Corporate Governance Awards
Celebrating excellence

Anna Catalano manages an active board portfolio, serving as an independent director for public and private corporations and not-for-profit organizations. She is currently a member of the board of directors of Willis Towers Watson, Kraton Corporation, HollyFrontier Corporation, Frontdoor and Appvion. Ms Catalano is a director of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Corporate Directors Institute, and president of the NACD Texas TriCities Chapter. She is co-founder of The World Innovation Network and has significant experience in the not-for-profit sector having served as a board member of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Houston Grand Opera.

With over 30years of corporate experience including 18 years of service on public boards, Ms Catalano is an expert on the topics of board governance and leadership, and an outspoken champion of women in business. Her extensive career spanned three continents in marketing, retail operations and international business development at Amoco and subsequently BP.

Ms Catalanois a graduate of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and has been recognized on Fortune’s ranking of ‘The Most Powerful Women in International Business,’ Directors and Boards’ ‘Directors to Watch,’ and Women Inc’s ‘Most Influential Board Directors.’ She is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics including board governance, leadership, innovation and the advancement of women in business. Her thoughts on various aspects of leadership can be found on her blog, www.shades-of-leadership.com.

Joan C. Conley is currently a Senior Advisor on Corporate Governance & ESG Programs at Nasdaq, Inc., a role she assumed in January 2021 and a Board Member.

In February 2021, Ms. Conley was elected to the Board of EJF Acquisition Corp., where she also serves as Chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee. In July, 2021, Ms. Conley was elected to the Board of Tigo Energy, a private company providing smart module technology for the solar industry. Ms. Conley also serves on the Advisory Board of Harvestly.co, an entrepreneurial initiative started by Cal Poly students focused on feeding the community by connecting local farmers and consumers in San Luis Obispo, California. Ms. Conley is a member of Executive Women on Boards (EWOB).

On December 31, 2020 Ms. Conley retired from her role as the Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Nasdaq, Inc., where she was responsible for the Nasdaq Global Corporate Governance Program and the Nasdaq Global Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program and the Nasdaq Educational Foundation following nineteen years at Nasdaq, Inc. and nineteen years at NASD, now FINRA.  In her former role at Nasdaq, Inc. Ms. Conley also served as and Managing Director of the Nasdaq Educational Foundation from 1994 – 2020 a founding Board Member of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center from 2014 – 2020. Ms. Conley is a long-standing mention of entrepreneurial men and women.

Prior to joining Nasdaq, Inc. in 2001, Ms. Conley was the Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary at the NASD (now FINRA) from 1994 – 2001 and the Director of Human Resources from 1986 – 1994, having joined NASD as a Management Trainee in the fall of 1982.

Ms. Conley began her career in 1978 as a Business/Human Resource Analyst at Bentley, Barnes & Lynn Advertising Agency in Chicago, Illinois, and in 1980 moved to Washington D.C. to join the National Academy of Science as a Research Associate/ Writer.

Ms. Conley holds a Master of Science, with honors, in Industrial & Labor Relations from Loyola University of Chicago (1980) and an undergraduate degree (B.A. in Communications and Economics from Dominican University (1978).

A longstanding member of the Society of Corporate Governance Professionals, Ms. Conley is also an initial member of the Advisory Board of the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Forum and a member of the Economic Club of Washington D.C.

In November 2020, Ms. Conley received the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for Corporate Governance and the 2020 Best Proxy Statement for a Large Cap Company Award by Corporate Secretary Magazine. In 2021, Ms. Conley will serve on the panel of judges reviewing submissions for the annual Corporate Governance Awards.

Ms. Conley has served for decades, on the Board and Audit Committees of several non-profit organizations in Washington D.C. including the Board of Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School.

Lucy oversees AIG’s global legal, compliance and regulatory groups. She is also global head of communications and government affairs.

Prior to joining AIG, Ms Fato was managing director, head of the Americas and general counsel of Nardello & Co, a global private investigative firm, where she remains on the advisory board.

Previously, Ms Fato was executive vice president and general counsel of S&P Global. Prior to that, Ms Fato was deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at Marsh & McLennan Companies. Ms Fato began her legal career at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell where she spent 14 years, including five as a partner in the capital markets group.

Ms Fato is a member of the Department of Financial Services state insurance advisory board and a member of the Life Insurance Council of NY board of directors.

Each year since 2018, Ms Fato has been included in NACD Directorship magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the boardroom community. In 2015 and 2017, she was named by Ethisphere magazine as one of the ‘Attorneys Who Matter’ for her dedication to furthering corporate ethics.

Ms Fato serves on the board of directors of Advocates for Children of New York, a non-profit organization that works to ensure a high-quality education for children who are at risk for school-based discrimination or academic failure. She also serves on the board of directors of the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation, the board of trustees of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance and is as a member of the board of the Coalition for the Homeless, the nation’s oldest advocacy and direct service organization helping homeless men, women and children.

