mgorjestani – Public Funds Forum

Nataly Mishan-Zakai | General Counsel, Harel Insurance and Finance

Nataly Mishan-Zakai is the General Counsel of Harel Insurance and Financial Services Ltd., and titled as Executive Deputy General Manager.

Harel Insurance and Financial Services is the largest insurance and finance group in Israel, with the largest insurance company in Israel, active in the life, health, and non-life insurance business. The group is also active in the field of credit insurance and insurance for mortgage loans and is also active in Turkey and Greece, mainly in non-life, and health insurance. Harel Group also has an impressive presence in the pension field, provident funds, and education funds. Also, Harel Group is active in the field of mutual funds and portfolio management and was chosen as the investment house of 2018 in Israel.

As such, the group's presence and activity is very wide, diversified, and highly regulated. As General Counsel of the group since 2014, Ms. Mishan-Zakai is in charge of all legal engagements of the group, deals (including international complex deals), strategic projects, ongoing legal counseling, consulting to the management and the board of directors, legal proceedings in which the group is involved (including court proceedings, arbitrations, and mediations), regulation, and compliance. Within that position, Ms. Mishan-Zakai manages a team of 30 in-house lawyers and 20 compliance people and works with dozens of law firms that represent Harel Group in various issues.

Previously, Ms. Mishan-Zakai was a partner at Fischer Behar Chen Well Orion & Co. (FBC), one of the leading law firms in Israel in any category. Ms. Mishan-Zakai was the head of the Securities and Corporate Governance Department at FBC and was involved in many high-profile deals in Israel and gave legal services to dozens of Israeli-traded companies. Ms. Mishan-Zakai worked at FBC for 14 years.

Ms. Mishan-Zakai was chosen as one of the 40 promising young people in Israel of The Marker (Israel's most reputable economics daily newspaper).

Ms. Mishan-Zakai LL.B. graduated cum laude from Tel Aviv University and received a Master in Arts in Commercial Law cum laude from Tel Aviv University (in cooperation with Berkeley University).

Shawn A. Williams | Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP

Shawn Williams, a founding partner of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, is the managing partner of the Firm’s San Francisco office, and a member of the Firm’s Management Committee. Mr. Williams specializes in complex commercial litigation focusing on securities litigation, and has served as lead counsel in a range of actions resulting in more than a billion dollars in recoveries. For example, Mr. Williams was among lead counsel in In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litig., charging Facebook with violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, resulting in a $650 million recovery for injured Facebook users, the largest ever privacy class action.

Mr. Williams led the team of Robbins Geller attorneys in the investigation and drafting of comprehensive securities fraud claims in Hefler v. Wells Fargo & Co., alleging widespread opening of unauthorized and undisclosed customer accounts. The Hefler action resulted in the recovery of $480 million for Wells Fargo investors. In City of Westland Police & Fire Retirement System v. Metlife, Inc., Mr. Williams led the Firm’s team of lawyers alleging MetLife’s failure to disclose and account for the scope of its use and non-use of the Social Security Administration Death Master File and its impact on MetLife’s financial statements. The Metlife action resulted in a recovery of $84 million. Mr. Williams also served as lead counsel in the following actions resulting in significant recoveries: Chicago Laborers Pension Fund v. Alibaba Grp. Holding Ltd. ($75 million recovery); In re Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. Sec. Litig. ($75 million recovery); In re Medtronic, Inc. Sec. Litig. ($43 million recovery); In re Cadence Design Sys., Inc. Sec. Litig. ($38 million recovery); and City of Sterling Heights General Employees’ Retirement System v. Prudential Financial, Inc. ($33 million recovery).

Mr. Williams is also a member of the Firm’s Shareholder Derivative Practice Group, which has secured tens of millions of dollars in cash recoveries and comprehensive corporate governance reforms in a number of high-profile cases including: In re McAfee, Inc. Derivative Litig.; In re Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Derivative Litig.; In re KLA-Tencor Corp. S’holder Derivative Litig.; The Home Depot, Inc. Derivative Litig.; and City of Westland Police & Fire Retirement System v. Stumpf (Wells Fargo & Co.).

