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.

Mr. Evan Barth is Senior Counsel in the Corporate & Securities Group at IBM. Mr. Barth works on a wide range of corporate and securities matters, including legal support for the IBM board of directors, proxy disclosure, shareholder engagement, and general corporate governance matters. Mr. Barth is the President of the Fairfield-Westchester Chapter of the Society for Corporate Governance. Prior to joining IBM in 2008, Evan was an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in the Capital Markets and Executive Compensation and Benefits practice groups and in the Capital Markets practice group at Loeb & Loeb LLP.

Mr. Barth holds a B.S. in Management from Binghamton University and a J.D. from NYU School of Law.

Andrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow. Founded in 1992, As You Sow is the nation’s leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. Shareholders are a strong, powerful force for creating positive, lasting change in corporate behavior. As You Sow uses that power, to change corporations for good — engaging corporations; educating individual and institutional investors about proxy power; and promoting alignment of investments with values. He is on the board of the US Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing (US-SIF); the advisory boards of Real Impact Tracker and 1-Earth Institute. His book, The Shareholders Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable was published in November 2016 by Berrett-Koehler.

Joyce is an experienced independent director and former Global Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) executive, with expertise in finance, ESG, strategy, fintech, cybersecurity, innovation, and regulatory compliance. The breadth and depth of her experience is anchored in executive and board leadership positions in private corporations and science-based research nonprofits. Joyce has led initiatives which create organization-wide change in P&L structure and accountability. She serves on the Board of Sunrise Banks, NA, serving on the Finance & Audit, and Compliance & BSA (Bank Secrecy Act) committees. Sunrise Banks provides innovative services such as commercial real estate lending & leasing, and Fintech partnerships, where cybersecurity is key to business growth and resiliency.

Joyce has a track record of being a leader and entrepreneur in large private corporations, and within regulated industries, where compliance is a core enterprise risk. Being instrumental in leading transformation in businesses in banking and manufacturing industries, characterizes her career.

As a former scientific language, computer programmer, Joyce is skilled at combining people, processes, and governance to create value.

Joyce is the lead author on the “Why is ESG Material?” article, published by Directors & Boards Magazine (April 2020) and re-distributed in the Weekly Governance Alert (May 2020), Council of Institutional Investors.

Patrick Foley is Securities Counsel at General Motors Company. He takes a lead role in all aspects of GM’s SEC reporting, securities offerings, investor relations, and corporate governance activities, and he supports the preparation and filing of GM’s proxy statement and the holding of its annual meeting. Prior to joining GM, he spent six years as an Associate in the Capital Markets and Public Company Representation practice groups at Latham & Watkins LLP in Chicago, where he advised public company clients on a variety of securities-related matters, including debt and equity capital markets transactions, public company reporting, proxy and annual meeting activities, corporate governance, shareholder activism, and public company M&A. Patrick received his JD / MBA from Indiana University, and he also holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from The George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Michigan State University.

Yonni Fushman is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary. He holds executive responsibility for managing a broad portfolio of corporate services for the Aecon group of companies, including legal, corporate secretarial, sustainability, ethics and compliance, insurance and bonding, and project support. Prior to joining Aecon in 2005, Mr. Fushman practiced law in the United States. Mr. Fushman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in Economics from the University of Southern California in 1997 and a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law in 2001. He is called to the bar in Ontario, California and Massachusetts.

Mr. Fushman is Past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association’s Construction and Infrastructure Law section and a member of the Governance Committee of North York Arts.

Laurie Havelock is a freelance journalist, writer and podcaster who has been working on financial titles for more than 5 years, dabbling with commercial property finance, responsible investment and investor relations as his main areas of focus.

Outside of that he also writes about music, with a predilection for independent and emerging artists, has worked on a number of comedy projects, including a podcast he makes with musical comedian Paddy Gervers called Podshambles, and hosts a weekly show on Shoreditch Radio.

Laurie has been published in the Independent, the Guardian and Q Magazine.

Alexandra Higgins is a Managing Director at Okapi Partners providing strategic counsel to corporate clients and their advisors with a focus on governance and compensation issues, as well as other ESG concepts.

Alex has over 15 years of experience in corporate advisory and governance roles. Prior to joining Okapi Partners, she served as VP and Head of U.S. Partner Advisory Services at Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) Corporate Solutions, where she managed advisory services for U.S. professional services firms on ISS policy, corporate governance issues, equity plan disclosure, and shareholder activism.

Alex also spent time as a reporter for CQ Roll Call, where she covered corporate governance regulation and activist investor campaigns. She began her career as an executive compensation analyst and research associate at The Corporate Library for six years before its merger with GMI Ratings, where she ultimately spent another four years advising law firms on corporate governance matters related to securities litigation.

