Harshit Vaish is Senior Vice President and head of Strategy, Corporate Development & Investor Relations functions at Expedia Group. Harshit joined Expedia Group in January 2022, and his recent stints include Juniper Networks, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Bain & Co. Harshit has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master in Science degree from Stanford University and a Bachelor in Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). Harshit lives in the San Francisco bay area.

Peter Schuman, IRC, VP Investor Relations, Industry Analyst & Public Relations, Cambium Networks, has a proven track record in financial communications. In 2019, he helped take Cambium Networks public on NASDAQ as active participant in the IPO process including formulation of the S-1 registration statement, investor presentation, Q&A, roadshow, investor targeting, creation of the investor website and related press releases, and helped facilitate two secondary offerings. He was previously Sr. Director Investor Relations at Avaya (a SaaS company) where he helped take the company public on the NYSE and built the investor relations program. Previously he was promoted to Sr. Director, Investor Relations at Atmel Corp in April 2013.  He joined the investor relations department at Atmel Corporation in July 2010 as Director Investor Relations. Peter was responsible for all investor activities until Atmel’s acquisition in April 2016.  In 2011 Atmel’s IR Department received an honorable mention from IR Magazine for most progress in investor relations. In April 2016, Peter passed the National Investor Relations Institute’s Investor Relations Charter (IRC) certification exam. Prior to Atmel he was a manager of investor relations at Intel Corporation from September 2007 until June 2010. He was responsible for Midwest & Canada buyside, retail shareholders, an award-winning annual report and the annual stockholders’ meeting. He re-designed INTC.com, Intel’s IR website achieving awards from both IR Global Rankings and the Web Marketing Association. In 2009 and 2010 Intel’s IR department was ranked #1 by the buyside for the semiconductor industry by Institutional Investor. Prior to Intel, Peter was the Director of Investor Relations and Public Relations at Coherent, Inc. He joined Coherent, Inc. in September of 1997 as Manager of the newly created Investor Relations Department. Prior to re-joining Coherent in April 2001, Peter served a six-month stint as Director, Investor Relations at Oplink Communications in San Jose, CA where he helped oversee that company’s successful initial public offering in October 2000 and set up its investor relations program. Peter has also worked as a Marketing Director at The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. in Menlo Park, California and as a Compliance Examiner in the Enforcement Department of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. in Washington, D.C. He began his career as an auditor with Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s General Re unit in Stamford, Connecticut. Peter received an MBA in Investments & International Business from Pace University in White Plains, New York and a BS in Finance from The University of Maryland, College Park. Peter presently serves on the NIRI San Francisco Chapter board as Treasurer and served on the advisory boards of vOOrka, a start-up biometrics company, and IPREO, a global leader in providing market intelligence, data, and technology solutions.  Peter previously served on the served on the NIRI Silicon Valley Chapter board for five years.

Since joining Equinix in 2015, Chip has held various roles in investor relations and treasury.  In his current role, he leads the company’s IR messaging and communications strategy.  Prior to Equinix, Mr. Newcom spent seven years HSBC in the Global Banking and Capital Markets division, where he advised US multinational clients on foreign exchange hedging.

Mr. Newcom earned an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

Ms. Emily Tadano is Vice President of Investor Relations and ESG at Meritage Homes, (NYSE: MTH) the fifth-largest public homebuilder in the U.S. She is responsible for innovating and implementing Meritage’s investor relations strategy as well as effectively communicating the Company’s performance and long-term value creation proposition to the investment community. As a primary architect of ESG for Meritage, Tadano works with executive management and board directors in developing ESG initiatives, and spearheads the Internal ESG Council to execute such efforts. She also delivers the Company’s annual ESG report, which includes a response to the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). As a designated company spokesperson also overseeing public relations for Meritage, Tadano ensures cohesive and accurate messaging for all external corporate communications.

Tadano’s background spans 20 years of diverse financial experience ranging from investment banking, capital markets and private equity to corporate finance, M&A, treasury, investor relations and ESG. Prior to joining Meritage, she held key financial leadership positions at Mobile Mini, a portable storage rental company now known as WillScot Mobile Mini, Najafi Companies, a private equity firm, and Citi, an investment bank. Tadano earned a Bachelor of Science in international economics from Georgetown University. She serves on US Bank’s Southwest Advisory Board.