Mr. Williams led multiple shareholder actions in which the Firm obtained favorable appellate rulings, including: West Virginia Pipe Trades Health & Welfare Fund v. Medtronic, Inc., 845 F.3d 384 (8th Cir. 2016); Knollenberg v. Harmonic, Inc., 152 F. App’x 674 (9th Cir. 2005); Nursing Home Pension Fund, Local 144 v. Oracle Corp., 380 F.3d 1226 (9th Cir. 2004); Lynch v. Rawls, 429 F. App’x 641 (9th Cir. 2011); and Barrie v. Intervoice-Brite, Inc., 409 F.3d 653 (5th Cir. 2005).

Before joining the Firm in 2000, Mr. Williams served for 5 years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he tried over 20 cases to New York City juries.

Mr. Williams has been named a Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, a Top 100 Lawyer by the Daily Journal, a California Trailblazer by The Recorder, a Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar by Law360, a Leading Lawyer in America and a Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer by Lawdragon, a Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine and a Best Lawyer in America by Best Lawyers®.

Annalisa Barrett | Senior Advisor, KPMG Board Leadership Center

Annalisa Barrett is a Senior Advisor with the KPMG Board Leadership Center, where she advises directors on emerging corporate governance issues and conducts research to develop thought leadership on board composition and governance practices. She frequently speaks at conferences around the country addressing issues important to corporate directors, governance professionals, and investors. Ms. Barrett has been quoted on corporate governance and board practices in The New York Times, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times, and her research has been featured in The Wall Street Journal.

Prior to joining KPMG, Ms. Barrett was CEO of Board Governance Research LLC. Ms. Barrett was also a Senior Advisor for ValueEdge Advisors and Vice President and Senior Research Associate at The Corporate Library (now MSCI ESG Research). She previously was a Research Consultant in the Executive Compensation practice at Towers Perrin and a Tax Consultant in the Family Wealth Planning practice of Arthur Andersen.

She currently serves on the Women on Boards Advisory Council of the California Partners Project and the California Insurance Diversity Task Force. Ms. Barrett is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Business, where she teaches graduate courses in corporate governance.

For over a decade, Ms. Barrett has served on the board of the Corporate Directors Forum (CDF), which provides governance education and peer networking for corporate directors. In 2019, she was selected by her fellow directors to receive the C. Hugh Friedman CDF Board Member of the Year award. In 2008, she was named a Millstein Rising Star in Corporate Governance by the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School. She is a Scott M. Johnson Fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program and a member of the International Corporate Governance Network, the Society for Corporate Governance, and the Thirty Percent Coalition. She holds an MBA with distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She resides in San Diego, California with her husband and two children.

Donald C. Kendig, CPA | Retirement Administrator, Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association (FCERA)

Donald C. Kendig, CPA, Retirement Administrator for FCERA, has 14 years of retirement plan administration experience, previously serving as Retirement Administrator for VCERA (Ventura) and serving as Trustee on the Board of Retirement for SBCERS (Santa Barbara). In addition to 14 years in retirement plan administration, Mr. Kendig served eight years as the Business Manager/CFO for the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (SBCAPCD). While serving at the SBCAPCD, he was responsible for all aspects of the administrative, facility, and financial activities of the SBCAPCD, also serving as the Safety Officer, Risk Manager, Purchasing Manager, and labor contract negotiator. Prior to joining the SBCAPCD, Mr. Kendig served at the County of Santa Barbara for over eight years, starting as an Internal Auditor for the Auditor-Controller, then Budget Analyst for the CEO, then Administrative Analyst for the Superior Court, and ultimately a Financial Systems Analyst for the Auditor-Controller, where he created the County’s first grants management system (GMS) and helped design and test the County’s in-house payroll system.

Mr. Kendig’s education is comprised of a B.A. in Business Economics with Accounting Emphasis at UC Santa Barbara, and an A.A. in Liberal Arts & Sciences at Palomar College. He is a Certified Public Accountant, License No. 78000. Supplemental executive education includes: certificates for Hedge Funds, Real Estate, and Other Alternative Investments; Advanced Investment Management; Fundamentals of Money Management; Principles of Pension Management; Fiduciary Law; Public Pension Investment Management; Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; Crucial Conversations; Abilene Paradox, Labor Relations and Arbitration; and Leadership Principles and Practices.

