Mr. Novak has 30 years of experience in securities investment and finance. Mr. Novak currently serves as Chairman at Mederi Therapeutics, Inc. a manufacturer and marketer of medical devices and as a Board Member at Aperio Technologies, Inc. Previously, Mr. Novak served as President of Palladio Capital Management, LLC and as the Principal and Managing Member of the General Partner of Palladio Partners, LP. Prior to founding Palladio, Mr. Novak was a Managing Director of C.E. Unterberg, Towbin from February 1993 through December 2001. During his tenure at Unterberg, Mr. Novak founded and served as President and Portfolio Manager of Unterberg Harris Capital Management (now Unterberg Towbin Capital Management), a registered investment adviser, where he managed discretionary accounts, and Unterberg Harris Capital Partners I, a hedge fund. Mr. Novak subsequently served as Director of research at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, the adviser's parent company, and founded the Internet Practice within Unterberg's Corporate Finance Department. While at Unterberg, Mr. Novak also directed private equity investments on behalf of limited partnerships managed by Unterberg. Prior affiliations included Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, Inc., where Mr. Novak was a Partner, member of the Investment Policy Committee and Senior Portfolio Manager, and Harris Bankcorp, where he served as a Vice President and managed a $175 million fund of employee benefit assets that invested in small and medium-sized companies. Mr. Novak received a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Mr. O'Brien has 28 years of experience in the securities industry. Mr. O'Brien retired as a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch & Co. in 1999 after working in the Equity Capital Markets area since he joined Merrill Lynch & Co. in 1971, during which time he created the Equity Transaction Group in 1985, helped launch Merrill Lynch's London-based Equity Capital Markets Group and had primary responsibility for the pricing of all equity and convertible issues managed by Merrill Lynch. Mr. O’Brien was a member of the Board of Trustees of Colgate University from May 1996 to May 2005. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Hill House, Inc., a congregate care facility for low income elderly residents in Riverside, Connecticut, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bridges School. Mr. O’Brien serves on the Board of Directors of the Legg Mason Family of Mutual Funds and The Royce Funds. Mr. O'Brien received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
Ms. Pankopf is managing partner of Pareto Advisors, LLC. Previously she was a senior analyst and managing director at Palladio Capital Management from January 2004 through April 2005. From 2001 to 2003, Ms. Pankopf served as an analyst and portfolio manager with P.A.W. Capital Partners, LP and was a senior analyst and vice president at Goldman, Sachs & Co. from 1999 to 2001 and at Merrill Lynch & Co. from 1998 to 1999. She was an associate director in corporate finance at Deutsche Bank in the Technology Group’s London office from 1997 to 1998 and began her career in investment research in 1995, working as a sell-side Internet and software analyst at Salomon Smith Barney. Ms. Pankopf currently serves on the Board of Directors of the University System of Maryland Foundation. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and holds an ISS Accredited Certificate of Director Education. Ms. Pankopf received a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from the University of Maryland and an M.S. from the London School of Economics.
= CHAIRPERSON
= FINANCIAL EXPERT