Matthew W Geekie is senior vice president, secretary and general counsel at Graybar, an employee-owned Fortune 500 distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products. Over the course of his 34-year career, Matt has developed broad-based experience in management, strategic planning, corporate governance and risk management, human resources and M&A. His extensive educational background, proven leadership skills and strategic vision enable him to achieve optimal business results.

Matt began his career in 1987 as a trial attorney defending product liability lawsuits. He took his first in-house position with Siegel-Robert, a family-owned, tier-one supplier to the automotive industry in 1992. While at Siegel-Robert, Matt expanded his skill sets to include labor and employment, as well as M&A. Returning to private practice in 1997 at Peper Martin, Matt built on his M&A experience, began securities work and continued advising clients in the areas of employment and labor relations. In 2000, Matt moved to Emerson Electric as associate general counsel for the Emerson Process Management group of companies. At Emerson, he continued to hone his skills, while taking on responsibilities in corporate governance, export and import compliance and international law. In 2005, Matt became general counsel and secretary of a Berkshire Hathaway company, XTRA Lease, where he became involved in transportation and logistics.

Graybar hired Matt as its associate general counsel in February 2008 with the intent of his succeeding to his current role, which occurred within six months of his hire. In August of 2008, Matt was elected to Graybar’s board of directors and named senior vice president, secretary and general counsel. He sits on Graybar’s executive, audit, compensation, contributions, disclosure, finance, employees’ benefits and information technologies committees. In addition, Matt is chairman of the board of Graybar’s Canadian subsidiary.

Matt holds an undergraduate degree in history and a Juris Doctor, both from Saint Louis University. He has attended executive education and board training at Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Matt currently serves on the board of directors of CK Power, a private company that is a leading manufacturer of power units and power generation solutions, as well as the St Louis/Chicago advisory board of FM Global, a global insurer of commercial real estate.
Matt is a past president of the Saint Louis Zoo Association board of directors, currently siting on its government relations, investment and long-range plan implementation committees, as well as being a member of the zoo’s Marlin Perkins Society. He is also past chairman of the board of directors of the Oasis Institute, a current board member as well as a member of its executive, finance and major gifts committees. In addition, Matt is chairman of the board of the St Louis Community Foundation, chair of its executive and gift acceptance committees, and a member of its finance and audit committee. He is a member of Vistage Worldwide and a former president of the Missouri Law Institute.

Throughout his career Matt has written or spoken on various topics including corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, cyber-security and enterprise risk management.
Matt’s experience, business achievements and community involvement helped him earn several recognitions, including OnCon Icon Top 50 Corporate Counsel 2021, Missouri Lawyer’s Media In-House Counsel Award 2017 and the St Louis Business Journal’s Corporate Counsel Award for Innovation 2015. In addition, with Matt’s stewardship, Graybar has been recognized for its excellence in corporate governance by Corporate Secretary for Best Overall Corporate Governance for a Private Company in 2015, 2016, and 2018 and by Private Company Director Magazine in 2019 in the category of Fiduciary Board/Closely Held or Employee-Owned companies.

Ms. Kamerick consults and lectures on corporate governance and compliance matters and is an NACD Board Leadership Fellow and has completed the NACD Director Certification exam. She previously served as CFO of such leading companies as BP Amoco Americas, Leo Burnett, Heidrick & Struggles, and Houlihan Lokey.

She began her career as a lawyer at the law firm of Skadden Arps and she holds a JD and an MBA, with honors, in Finance and International Business from the University of Chicago. She holds a BA from Boston College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was valedictorian. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Associated Banc-Corp, AIG Funds, Hochschild Mining, plc, and 23 closed end Legg Mason mutual funds. She served on the Board of Directors for ServiceMaster and IRI before both companies were purchased by private equity firms. She qualifies as an SEC financial expert and chairs three audit committees and one corporate governance committee.

She was profiled as a Director to Watch in 2016 by Directors and Boards magazine and in The Board Game: How Smart Women Become Corporate Directors. She was named among the Most Influential Corporate Directors for 2019 by Women Inc magazine. She also serves on the National Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s Association.

She is a lecturer at University of Chicago Law School, Georgetown Law Center, and University of Iowa College of Law and for the NACD Battlefield to Boardroom board readiness program.

Ben Ashwell is the editor at IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary, covering investor relations, governance, risk and compliance. Prior to this, he was the founder and editor of Executive Talent, the global quarterly magazine from the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants. Before moving to the US, Ben was the vice president and editor at Executive Grapevine, overseeing a daily news website, ten annual supplements and HR Grapevine, the UK’s leading HR and talent management magazine. In his spare time, Ben writes fiction, poetry and arts and culture reviews. Eyewear Publishing recently named him in their list of the Best New British and Irish Poets.

Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Corporate Secretary, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. He had previously been managing editor of Compliance Reporter since January 2007, covering regulatory and compliance issues affecting broker-dealers and asset management firms. Before that, Ben was editor of International Financial Law Review and IFLR’s Americas editor, working in London and New York.