Investor Forum 2020: Ready for Anything – Using Data in Perilous Times

Alfred R. Berkeley, III, Chairman of Princeton Capital Management, and Vice Chairman, Gentag, Inc.

Alfred Berkeley is Chairman of Princeton Capital Management, Vice Chairman of Gentag, Inc., a developer of technology for near field communications, and Chairman of Noxilizer, Inc.

He was formerly chairman of the board of Pipeline Financial Group, Inc. the parent of Pipeline Trading Systems LLC, an equities and options trading system designed to hide the presence of large orders in the market.

He was appointed vice-chair of the NASDAQ Stock Market Inc. in July 2000, serving through July 2003, and served as President of NASDAQ from 1996 until 2000. Before NASDAQ, Berkeley was a General Partner and then a managing director of Alex. Brown & Sons, an investment bank.

Berkeley was a trustee of the Johns Hopkins University, was on the board of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, LLC. and is a Trustee of Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. He served as vice-chairman and Acting Chairman of the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council. He was a Director of The World Economic Forum USA and was Chairman of XBRL US, a non-profit established to set standards for GAAP taxonomies to be used by public companies to report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and remains on the board of XBRL US. He was a director of XBRL International.

He is a Director of Realpage, Inc., Security First Corp., Differential Dynamics, Inc., Gentag, Inc. and Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School, Inc. He is also on the board of the American Resilience Project, which produces documentaries on climate change. He was a trustee of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and was a trustee of the Nature Conservancy. Berkeley was a member of the board of directors of WebEx Communication, Inc., ACI Worldwide, Inc., Policy Management Systems Corporation, Safeguard Scientific, Inc., Comshare, Inc., Cognos, Inc., Edgar Online and Kintera, Inc. He served as a member of the Public Affairs Advisory Group for the Director of the National Science Foundation and a member of a sub-committee of the Future of Science Committee for the Secretary of Energy. He served as Vice Chair of the Evaluation Committee for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

He has testified before the Joint Committee on Economics of the United States Congress, and before the House Science Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Committee on Homeland Security. He served on the International Advisory Council for the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Berkeley is a member of the Board of Visitors of the School of Medicine of the University of Maryland and a Trustee of Hollins University.

He was a Captain in the 438th Military Airlift Wing of the United States Air Force from 1968 to 1972. He served in the USAF Reserve from 1978 to 1980, as a Major.

Jefferson Braswell, Founding Partner and CEO, Tahoe Blue Ltd

Jefferson Braswell has been successfully providing leading-edge business solutions for the financial sector for over 30 years. Tahoe Blue provides management consulting, information systems architecture, and the design and development of enterprise risk solutions and data standards for the financial industry.

As one of its founding Directors, he has recently completed a 6-year term on the Board of the Global LEI Foundation (GLEIF), where he chaired the Technology, Operations and Standards Committee. He is the Chair of the Board of Governors of the ACTUS Financial Research Foundation, and actively participates in financial data standards initiatives, including those of CPMI-IOSCO, ISO 20022 and ISO TC68 (Financial Services), and he is a member of the ANNA DSB Technical Advisory Committee.

As co-founder and President of Berkeley-based Risk Management Technologies (RMT), Braswell designed and led the successful implementation of advanced, firm-wide risk management solutions integrated with enterprise-wide data management tools on high-performance computing platforms for many of the world’s largest financial institutions, including Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse, Chase, PNC, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mellon, Abbey National, Wachovia, Union Bank and ANZ.

Wes Bricker, Vice Chair – Assurance Leader, PwC US

Current Role

Wes Bricker is a Vice Chair – US and Mexico Assurance Leader. He serves on PwC’s US Leadership Team and Global Assurance Leadership Team, and leads the more than 1,400 partners and 18,000 professionals that make up PwC’s Assurance practice. Wes’s responsibilities include overseeing the quality of service, developing diverse teams and driving innovation throughout the Assurance practice.

Wes brings a track record of leadership in the global capital markets and the public accounting profession. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of XBRL International’s Board of Directors. XBRL International is a global not for profit operating in the public interest to improve the accountability and transparency of business performance globally, by providing the open data exchange standard for business reporting.

Professional Experience

Prior to joining PwC US, Wes served as the Securities & Exchange Commission’s Chief Accountant beginning in 2016. In his role as the SEC’s Chief Accountant, Wes was the principal advisor to the Commission on accounting and auditing matters, and led the Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant — a group of professionals widely regarded for advancing the quality of accountancy and financial reporting oversight in the capital markets in the US and internationally. He was also responsible for assisting the Commission with discharging its oversight of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and also served as chair for the Monitoring Group, a group of regulatory and international financial organizations committed to advancing the public interest in international audit standard setting and audit quality. Prior to joining the SEC, Wes was an Assurance partner at PwC and member of our National Quality Organization. He has worked with companies of all sizes and across many sectors — from multinationals to rapid-growth and start-ups. Across his prior roles, Wes has developed a record of combining technical and business acumen to achieve results.

