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 enjoys rock climbing and writing fiction and poetry.

For over 20 years, Amy has influenced companies and investors to advance sustainable business integration, performance, and disclosure at a global scale. As Director of ESG Investing at Boston Trust Walden, she oversees the firm’s ESG integration and active ownership strategies to promote greater corporate accountability through company dialogues, proxy voting, and public policy engagement. Amy serves on the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Investor Advisory Group, as well as the UN PRI’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDB) Advisory Committee and its Corporate Reporting Reference Group.

Previously, Amy was Senior Director at Ceres where she advised corporate executives on integrating sustainability into business strategies and decision-making and led a team bringing together companies, investors, and civil society experts in face-to-face dialogues to find smart business solutions to sustainability challenges. She also co-authored several reports and sustainability frameworks, including Turning Point: Corporate Progress on the Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability; Hidden in Plain Sight: Forced Labor in Supply Chains; and the Supplier Self-Assessment Questionnaire. Prior to joining Ceres, Amy worked at Calvert Investments for more than a decade, where she helped develop the Calvert Women’s Principles, the first global code of conduct focused on empowering, advancing, and investing in women worldwide, and its companion Gender Equality Principles’ Initiative.

As chief legal officer, Wendy Cassity is responsible for the oversight of all legal, corporate governance, intellectual property and regulatory activities across the company’s global operations.

Before joining Nuance in September 2018, she was general counsel of Zayo Group, a publicly traded communications infrastructure company, as well as general counsel of a publicly traded natural resources company. Previously, she was in private practice as a corporate transactional attorney at both McDermott Will & Emery LLP and Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP in their New York offices.

Wendy holds a BA from the University of Arizona in English and history and received her JD from Columbia Law School.

Douglas K. Chia is the sole owner and President of Soundboard Governance LLC and Fellow at the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law and Governance.  He is also an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law.

Mr. Chia was previously Executive Director of The Conference Board ESG Center and continues to contribute to The Conference Board as a Senior Fellow.  He is also an Advisor to Foresight BoardOps.

Before joining The Conference Board, Mr. Chia served as Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Johnson & Johnson.  Previously, he served as Assistant General Counsel, Corporate of Tyco International and practiced law at the global firms Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Clifford Chance in New York and Hong Kong.

Mr. Chia has held a number of central leadership positions in the corporate governance field, including Chair of the Board of the Society for Corporate Governance, President of the Stockholder Relations Society of New York, and member of the New York Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Commission.  He is currently a member of the Corporate Laws Committee of the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Ascend Pan-Asian Leaders.  Mr. Chia has received numerous awards and recognitions in corporate governance and has frequently appeared in the news media, including CNN, NPR Marketplace, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and The New Yorker.

Mr. Chia received an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College and a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.  Mr. Chia is a Trustee of the Historical Society of Princeton and the McCarter Theatre Center.  He lives with his wife and four children in Princeton, New Jersey.

Lucy leads AIG’s Global Legal, Compliance and Regulatory groups. She is also Global Head of Communications and Government Affairs, overseeing the company’s internal and external communications, public policy and sustainability efforts.

Prior to joining AIG, Ms. Fato was Managing Director, Head of the Americas & General Counsel of Nardello & Co., a global private investigative firm, where she remains on the Advisory Board.

Previously, Ms. Fato was Executive Vice President & General Counsel of McGraw Hill Financial (now known as S&P Global). Prior to joining McGraw Hill Financial, Ms. Fato was Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Marsh & McLennan Companies. Ms. Fato began her legal career at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell where she spent fourteen years, including five as a partner in the capital markets group.

Ms. Fato is a member of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) State Insurance Advisory Board and a member of the Life Insurance Council of NY (LICONY) 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, including directors, corporate governance experts, regulators and advisors. 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 on behalf of children who are at greatest risk for school-based discrimination and/or academic failure to ensure a high-quality education. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance, a non-profit organization that works with the City of New York and local communities to maintain the park for the wellbeing of all New Yorkers. Additionally, she serves 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.