In 2008, Alex was named a Rising Star of Corporate Governance by the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern Maine.

Arielle maintains a diverse capital markets and corporate governance practice. Industry exposure includes consumer products, technology, medical devices, educational services, energy, transportation, satellite, media, pharmaceuticals, specialty finance vehicles, insurance and waste management.

Arielle advises domestic and foreign clients (ranging from early-stage growth companies to seasoned issuers) on governance, compliance and disclosure matters regarding ongoing operations, implementation of best practices, strategic initiatives, restructuring, and risk/crisis management.

Arielle also serves as counsel to issuers, underwriters, selling stockholders and investors, in public and private securities transactions. Experience includes IPOs, debt offerings, equity and debt tender offers, venture financing, consent solicitations, exchange offers, spin-offs, M&A, restructurings, private placements, block trades, redemptions, PIPE deals, MJDS registration, follow-on offerings, secondary offerings, commercial paper programs, leveraged finance and at-the-market offering programs. These cross-border and domestic transactions involve a range of instruments: debt (secured and unsecured, high yield, investment grade, retail notes, sovereign securities/GDNs and Eurobonds), equity (common stock, preferred stock and ADRs), convertible securities (preferred stock, notes, and warrants) and subscription rights.

Karen has worked for 20+ years as a senior stakeholder engagement executive supporting management teams and Boards in Canada and the UK, most recently as Senior Vice President, Investor Relations at Aimia. She has led investor relations across three sectors for multi-listed, globally-focused companies, and has had responsibility for Communications and Corporate Responsibility.

In addition to managing 45 reporting events, 12 annual reporting cycles, 14 AGMs and special meetings and 5 investor days, Karen has helped Boards and management teams navigate strategy changes, capital raising, M&A due diligence and integration, board and management changes, capital allocation decisions, and shareholder activism.

Ben Kruse is director of global ESG reporting & insights at AT&T. He is responsible for AT&T’s corporate responsibility reporting strategy, including alignment to leading ESG reporting standards and frameworks, and collaboration with major rating and ranking organizations. In addition to optimizing AT&T’s proactive non-financial reporting systems and performance, Ben’s team works to apply key learnings and best practice benchmarks from the reporting process, to advance corporate policy and programmatic impact. His team also leads AT&T’s biennial CSR stakeholder engagement process, to stay abreast of leading and emerging issues, and to inform the company’s long-term strategy and goal setting. Ben has nearly 22 years of experience at AT&T, with a diverse background in sales, marketing, and public affairs leadership. He holds an undergraduate degree in marketing and international business from Kansas State University, and a Master of Business Administration in marketing from the University of Kansas.

Nicolai Lundy is the Director of Partnerships & Market Outreach, where he identifies opportunities for professionals in finance, investment analysis, and sustainability to benefit from SASB’s research on material ESG factors across 77 industries. In doing so, he oversees SASB’s membership, conference, and education programs as well as licensing and the SASB Navigator. Before joining SASB in 2013, Mr. Lundy had business development and operations roles in the private sector and higher education. He holds a BA from Emory University.

Jessica oversees coverage of companies within the Industrials and Materials sectors in the US and Canada for the BlackRock Investment Stewardship team, where she is responsible for engaging with public company management teams and boards of directors on material ESG risk factors on behalf of BlackRock’s clients. She is also responsible for voting BlackRock’s shares at these companies’ annual meetings. A key focus area within her sectors includes the assessment of climate-related risk, in the context of a company’s long-term outlook and broader considerations for a transition to a lower-carbon economy. Jessica also regularly engages on topics such as governance, compensation, board composition, human capital management, activism, M&A, and strategy.

Jessica brings over ten years of experience in financial services; before joining BlackRock, she was an analyst on the Stewardship and Corporate Governance team at TIAA. Prior to working at TIAA, Jessica provided financial planning to wealth management clients. Jessica began her career at Moxy Vote (TFS Capital), a start-up focused on proxy voting and retail shareholder advocacy efforts.

Jessica is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and holds various securities licenses. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in English.

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).

Veena has been interviewed in a number of corporate governance publications around governance for sustainability, including in the Cover Story of the 2017 Fall Edition of C Suite Magazine. Her work has been featured by NACD, Corporate Secretary, Pensions and Investment, CQ Roll Call, Marketwatch, Ethical Boardroom, GreenBiz, Huffington Post, Environmental Leader and Responsible Investor.