Mr. Kendig’s extracurricular activities include Toastmasters, Mankind Project (MKP), fathering his growing girls (Savannah and Sierrah, ages 19 and 14), hiking and biking, and exploring all that California, America, and the world have to offer.

Harry Keiley | Board Chair, California State Teachers’ Retirement System

First elected in 2007, Harry Keiley currently serves as chair of the Teachers’ Retirement Board, which administers the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS). With $308.6 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2021, and more than 975,000 members and beneficiaries, CalSTRS is the largest educator-only pension fund in the world.

In 2020, Mr. Keiley served as chair of the CalSTRS CEO Search Committee. This global search, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in the system’s first new CEO in 20 years and the first female to lead the organization.

Previous leadership positions held at CalSTRS include chair of the Compensation Committee and chair of the Investment Committee. Investment policy adoptions under Mr. Keiley’s leadership included a $2.5 billion allocation to a passively managed low-carbon index fund, an allocation to Risk Mitigating Strategies to reduce portfolio volatility during public equity downturns and the formation of an Infrastructure division at CalSTRS.

In addition to his work inside the CalSTRS boardroom, Mr. Keiley completed the UCLA Anderson School of Business program for trustees, the NACD Program, and the Board Effectiveness Program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He has served on the City of Santa Monica Parks and Recreation Board and the advisory board of The Line, an online education publication. He currently serves on the board of Step Up, a nonprofit committed to housing chronically homeless and mentally ill individuals, including U.S. military veterans.

Mr. Keiley served four terms as president of the Santa Monica Classroom Teachers Association. Other leadership positions include multiple terms as chair of the Political Action Committee for the California Teachers Association. Mr. Keiley began his career as a U.S. Government and Economics teacher in 1987 and in 1999 was recognized as the Most Inspirational Teacher by his students and colleagues.

Stephen P. McCourt, CFA | Managing Principal/Co-Chief Executive Officer, Meketa Investment Group

Stephen P. McCourt joined Meketa Investment Group in 1994 and has over 25 years of investment experience. Mr. McCourt is a Managing Principal and Co‑Chief Executive Officer of the firm. He serves as the lead consultant for several institutional funds, with public, Taft‑Hartley, endowment, and non‑profit plan sponsors. His consulting work includes investment policy design, strategic and tactical asset allocation modeling, asset‑liability modeling, investment education, and investment manager analysis. In addition, Mr. McCourt sits on the firm’s Board of Directors and is a member of the Private Markets Policy, Meketa’s Fiduciary Management (OCIO) Investment, and Diversity Leadership Committees.

Mr. McCourt sits on the Steering Committee of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Economics Roundtable. He is also a member of the UCSD Economics Leadership Council, which strives to bridge research theory with practical real‑world experiences. He speaks at numerous industry events, including the Investment Education Symposium, the Corporate Funds Summit, the Endowment and Foundation Forum, the Global Investing Summit, the Private Equity Summit, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) Annual Employee Benefits Conference. Mr. McCourt’s research papers entitled Monitoring Investment Managers and Pension Fund Investing and the State of American Public Finance have been published in the IFEBP’s Employee Benefit Issues publication.

He received his graduate degree, a Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in History, from Harvard University and his undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Vermont. Mr. McCourt received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute and is a member of the CFA Society of San Diego. He is also a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Jason A. Forge | Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP

Jason Forge is a partner in Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP’s San Diego office. He specializes in complex investigations, litigation, and trials. As a federal prosecutor and private practitioner, Mr. Forge has conducted and supervised scores of jury and bench trials in federal and state courts, including the month-long trial of a defense contractor who conspired with Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham in the largest bribery scheme in congressional history. He recently obtained approval of a $160 million recovery in the first successful securities fraud case against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in City of Pontiac General Employees’ Retirement System v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In addition, Mr. Forge was a member of Robbins Geller’s trial team in HsingChing Hsu v. Puma Biotechnology, Inc., a securities fraud class action that resulted in a verdict in favor of investors after a two-week jury trial.