Mr. Freed is widely respected as one of the leading figures in the money and politics space. Under his leadership, CPA the produces the annual CPA-Zicklin Index, which benchmarks the S&P 500 companies on their political disclosure and accountability policies and practices, and TrackYourCompany.org, a searchable, sortable database on company political spending. He helped develop the Center’s innovative strategy of using corporate governance to address the risks companies face from political spending. As a result of CPA’s efforts, political disclosure and accountability is recognized as the norm.

He draws on his long experience in journalism, on Capitol Hill, and in strategic public affairs. He speaks widely and co-authored major CPA reports including Collision Course and Conflicted Consequences, the first examinations of the heightened risks to companies of conflicted political spending. In addition, he co-authored The Conference Board Handbook on Corporate Political Activity and articles in the Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, Financial Times and Barron’s.

Mr. Freed has two adult children and lives in the Washington, D.C. suburbs with his wife and their West Highland White Terrier. He graduated from the University of Chicago and has an M.A. in American history from Brandeis University.

Kaley is the Director of Board Engagement at Nasdaq. Prior to Nasdaq’s acquisition of Center of Board Excellence (CBE) in October 2019, Kaley was CBE’s Vice President, Client Services, Business Development & Legal from September 2015 through 2019. In her current role, and under her role at CBE, Kaley advises boards and CEOs on corporate governance matters, board and director effectiveness, CEO and leadership evaluation and performance, board and management alignment, and compliance and risk matters. She works with public, private, and nonprofit organizations in a wide range of industries globally.  Prior to joining CBE, Kaley served as General Counsel of Clarolux LLC. Before beginning an in-house practice, she practiced law in New York City with a focus in real estate, banking law, and litigation. Prior to attending law school, Kaley served as Program Director of Jefferson County Teen Court.

Kaley is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Northside Charter High School in Brooklyn, NY, serves on the patient advisory board for a privately held pharmaceutical company, and serves as on the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Patient Safety Committee and Patient & Family Advisory Council. She served as Co-Chair of the CLE Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association Corporate Counsel Section from 2015 through 2017. Kaley founded and served on the Board of Directors of YP Civitan of Greensboro from 2013 through 2016. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in Political Science from Samford University and a Juris Doctor from Pace University School of Law. Kaley is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.

Todd Krauser joined FW Cook in 2015 and has 20 years of executive compensation consulting experience working with compensation committees and senior management teams. Todd works closely with his clients to ensure their executive compensation programs are responsible to shareholders and support the company’s short and long-term business strategy.

Todd’s areas of expertise include pay strategy development; incentive plan design; performance measurement linkages; governance and regulatory issues; CD&A disclosure; equity share plan authorizations; and non-employee Director pay.

He has advised companies of all sizes in a variety of industries, including health care, consumer brands, REITs, restaurants, banking and technology. Todd has also consulted on compensation issues for privately held companies as well as companies with special circumstances such as IPOs, joint ventures and spin-offs.

Todd has spoken on executive compensation related topics for national and regional industry groups. Recent presentations, articles and research reports have covered topics such as “Diving Deeper into the Evaluation of Executive Compensation Plans,” “Tools and Techniques for Aligning Pay and Performance,” “Trends and Best Practices,” and “Director Compensation”.

Jonas is Trillium’s Chief Advocacy Officer. With over fifteen years of experience in shareholder advocacy, Jonas is responsible for leading and coordinating Trillium’s extensive advocacy program, which works to engage companies on their environmental and social performance. His advocacy work includes direct communications with company leadership, investor education and awareness, shareholder proposals, and public policy advocacy at the municipal, state, and federal levels.