Martin worked as a VP of IR at Tesla from 2017 until June 2024. He joined right at the beginning of Model 3 “production hell” When Tesla’s share price hovered at around $20 (later falling to $10) and viability of the company was far from certain.

Over this 7-year period, Tesla has become the largest EV maker in the world, with sustainably positive free cash flow and GAAP net income of ~$12B annually. Tesla IR became the #1 ranked IR program in the autos industry, in every category based in Institutional Investor survey. Retail shareholder base has grown ~10x to become the largest retail base of any company globally.

After a 7-year roller coaster, Martin joined his first board and became an advisor on all IR related themes, covering investor communication, institutional and retail shareholder engagement, etc. Before joining Tesla, Martin worked as an Automotive analyst on the sell-side for Redburn-Atlantic in London for seven years.

Ted is a Managing Director at Edelman Smithfield and leads the U.S. Strategic Situations & Investor Relations practice. He advises the senior management and boards of public companies on strategic communications including investor relations, activism defense, transactions communications, crisis communications, and IPOs.

Ted has led client engagements across a variety of industries, including WEX, Viking Cruises, Principal Global, Alaska Airlines, Cognizant, Coty, Designer Brands, and Hilton Hotels. He has advised on many activism engagements, including Etsy, Hilton Grand Vacations, Alight, Shake Shack, and Independence Realty Trust.

​Before joining Edelman Smithfield, Ted was Director, Investor Relations for Parkway Properties, Inc. (NYSE: PKY; $2.0 billion market cap real estate investment trust). While at Parkway, he led the development of the company’s financial communications strategy and served as main point of contact to the investment community and members of the media. Under Ted’s guidance, Parkway established an industry leading IR program that led to a 25% increase in sell side coverage and a broadening of Parkway’s visibility among institutional investors.

Previously, Ted was Head of Investor Relations Advisory Development, Americas at NASDAQ OMX, where he was responsible for executing a product development strategy for the firm’s $50 million+ IR advisory services business that consults corporations on the capital markets and effective communications to the investment community. His past experiences include leading NASDAQ’s Technology and Consumer advisory practice teams as well as running the firm’s Special Situations Advisory Program, which provides intelligence to clients facing increased interest from activist investors.

Ted has a BA in Economics from Lafayette College and an MBA in Finance from Fordham University. He is an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Business where he originated and instructs a class on financial communications and its impact on the capital markets.

Aron Feingold has more than 15 years of experience in biotech and pharmaceutical strategic communications. She is currently the VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Geron, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company aiming to change lives by changing the course of blood cancer. In her 2+ years with Geron, Aron has led investor relations and corporate communications activities related to Geron’s FDA approval of RYTELO™ (imetelstat) for the treatment of adult patients with lower-risk MDS with transfusion-dependent anemia, associated regulatory filings, preparation for commercialization and through three equity financings. Before that, she served as VP, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at genomic medicine company Sangamo Therapeutics, where she built the communications department and led corporate positioning and branding, investor messaging, product communications and internal communications. Prior to that, she led product communications at Pfizer for oncology drugs XTANDI® and TALZENNA®. Aron joined Pfizer following its acquisition of Medivation, where she led product communications. Aron started her career at Ruder Finn in New York City, where she held roles of increasing responsibility, including leading the Healthcare Media Practice. Aron graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English from Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Aron lives in Berkeley, California – around ten minutes from where she grew up – with her husband, 1-year old daughter and her pocket pitbull. Favorite activities when she’s not working include spending time with family, cooking, hiking, wine tasting and gardening. Fun facts about Aron include: she is writing a recipe book with her husband, she trekked to the base camp of Mt. Everest in 2017, and she is a published haiku poet.

Valmik Desai is Director of Investor Relations at Salesforce, where he’s responsible for building and maintaining relationships with the investment community.

Valmik joined Salesforce in 2016. Prior to his Investor Relations roles, Valmik worked in a variety of roles across Salesforce’s Global Finance team, including roles on the Corporate Accounting Strategy and Operations and Commissions Accounting teams.

Valmik received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting at Santa Clara University. He was born and raised in Silicon Valley and now resides in San Francisco, but is always planning his next trip.

Victoria brings over 20 years of executive experience in investor relations and finance. During her career, Victoria developed, managed, and executed IR programs for fin-tech and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies across high-growth private equity ownership structures to established companies undergoing a transition. Her broad experience encompasses initial public offerings (IPO), management transitions, shareholder activism, debt issuance, crisis and issues management, and M&A for NYSE and Nasdaq listed companies.