After the trial victory over Puma Biotechnology and its CEO Alan Auerbach, Mr. Forge joined a Robbins Geller litigation team in a securities case against American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP) that had defeated 12 motions for summary judgment against 40 defendants and was about to depose 17 experts in the home stretch to trial. Mr. Forge and the team used these depositions to disprove a truth-on-the-market argument that nine defense experts had embraced. Soon after the last of these expert depositions, the Robbins Geller team secured a $1.025 billion settlement from ARCP and other defendants that included a record $237 million contribution from individual defendants and represented more than twice the recovery rate obtained by several funds that had had opted out of the class.

Mr. Forge was a key member of the litigation team that secured a historic recovery on behalf of Trump University students in two class actions against former President Donald J. Trump. The settlement refunds over 90% of the money thousands of students paid to “enroll” in Trump University. He represented the class on a pro bono basis. Mr. Forge has also successfully defeated motions to dismiss and obtained class certification against several prominent defendants, including the first federal RICO case against Scotts Miracle-Gro, which recently settled for up to $85 million. He was a member of the litigation team that obtained a $125 million settlement in In re LendingClub Sec. Litig., a settlement that ranks among the top ten largest securities recoveries ever in the Northern District of California.

In a case against another prominent defendant, Pfizer Inc., Mr. Forge led an investigation that uncovered key documents that Pfizer had not produced in discovery. Although fact discovery in the case had already closed, the district judge ruled that the documents had been improperly withheld and ordered that discovery be reopened, including reopening the depositions of Pfizer’s former CEO, CFO, and General Counsel. Less than six months after completing these depositions, Pfizer settled the case for $400 million.

While at the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Central and Southern Districts of California and the Eastern District of Virginia, Mr. Forge was a key member of prosecution teams that led dozens of grand jury investigations and successfully prosecuted many ground-breaking cases in addition to the Cunningham bribery case, including: the first search of an executive office at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, which was part of an investigation that led to the conviction and imprisonment of the CIA’s Executive Director (the highest-ranking federal law enforcement or intelligence officer ever imprisoned); the nation’s largest fraudulent mortgage origination scheme; and the nation’s largest baby-selling ring (led by a nationally renowned attorney). Mr. Forge has also taught trial practice techniques on local and national levels, and has written and argued many state and federal appeals, including an en banc argument in the Ninth Circuit. He also teaches White Collar Crime at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Mr. Forge has been selected as a Local Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation, a Top Plaintiff Lawyer and a Top 100 Lawyer by the Daily Journal, a Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer by The National Law Journal, named to the Best Lawyers in America and the Southern California Best Lawyers lists by Best Lawyers®, and has been honored as a Litigator of the Year by Our City San Diego. He has also been named a Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer by Lawdragon.

Mr. Forge earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, graduating with high distinction. He then earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School, graduating magna cum laude, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and was a Contributing Editor to the Michigan Law Review.

Bruce Raynor | Principal, R&S Associates LLC

Bruce Raynor has had a 38-year career as one of the most respected labor leaders in North America. He served as President of the garment workers union UNITE and UNITE HERE, the merger between the national garment union and the hotel and casino union. He served as the Vice President of the AFL-CIO and was a founding member of Change to Win, a separate labor federation of some 6,000,000 workers.

Mr. Raynor has been nationally recognized for his negotiating and organizing work throughout his career, usually with particular emphasis on the 20 years he headed his unions’ highly successful Southern organizing programs. He held virtually every position in the union, from educator, director, to organizer, manager, and Vice President and regional director. He forged mutually productive partnerships between large corporations and his union in the retail, clothing, textile industrial laundry, and hotel and food service industries. He worked on global union issues with particular attention to union relationships in Canada, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

Mr. Raynor graduated from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1972. As a member of the Cornell University Board of Trustees since 1988, he is one of its longest serving trustees. He received the Groat Award for Distinguished Alumni from the Cornell ILR School in 1999. He also chairs the advisory board of the Cornell University Project on Global Labor Rights involving corporate, union, and non-governmental organizations interested in this issue. Mr. Raynor serves on the boards of numerous social justice and civil rights organizations and is President of the Sidney Hillman Foundation, an organization that has been encouraging and rewarding socially responsible journalism since 1950. He also chairs the Rockland Boces Foundation, which serves the needs of children with developmental and educational disabilities.

