CIO, after which he served for several years as a Deputy Director at the SEC. Most recently, Rich co-founded the 50/50 Climate Project which persuades corporate boards to respond to the challenges of climate change. The OPTIMIZER was pleased and proud to have interviewed Rich for its 2008 Special Supplement: Still highly relevant and a wonderful demonstration of Rich’s ability to articulate complex and often controversial issues in a clear, well reasoned and non-confrontational manner. Here’s a link to the interview:

https://www.optimizeronline.com/search/article/100631/we-are-looking-for-fundamental-changes-to-the-corporate-governance-playing-fiel

Dan Fahey, a former Bank of Boston transfer agent veteran, then an investment advisor, who frequently volunteered time and talent to help senior citizens in his Boston-area community, then a wonderful and meticulous Inspector of Election for CT Hagberg LLC, passed away peacefully in his sleep in April, after ten courageous months dealing with glioblastoma. Dan will be greatly missed by family, friends, colleagues, clients and fellow citizens, who turned out in force, we are told, for a joyful memorial service in his hometown.

Wilton Davila, an abandoned property expert who has done stints at Ryan, Laurel Hill and Georgeson is now a Principal at Assets Reunited LLC.

David Cary, based in Texas and a former Inspector of Election for CT Hagberg LLC, and earlier, a former employee of UPPR, is now a Senior Relationship Manager at American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC. A great addition for AST, who will be missed at CTH LLC.