Victoria is Vice President, Investor Relations at Informatica (NYSE: INFA), a global leader in enterprise cloud data management. She joined Informatica in 2021 to help prepare the company for an initial public offering in October 2021, raising $1 billion. Before joining Informatica, Victoria was Head of Investor Relations for 8×8, Inc. (NYSE: EGHT), a global cloud communications provider and contact center solutions provider from 2017 to 2021. Before joining 8×8, she served as Senior Director of Investor Relations for Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), a leader in digital payments from 2007 to 2017. Victoria joined Visa to help establish the company’s global IR function before the company’s successful IPO in March 2008 raising $19 billion. Before Visa, she held an Investor Relations role at McAfee Inc. (acquired by Intel) from 2005 to 2007 and Investor Relations and Treasury roles at Providian Financial (acquired by Washington Mutual/ JP Morgan Chase) from 1999 to 2005.

In addition to being President of the NIRI San Francisco chapter since 2022, Victoria has been a board member for the NIRI San Francisco chapter since 2016 and served on the NIRI Silicon Valley board from 2007 to 2011. Victoria has been recognized by IR Magazine (Best Investor Relations Officer), Institutional Investor Magazine All-American Executive and was recently named a NIRI Fellow. Victoria has an MBA and B.A. in Finance from the University of San Francisco.

Jami Taylor is Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at Coherus BioSciences, a biotechnology company headquartered in Redwood City, California. In addition to her work with Coherus, Jami serves as a Board Member and advisor to early-stage biotechs in the San Francisco Bay Area and greater San Diego. For more than a decade, Jami has been a distinguished lecturer on IR-related topics at leading universities, including the MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard University, and Yale University. She holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a master’s degree from Harvard, and B.A. with Distinction from the University of Virginia. Jami is also an Investor Relations Charter holder. She resides with her family in Menlo Park, CA.

Jason McGruder is the Head of Investor Relations for Newmark Group, Inc. He is responsible for maintaining and expanding relationships in the investment community while communicating the company’s business model, long-term strategy, governance and financial performance. McGruder is a seasoned industry expert with nearly two decades of experience building relationships and engaging with investors and analysts.

McGruder joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 2006, liaising with capital markets regarding the company and its subsidiaries, including BGC Partners, eSpeed and GFI Group, in addition to Newmark. His extensive knowledge of corporate governance practices and SEC regulations ensured the highest communication standards with the company’s community of investors.

Education

McGruder earned a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from NYU Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy of Industrialized Societies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Johnny Lai has over 25 years of asset management and investor relations experience. He has been the Head of Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Axos Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AX), a $4 billion market cap digital financial services company, since 2013. Prior to joining Axos, he spent over fifteen years as a buy-side equity research analyst and portfolio manager for various institutional investment management firms in Southern California, including Bel Air Investment Advisors and RNC Capital. Mr. Lai is a Chartered Financial Analyst holder and a director on the CFA Nevada board.

Alex Chan started in audit at KPMG and is currently at Salesforce, where she’s held multiple roles over the last nine years. Prior to Investor Relations, Alex was leading the short term Corporate financial planning team.”

Pete Michelsen is a partner at Qatalyst, where he leads the firm’s Activism and Shareholder Advisory practice. Pete serves as a senior advisor to Qatalyst’s clients across all sectors of technology on matters including shareholder activism defense, proxy fights, contested M&A and complex corporate governance and ESG matters. Prior to joining Qatalyst, Pete spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs, where he most recently served as Head of Activism and Shareholder Advisory for the Americas, as well as 4 years at CamberView Partners (now PJT Camberview), where he served as President, Partner and Co-Head of Contested Situations. He began his career at Merrill Lynch, where he was an M&A generalist analyst and associate. Pete has advised on more than 120 shareholder activism, contested M&A and normal course M&A engagements for clients with aggregate market capitalizations of over $500 billion, including Citrix, Clorox, Dell, eBay, Genzyme, HP Inc., Litton Industries, New Relic, Norfolk Southern, United Technologies, Valeant, Vonage, Western Digital, Yahoo!, and Zendesk. In addition, he has advised clients on a broad range of complex corporate governance and ESG matters including votes on say-on-pay and shareholder proposals, “vote no” campaigns, ESG related shareholder engagement, and IPO corporate governance planning. Pete received a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