Mr. Raynor is the Principal of the consulting firm R&S Associates, based in New York City. He works with financial organizations and corporations on labor friendly policies and advises unions on strategic issues in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia.

Curtis Loftis | Treasurer, State of South Carolina

Curtis Loftis is the State Treasurer of South Carolina. First elected in 2010, he is currently serving his third term as State Treasurer.

As Treasurer, Loftis serves as the “state’s banker,” managing, investing, and retaining custody of more than $55 billion in public funds. He also serves as administrator of the state’s Unclaimed Property Program, Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan, and Palmetto ABLE Savings Program, which provides eligible individuals with disabilities the opportunity to save and invest money while maintaining eligibility for important needs-based benefits.

Since taking office, he has returned more than $260 million in unclaimed funds to South Carolinians – more than all previous state treasurers combined – and has overseen significant growth in the Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan, with more than 200,000 accounts and total assets under management of more than $5.5 billion.

Treasurer Loftis is a fierce advocate for greater accountability, transparency, and fiscal management in state government. As Treasurer, he has championed a number of causes for the benefit of state government and all South Carolinians, including public pension reform and financial education in K-12 schools.

In addition to serving as State Treasurer, Treasurer Loftis is Chairman of the State Board of Financial Institutions, Vice Chairman of the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, Vice Chairman of the South Carolina Education Authority, and Vice Chairman of the South Carolina Tobacco Authority. He also serves on the South Carolina Financial Literacy Board of Trustees and the executive board of the College Savings Plan Network. In the past, he has held leadership positions with the National Association of State Treasurers and the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

As Treasurer, Treasurer Loftis has been honored for his work with various awards and recognitions, such as being named to Columbia Regional Business Report’s 2020 Class of “Icons and Phenoms,” the “2019 Charter School Champion of the Year” by the Public Charter School Alliance of South Carolina, and “Friend of the Taxpayer” by the South Carolina Association of Taxpayers.

His leadership has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Institutional Investor, and Bond Buyer. He is a sought-after speaker and has presented to groups such as the Wall Street Journal Private Equity Conference, The SkyBridge Alternative (SALT) Conference, and the World Pension Forum.

A native of Lexington County, Treasurer Loftis graduated from the University of South Carolina. He is a successful small business owner, as well as the founder and benefactor of the Saluda Charitable Foundation.

Mark Solomon | Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP

Mark Solomon is a founding partner in Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP’s San Diego office and leads its international litigation practice. Over the last 27 years, he has regularly represented United States- and United Kingdom-based pension funds and asset managers in class and non-class securities litigation in federal and state courts throughout the United States. He has been admitted to the Bars of England and Wales (Barrister), Ohio, and California, but now practices exclusively in California, as well as in various United States federal district and appellate courts.

Mr. Solomon has spearheaded the prosecution of many significant securities fraud cases. He has obtained multi-hundred million dollar recoveries for plaintiffs in pre-trial settlements and significant corporate governance reforms designed to limit recidivism and promote appropriate standards. He litigated, through the rare event of trial, the securities class action against Helionetics Inc. and its executives, where he won a $15.4 million federal jury verdict. Prior to the most recent financial crisis, he was instrumental in obtaining some of the first mega-recoveries in the field in California and Texas, serving as co-lead counsel in In re Informix Corp. Sec. Litig., in the federal district court for the Northern District of California, and recovering $131 million for Informix investors; and serving as co-lead counsel in Schwartz v. TXU Corp., in the federal district court for the Northern District of Texas, where he helped obtain a recovery of over $149 million for a class of purchasers of TXU securities. Mr. Solomon is currently counsel to a number of pension funds serving as lead plaintiffs in cases throughout the United States. For instance, he represented the Norfolk County Council, as Administering Authority of the Norfolk Pension Fund, in HsingChing Hsu v. Puma Biotechnology, Inc. where, after three weeks of trial, the Fund obtained a jury verdict in favor of the class against the company and its CEO. Mr. Solomon also represented the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme and the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme in Smilovits v. First Solar, Inc. in which the class recovered $350 million on the eve of trial. The settlement is fifth-largest PSLRA settlement ever recovered in the Ninth Circuit.