From 2006 to 2015, Veena managed the relationships with a wide portfolio of Ceres Company Network members, including the financial services sector and the electric power sector. Veena worked with boards and senior company management on opportunities to integrate sustainability into their business structures and decision making, including policy and program development, disclosures and stakeholder engagement processes. Prior to Ceres, Veena worked as a management consultant with CDM, an environmental consulting firm and focused on providing a variety of sustainability services to clients in the public and private sectors. Veena also spent three years with Integrative Strategies Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization working on developing national and international policy solutions on sustainable development, building consensus and coalitions among civil society groups on these issues and lobbying government representatives. Before that, Veena practiced law in India.

Veena received a Masters in Law degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.A. LL.B (Honors) degree from National Law School from India University, Bangalore.

Mr. Huub Savelkouls is Philip Morris International’s Chief Sustainability Officer — responsible for incorporating and overseeing implementation of all things sustainability and impact into our transformation and corporate strategy.

Mr. Savelkouls was PMI’s Vice President of Economic and Social Affairs in 2018, VP of Value Chain Transformation & Sustainability in 2017, and before that, Vice President of Strategic Policy Initiatives. After joining the company in 1994, he worked extensively across regions on fiscal and economic matters.

Prior to joining PMI, Mr. Savelkouls worked for NATO as a scientist at its Undersea Research Center in Italy. In October 2018, Mr. Savelkouls was appointed member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)’s Standards Advisory Group. Mr. Savelkouls holds a degree in Business Econometrics from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Ron joined the DFIN Global Capital Markets group as Director of Corporate Governance Services in April, 2013. He is responsible for providing thought leadership on emerging corporate governance, proxy and disclosure issues.

Over the past four decades, Ron has advised senior management, the C-suite and boards of public companies of all sizes, industries and stages of growth facing investor activism, as well as challenging and sensitive proxy solicitations involving corporate governance, compensation and control issues.

His primary recent focus has been helping companies conduct engagement programs with their top institutional investors with the objective of identifying and addressing investor concerns through best practices in proxy disclosure.

At DFIN, Ron works closely with clients and our firm’s sales and service teams to identify and implement appropriate changes to proxy statement design, content and navigation that fit each client’s unique corporate culture and proxy-related objectives.

During his career he has managed more than 1,600 proxy solicitations, 200 tender or exchange offers and 30 proxy contests, with his proxy fight clients succeeding in over 70% of such situations.

Ron’s prior experience includes three years at AST Phoenix Advisors and nine years at BNY Mellon, providing thought leadership on regulatory changes and emerging best practices, and advising clients on proxy, governance and activism issues. Prior to that, Ron spent four years at The Financial Relations Board (FRB), a leading investor relations agency, where he managed its proxy solicitation, corporate governance and stock surveillance practice. Before that, he was a consultant to major proxy intermediary ADP Investor Communication Services (now known as Broadridge), where he served as its first “Issuer Liaison” with responsibility for its relationships with issuer companies. Earlier in his career, Ron 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.

Ron earned a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.

Dottie Schindlinger is Executive Director of the Diligent Institute, the think tank and research arm of Diligent Corporation, leading provider of secure corporate board communication and collaboration software used by over 650,000 directors and executives globally.  In her role, Dottie provides thought leadership on governance, cybersecurity, and technology topics through presentations to boards and executives dozens of times each year at events around the globe.  Her work has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and in multiple governance and technology publications including Corporate Board Member Magazine, Trustee Magazine, Corporate Secretary Magazine, Execranks, CSO Online, and Dark Reading.  She is co-author of the book, Governance in the Digital Age: A Guide for the Modern Corporate Board Director, ©2019, John Wiley & Sons, and she co-hosts the fortnightly show, The Corporate Director Podcast.

Dottie brings over twenty years’ experience in governance-related roles, including serving as a director, officer, committee chair, senior executive, governance consultant and trainer for private, public, and nonprofit boards.  She was a founding team member of the tech start-up BoardEffect – a board management software provider focused on healthcare and nonprofit boards, acquired by Diligent in late 2016.  She serves on the Advisory Board of the Diligent Institute and is the Vice Chair of the Board of the Alice Paul Institute.  She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ariel is a member of the BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship (BIS) team, where she is responsible for proxy voting and engaging with senior executives and board members of portfolio companies to advocate for governance and business practices that help create long-term value for BlackRock’s clients. She also leverages her expertise on human and social capital issues to develop global engagement and thought leadership strategies to enhance sustainable financial performance. Currently, Ariel covers biotechnology and life sciences in the US and Canada.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Ariel worked at Rabin Martin, a global health strategy firm, where she was responsible for the execution of communications, thought leadership, and advocacy initiatives for Merck & Co.’s flagship corporate responsibility program. She started her career at UNICEF, where she supported organizational learning and development efforts to strengthen the technical expertise of employees across all programmatic and business functions.

