Webinars:

October 06, 2011  /  Peter Casey, Waheed Hassan

Zach Oleksiuk, CFA - Vice President of BlackRock’s Americas Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team. He is responsible for analyzing and voting proxies; engaging with directors, senior management teams and other market participants on corporate governance issues; contributing to corporate governance policy development; and supporting BlackRock’s global proxy voting operations. 

Ken Bertsch – CEO & President of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. Mr. Bertsch previously led corporate governance teams at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Moody’s Investors Service fundamental ratings groups. He served as director for corporate governance at TIAA-CREF, and before that served for 14 years in various capacities at the Investor Responsibility Research Center, including as director of the Corporate Governance and Social Issues services. 

Sean Quinn - Vice President of ISS Governance Institute. Sean leads the development of content including ISS' policy and engagement teams. Previously, he co-headed ISS' U.S. Research team and led financial sector research, specializing in proxy contests, mergers and acquisitions, and issues relating to boards of directors. Sean is a member of ISS' Global Policy Board and has traveled extensively to ISS’ international offices to provide on-the-ground policy guidance.

Andrew Letts - Managing Director of State Street Global Advisors and Director of SSgA Corporate Governance and Global Proxy Voting. Andrew heads research and analysis of environmental, social, and governance issues across domestic and global investment strategies, developing firm wide corporate governance policy, with oversight of all governance analysis and processing on SSgA discretionary portfolios. He is chair of the SSgA Proxy Review Committee, serves on the SSgA ESG team, and a member of State Street Corporation’s Corporate Responsibility Working Group. During his time with SSgA, he has led the research initiative to enhance the incorporation ESG factors into the investment process and establish the firm’s issuer engagement practice. Andrew regularly engages with senior management and the boards of SSgA portfolio companies to discuss corporate governance issues and to give insight on the principles and practices that SSgA believes strengthen the quality of corporate governance and help protect and enhance shareholder value. 

Peter Casey – Executive Vice President of Alliance Advisors. Peter leads the Proxy Solicitation Group at Alliance Advisors. He has over fifteen years of proxy solicitation experience, and extensive knowledge in equity compensation plan analysis, corporate governance consulting, proxy solicitation and proxy contests. His proxy contest experience includes consent solicitations, hostile tender offers, contested mergers, and several proxy contests for board representation that have involved cumulative voting and numerous "vote no" campaigns.

Waheed Hassan, CFA – Managing Partner of Alliance Advisors. Waheed advises clients in connection with proxy contests and other contested solicitations and M&A transactions. He advises clients on how best to engage with the leading proxy advisory firms that represent the institutional investor community. Waheed has over ten years of institutional equity research, corporate governance, M&A valuation, and proxy advisory experience. Previously, Waheed managed the M&A/Proxy Contest team at Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”), where he was involved in 100+ contested M&A transactions and proxy contests.