Before working with the Firm, Mr. Solomon practiced at the international firm Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by practicing at the Los Angeles office of New York’s Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. At these firms, his representations included the defense of securities fraud and other white-collar crimes, antitrust, copyright, commercial and real estate litigation, and reinsurance arbitration. While practicing in Los Angeles, acting for plaintiffs as sole counsel, he took to trial and won complex commercial contract and real estate actions in the Orange County and Los Angeles Superior Courts, respectively.

Mr. Solomon is a past chair of the American Bar Association Directors, Officers Liability Sub Committee and the Accountants Liability Sub-Committee, and is the author of the UK National Association of Pension Funds 2012 “Securities Class Actions made simple” and the 2015 “Securities Fraud and Investors Remedies made simple” guides.

The Legal 500 has named Mr. Solomon a Recommended Lawyer in its nationwide category of “Securities Litigation – Plaintiff,” citing his dual qualifications in English and U.S. law and his leadership of the Firm’s international litigation practice. He has also been named a Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer by Lawdragon and a Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. He earned his law degrees at Trinity College, Cambridge University, England, Harvard Law School, and the Inns of Court School of Law in London.

Dr. Deborah L. Birx | World-Renowned Medical Expert, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator

Deborah L. Birx, M.D. is a world-renowned medical expert and leader whose long career has focused on clinical and basic immunology, infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, vaccine research, and global health. Her career began with serving the United States as an Army Colonel and later turned into running some of the most high-profile and influential programs at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Department of State.

Most recently, Dr. Birx served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, where she used complex data integration to drive decision making, providing recommendations to Vice President Michael Pence and working closely with state officials across the country to provide state-specific advice and guidance. In 2014, Dr. Birx became an Ambassador-at-Large when she assumed the role of Coordinator of the United States Government Activities to Combat HIV/AIDS. As the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, she oversaw the $6 billion annual budget of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history. She also managed all U.S. government engagement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Dr. Birx began her career with the Department of Defense (DoD) in 1985 as a military-trained clinician in immunology, focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research. She progressed to serve as the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 1996-2005. Dr. Birx led one of the most influential HIV vaccine trials in history (known as RV 144 or the Thai trial), which provided the first supporting evidence of any vaccine’s potential effectiveness in preventing HIV infection. Then known as Colonel Birx, she was awarded two prestigious U.S. Meritorious Service Medals and the Legion of Merit Award for her groundbreaking research, leadership, and management skills during her tenure at the DoD.

From 2005-2014, Dr. Birx served as Director of the CDC's Division of Global HIV/AIDS (DGHA) in the CDC Center for Global Health. As DGHA Director, she led the implementation of the CDC’s PEPFAR programs around the world.

Dr. Birx was responsible for all of the agency's global HIV/AIDS activities, including providing oversight to more than 1,900 staff and more than 50 country and regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. In 2011, Dr. Birx received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, recognizing her distinguished and dedicated commitment to building local capacity and strengthening quality laboratory health services and systems in Africa. In 2014, the CDC honored her leadership in advancing the agency’s HIV/AIDS response with the highly prestigious William C. Watson, Jr. Medal of Excellence.

Dr. Birx has published over 230 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, authored nearly a dozen chapters in scientific publications, and developed and patented vaccines. She received her medical degree from the Hershey School of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University and trained in internal medicine and basic and clinical immunology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health.

Darren J. Robbins | Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP

Darren Robbins is a founding partner of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Over the last two decades, Mr. Robbins has served as lead counsel in more than 100 securities class actions and has recovered billions of dollars for investors. He has been broadly recognized by leading publications, industry analysts, courts, and opposing counsel as one of the most impactful securities and class action lawyers in America.