Ariel earned a BA in Government from Cornell University and an MPA in International Development Policy & Management from the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

As Research Director of the Strategic Investor Initiative at Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), Brian develops leading research to help reorient our capital markets toward the long-term. Through research and collaboration, with organizations such as FCLTGlobal and KKS Advisors, he helps develop decision-relevant, practical tools for both investors and corporations (across both Investor Relations and Corporate Sustainability). Brian’s work on sustainable business and investment has been published by Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, the World Economic Forum, Top 1000 Funds, and the Huffington Post among others. Brian is an expert on investor Fiduciary Duty having published reports on capital markets in the US, UK, Canada and Japan. Brian has a decade of experience as a corporate finance attorney and worked in the business turnaround group of an investment bank. Brian also served as the Managing Director of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism. Brian has an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and a degree in politics, philosophy and economics from the University of Oxford.

Janice Warren heads Nasdaq’s ESG reporting solutions business. She served as the president of OneReport, an ESG data, ratings, and disclosure management business prior to its 2020 acquisition by Nasdaq. She has supported companies and practitioners in navigating ESG from a strategic and tactical perspective, whether new to ESG or recognized ESG leaders. OneReport’s collaboration with ESG raters and frameworks enables companies to identify and address evolving environmental, social, and governance metrics that matter to investors and other stakeholders.

During her ten year tenure in investor relations and corporate communications, she managed relations with equity and bond holders; corporate marketing and marketing due diligence for acquisitions; and reporting, including financial, crisis, internal, and marketing communications. She also coordinated responses to responsible investment questionnaires, and served on the NIRI Boston Chapter board from 2000 to 2004. Previously, she held roles in marketing, product and business development, strategic planning, and environmental program management and education. She holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and a BA in government and legal studies from Bowdoin College, where she began researching responsible investment and corporate responsibility matters.

As Senior Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer at Gibson Energy, Sean Wilson provides strategic and functional leadership for Sustainability/ESG, Information Technology, Supply Chain Management, Legal, Communications, Stakeholder Engagement, Industry Advocacy, Government Relations, Community Investment, Process Improvement & Change Management and Information Management.

Since joining Gibson in 2007, Sean has held key leadership roles including Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Before moving into his position as Chief Administrative Officer, Sean served as Gibson’s Vice President, Commercial Development where he gained valuable insight into the needs of Gibson’s customers; positioning him to lead his teams successfully in delivering value creating initiatives to Gibson’s stakeholders.

Prior to joining Gibson, Sean was a Corporate Lawyer at a leading national law firm. Sean holds an LL.B. from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the University of Calgary. Sean is a member of the Law Society of Alberta.

Maureen Wolff is CEO of Sharon Merrill, an IR strategic advisory firm with an international reputation for creating optimal value for stakeholders.  She is an accomplished visionary in the fields of investor relations and corporate communications with more than 35 years of success counseling C-level executives and directors to raise the level of their communications, build credibility and maximize shareholder value.  As a nationally recognized expert in the complex and ever-changing landscape of corporate governance and investor relations, Maureen is regularly called upon to bridge the intersection between the two fields. She has earned a reputation for providing clients with stellar advice on implementing best-in-class Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies; navigating proxy contests and activism campaigns; elevating proxy communications; raising capital and developing crisis communication strategies.

Maureen has helped to chart the vision for the future of the IR profession in several industry leadership roles including serving as a programming committee member for the New England Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), where she is responsible for provoking dialogue among board members in the areas of shareholder activism, proxy contests, ESG, diversity in the boardroom and crisis communications.

Maureen has a longstanding track record of leadership within the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) including serving as chairman and a board member and spearheading the development of NIRI’s standards of practice.  She also served as chairman of the NIRI IR Certification Council and helped develop the inaugural Investor Relations Certification (IRC) exam, a first-of-its-kind qualification that is regarded as a valuable benchmark for the IRO.

As an internationally recognized expert in Regulation Fair Disclosure, Maureen has led the disclosure rules training at NIRI’s annual ‘Fundamentals of IR’ conference.  She also has lobbied on behalf of the profession in front of the SEC on various disclosure issues.

Her expertise has brought her to the podium as a featured speaker at industry forums including events hosted by the Association for Corporate Growth, NACD, NIRI, New York Stock Exchange, and the Society for Corporate Governance and at leading academic institutions including Bentley College, Boston University, Emerson College and Harvard University.

She also has been recognized as a NIRI Fellow and with a seat at the NIRI Senior Roundtable. In these roles, Maureen provides ongoing mentorship and thought leadership on leading trends and issues impacting the investor relations profession.