DEREK ZABA is a partner in the Palo Alto and New York offices and co-chairs Sidley’s #1 ranked Shareholder
Activism & Corporate Defense practice. He spends 100% of his time on shareholder activism, contested M&A and
related matters. During Derek’s tenure, Sidley has risen to the top of all shareholder activism defense league
tables, including its No. 1 rankings by Bloomberg, FactSet, Refinitiv and Activist Insight for North America. In
2022, The American Lawyer named Derek Zaba as a Trailblazer in the Western Region of the United States for
his work in shareholder activism and contested M&A. Derek was also recognized in the 2021–2024 editions of
Chambers USA as one of the leading lawyers in Takeover Defense with clients noting that “he is deeply
knowledgeable, very easy to work with and is able to bring defense expertise with multiple perspectives,” and, “his
client advice is consistently excellent and nuanced, and he delivers it with a calmness that is often important in
tense activist situations.”

Rich Barry – Citadel Securities

HEAD OF CS CORPORATE SOLUTIONS

Rich Barry is responsible for managing business relationships with Citadel Securities’ corporate issuer clients while overseeing the Corporate Solutions team; working to expand the firm’s data-driven investor targeting/access platform and grow its client-base. Prior to joining Citadel, Rich worked as a Senior Director of Market Administration and Trading Floor Governor at the New York Stock Exchange. Previously, he served as Senior Managing Director and Floor Trading/Risk Manager for LaBranche and Co. Specialists. Rich holds an M.B.A. in finance from the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University and a B.A. degree in Economics from Fairfield University.

Linda Pazin is Head of Strategic Communications for Sempra. She brings over 20 years of executive experience in corporate communications, marketing, public relations, and investor relations. Linda is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Sempra’s award-winning communications efforts, including external and internal communications, reputation, stakeholder engagement, thought leadership, financial communications, social media, content strategy, sustainability communications and media relations.

During her career, Ms. Pazin developed, managed and executed comprehensive, integrated communications programs at both high-growth start-ups, and established Fortune 1000 companies undergoing major transition. Her diverse sector experience spans technology, energy, media and entertainment, financial services, retail, real estate and more. She develops high-performing cross-functional teams with customer-driven vision and strategy. Linda’s strategic communications programs have addressed some of the most challenging business situations while protecting reputations, increasing brand visibility and maximizing valuation.

Ms. Pazin’s broad experience encompasses initial public offerings, M&A, corporate brand and reputation management, public and media relations, crisis and issues management, integrated marketing communications and public affairs. Linda has worked on over 50 initial public offerings and transactions throughout her career. She has helped senior management teams deliver compelling corporate and investor communications messaging, while articulating transparency and accountability.

In addition to founding her own management consulting firm, she also served as NYSE’s Head of Listings for the Western Region. She contributed to over 200+ global marketing campaigns during her tenure. Working directly with senior management teams and board members at some of the most high-profile publicly traded companies, she provided counsel on financial communications issues, capital markets strategy, corporate governance best practices and ESG.

Ms. Pazin previously served as Vice President, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations at Deckers Brands, a $5 billion global leader in designing, marketing and distributing innovative footwear, apparel and accessories. She built an award-winning integrated communications program from the ground up to support the company’s global expansion and omni-channel strategy.

Prior to Deckers, she was Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations for Live Nation Entertainment, a $10 billion global organization, where she had worldwide responsibility for communications and investor relations and acted as chief spokesperson for the media and investment communities. Ms. Pazin played an instrumental role in the high-profile Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger where she led all integration efforts and developed and implemented pre- and post-merger communications strategies for the company and all its five divisions in North America and 47 countries internationally. She was recognized by Institutional Investor as best IRO from the buy-side community.

Prior to joining Live Nation, Ms. Pazin served as Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications for Fremont General Corporation, a $7 billion commercial/residential real estate company, during one of the worst mortgage crises on record. She was able to build and strengthen alliances, manage public perception and expectations and maximize support for the business during a critical cycle in the financial markets. Her team was recognized by the Wall Street Journal for best Investor Relations site in their industry. Ms. Pazin also served as Director, Investor Relations for South West Water Company where her team was awarded for outstanding performance from Institutional Investor.

Ms. Pazin earned a Master of Arts degree in Business and Economics with honors from Claremont Graduate University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Arizona. She is a frequent speaker and active member of the Arthur W. Page Society, Forum Group, The Conference Board, National Investor Relations Institute, Financial Executives International and Public Relations Society of America.