In 2021, he and his litigation team reached an agreement to settle a securities fraud class action against Twitter, Inc. for $809.5 million. In In re American Capital Properties, Inc. Litig., a securities class action arising out of improper accounting practices, he served as lead counsel and secured a recovery of more than $1 billion for class members. The American Realty settlement represents the largest recovery as a percentage of damages of any major class action brought pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and resolved prior to trial. The $1+ billion settlement included the largest personal contributions ($237.5 million) ever made by individual defendants to a securities class action settlement. Mr. Robbins was also recognized as a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer for his work in In re Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. Sec. Litig., a securities class action in which the Firm recovered $1.21 billion from Valeant Pharmaceuticals for class members, one of the top ten largest recoveries ever under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Mr. Robbins also led Robbins Geller’s prosecution of wrongdoing related to the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) prior to the global financial crisis, including an RMBS securities class action against Goldman Sachs that yielded a $272 million recovery for investors. Mr. Robbins served as co-lead counsel in connection with a $627 million recovery for investors in In re Wachovia Preferred Securities & Bond/Notes Litig., one of the largest securities class action settlements ever involving claims brought solely under the Securities Act of 1933.

One of the hallmarks of Mr. Robbins’s practice has been his focus on corporate governance reform. In UnitedHealth, a securities fraud class action arising out of an options backdating scandal, Mr. Robbins represented lead plaintiff CalPERS and obtained the cancellation of more than 3.6 million stock options held by the company’s former CEO and secured a record $925 million cash recovery for shareholders. He also negotiated sweeping corporate governance reforms, including the election of a shareholder-nominated director to the company’s board of directors, a mandatory holding period for shares acquired via option exercise, and compensation reforms that tied executive pay to performance. Recently, Mr. Robbins led a shareholder derivative action brought by several pension funds on behalf of Community Health Systems, Inc. that yielded a $60 million payment to Community Health as well as corporate governance reforms that included two shareholder-nominated directors, the creation and appointment of a Healthcare Law Compliance Coordinator, the implementation of an executive compensation clawback in the event of a restatement, the establishment of an insider trading controls committee, as well as the adoption of a political expenditure disclosure policy.

Mr. Robbins was named California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year and has been recognized as one of the nation’s top litigators by numerous organizations and publications, including The American Lawyer, which commended him for helping “set the pace for [his] peers,” and Chambers USA, which called him “a prominent figure in the field of securities litigation” and “one of the leaders of the plaintiff Bar.”

Richard A. Bennett | President & Chief Executive Officer, ValueEdge Advisors LLC

Richard A. Bennett is President and CEO of ValueEdge Advisors, a firm he founded in summer 2014 to help institutional investors engage with their portfolio companies. From 2006 he was CEO and then Chairman of GMI Ratings and its predecessor, The Corporate Library, a globally recognized investment research firm specializing in corporate governance and ESG with offices in London, New York, San Diego, and Portland, Maine. In August 2014, GMI Ratings was sold to MSCI.

He worked as Director of Corporate Governance for LENS, an institutional activist fund, from 1997 to 2002. He served from 2004 to 2016 as a non-executive director of Trucost, Plc, a U.K.-based firm offering products and services that allow companies, governments, and fund managers to better understand their environmental performance. From 2009 to 2014, he served on the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), and currently serves on the ICGN Nominating Committee. He is an independent director of Biddeford Internet Corporation d/b/a GWI (an ISP and telecom business), Atlantic Trust (Maine) (a fiduciary trust company), and Quoddy Inc. (a footwear brand enterprise).

Mr. Bennett has an extensive background in politics and government service as well as a wide range of private sector experience. A former president of the Maine State Senate, Mr. Bennett served four terms in the Maine Senate and two terms in the state’s House of Representatives. From 2013 to 2017, he was Chairman of the Maine Republican Party and a member of the Republican National Committee. In 2014, he volunteered as a member of the MainePERS ESG Integration Task Force.

Directorship magazine has recognized Mr. Bennett six times in its annual list of the 100 "most influential people in corporate governance and the boardroom." In December 2010, he was named by Global Proxy Watch as one of the "10 people around the world who had the most impact on corporate governance in the previous year."

Mr. Bennett was a member of the board of trustees of Hebron Academy from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships from 2005 to 2009. He graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1986 and received his M.B.A. from the University of Southern Maine in 2000.

Little Italy

Petco Park

Balboa Park

Old Town

Old Point Loma Lighthouse at Cabrillo National Park

Coronado Island

San Diego Beaches

Torrey Pines