As a recognized legal expert in the field and a leader in shareholder advocacy, Jonas regularly represents Trillium in the media, at public events, and with clients. Jonas currently serves as the Secretary of the US SIF board and as co-chair of the organization’s public policy committee. Prior to joining Trillium, Jonas was an environmental attorney and public defender as well as outside counsel to many socially responsible investment organizations. Jonas holds J.D. and masters degrees from Vermont Law School.

Ben Maiden is the editor-a-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.

Sherry Moreland is President and Chief Operating Officer for Mediant. Joining the company in 2007 as Director of Issuer Services, she brings more than 30 years of industry experience in broker/dealer operations, mutual fund processing, shareholder services operations, and retirement plan administration, among other functions to the role. Ms. Moreland previously served as Mediant’s Chief Operating Officer, managing operations and performance for the company’s fast-growing services to banks, brokers, corporate issuers and mutual funds. Prior to that role, she was Vice President and Senior Operations Manager for First Union’s Corporate Trust Group (now Wachovia), and Assistant Vice President of Operations for Reliance Trust Company. She also held positions at Primerica Financial Services in Operations and Customer Service. Ms. Moreland holds a BA in political science from University of Georgia, and serves on the Board of Visitors at its School of Public and International Affairs. Throughout her career Ms. Moreland has served on and chaired several industry and corporate committees and taskforces.

Veena leads Ceres’ work on critical market levers that will help scale the transition to sustainable capital markets. This includes governance systems that companies should put in place at the corporate board level to allow for effective board sustainability oversight. She also oversees Ceres work to engage financial regulators on climate change as a systemic risk, under the umbrella of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. Veena is the author of the 2020 Ceres report, Addressing Climate as a Systemic Risk: A call to action for US Financial Regulators, which makes the case that climate change poses systemic risk to US financial markets, and outlines over 50 action steps that financial market regulators can take to address this risk. Veena has also authored and co-authored a number of reports on board sustainability governance including View from the top: How corporate boards can engage on sustainability performance (2015), Lead from the top: Building sustainability competence on corporate boards (2017), Systems Rule: How board governance can drive sustainability performance (2018), Getting Climate Smart: A primer for corporate directors in a changing environment (2018) and Running the Risk: How Corporate Boards Can Oversee Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Issues (2019).

Katie Sevcik is executive vice president and chief operating officer of EQ, where she leads a team of over three hundred professionals in executing transactions for shareholders in some of the most recognized global brands. Katie has more than 30 years of experience in the securities industry, including transfer agent services, bank trust operations and mutual fund operations. Current industry involvement includes co-chair of the Securities Transfer Association (STA) Operations Committee, director of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Corporate Actions Section, chair of the legal and regulatory committee of the Shareholder Services Association (SSA), member of DTCC’s Asset Services Advisory Board, chairperson of the industry’s DRS Guidelines Committee and a member of the DTCC/TA/Broker Working Group. She is a past director of the SSA, past vice president and treasurer of the STA and past co-chair of the SIFMA Corporate Actions Payments/Physical Securities Working Group.

Katie received the Charles P. Vanek President’s Award from the STA and the President’s Award from the SSA for her outstanding service and meritorious achievement in the securities industry.

Prior to her involvement in the stock transfer industry, Katie worked with the mutual fund industry on automating mutual fund processing for the trust environment. She was a member of the Investment Company Institute’s (ICI) Trust and Bank Broker/Dealer Advisory Committee, a member of the ICI’s Defined Contribution Clearing Task Force; and Chairperson of the ICI’s Trust Processing Task Force, which developed the industry’s automated mutual fund processing system.

Katie has a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota.

Derek Windham is currently Vice President, Associate General Counsel at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, leading the Corporate, Securities, and Finance legal team.  Prior to that, he was Vice President, Securities and Executive Compensation at Del Monte Corporation, after having served as corporate counsel at the firms of Morrison & Foerster, O’Melveny & Myers, and Shearman & Sterling.  He received his J.D. From Harvard Law School in 2002, and B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1999.