Thomas L. Brown Jr., Associate Director – Data Strategy and Standards, Office of Financial Research, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Tom Brown is the Associate Director for Data Strategy & Standards at the Office of Financial Research – U.S. Department of the Treasury and is responsible for leading the OFR’s industry data standards strategy.

Mr. Brown currently represents the OFR on the Regulatory Oversight Committee (formally LEI ROC) for Over-the-Counter Derivative Data Harmonization working group, is Chair of the Accredited Standards Committee X9D Securities Subcommittee, and is a member of multiple International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committees. Previously, Mr. Brown represented ISITC and FIX Protocol Ltd. on the ISO 20022 Registration Management Group and the ISO TC68/SC4 Legal Entity Identifier working group 6.

Prior to joining the OFR in 2013, Mr. Brown managed financial standards initiatives with Brook Path Partners, Omgeo and Fidelity Investments, as well as previous global operational positions in Boston and Luxembourg with Brown Brothers Harriman and Merrill Lynch.

Todd Castagno is Head of Global Valuation, Accounting & Tax (GVAT) within Morgan Stanley’s Research division.

He provides accounting, tax, valuation, and financial modeling consultation services to analysts and investors and publishes research on accounting, tax, and valuation topics. He is ranked as a top analyst and has been named to Institutional Investor’s All-American Research Team. Todd serves on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Investor Advisory Committee and also chairs the Corporate Reporting Users’ Forum (CRUF), a network of investors and analysts that provide input to key stakeholders and policymakers on accounting and regulatory policy. Todd is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant in the state of New York.

Marc Joffe is a Senior Policy analyst at Reason Foundation.

After a long career in the financial industry, including a senior director role at Moody’s Analytics, Joffe’s research now focuses on sovereign and sub-sovereign credit risk and fiscal sustainability.

His financial research has been published by the California State Treasurer’s Office, UC Berkeley, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute among others. Joffe is a regular contributor to The Fiscal Times and his op-eds have also appeared in The Guardian, Bloomberg View and RealClearMarkets.

He has an MBA from New York University and an MPA from San Francisco State University.

Pranav Ghai, CEO, Calcbench

Pranav is the co-founder and CEO. He manages the day-to-day activities of Calcbench. Pranav has a background in Applied Mathematics. He brings more than two decades experience as an analyst at TIAA and ITG and at Calcbench. In addition, Pranav was a vice president for ModelWare and Quantitative & Derivative Strategies at Morgan Stanley. He is a Board Member of XBRL–U.S., is on the Technical Computing Advisory Board for Microsoft and is a member of the CFA Institute’s Corporate Disclosure Policy Council (“CDPC”) which addresses issues affecting the quality of financial reporting and disclosure worldwide.

Pranav holds a B.S. from Bates College and an M.S. from New York University.

Allison Herren Lee, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Allison Herren Lee was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn into office on July 8, 2019.

Commissioner Lee brings to the SEC over two decades of experience as a securities law practitioner. Most recently, she has written, lectured, and taught courses internationally in Spain and Italy on financial regulation and corporate law. Commissioner Lee served for over a decade in various roles at the SEC, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein, and as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. In addition, she has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, was a member of the American Bar Association’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure, and participated on a USAID project in Armenia, assisting in the drafting of periodic reporting and disclosure provisions for a comprehensive law of the Republic of Armenia on Securities Market Regulation.

Prior to government service, Commissioner Lee was a partner at Sherman & Howard LLC, focusing on securities, antitrust, and commercial litigation. A member of the Colorado bar, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Colorado and a JD from the University of Denver College of Law, where she was salutatorian, a Chancellor’s Scholar, and served on the Law Review.

Eric P. Linder, CFA

Eric Linder is president of SavaNet LLC, a financial analysis software company that develops applications for the management and analysis of financial models. Prior to founding SavaNet, Mr. Linder was a portfolio manager at hedge funds Falcon Management and NWI Investments where he managed quantitative equity portfolios. Mr. Linder also held various positions at J.P. Morgan culminating in the position of senior equity analyst.

Mr. Linder is a CFA^® charterholder and vice chairman of the CFA Society of New York’s Financial Reporting and Analysis Group. He was one of the developers of the US GAAP XBRL taxonomies now in use by the SEC and was a member of the CFA Institute’s XBRL Working Group. He graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College where he holds a degree in economics.

Jeff Mahoney General Counsel, Council of Institutional Investors (CII)

Jeffrey P. Mahoney joined the Council of Institutional Investors as general counsel in 2006. His responsibilities include advocating the Council’s membership-approved policies before standard setters, regulators, members of Congress, and other policy makers. Prior to joining the Council, Mahoney was counsel to the chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. From 1996-2006, he advised FASB and its parent entity, the Financial Accounting Foundation, on a variety of research, technical and administrative matters, and was primarily responsible for FASB’s Washington, D.C. liaison activities. Prior to joining FASB, Mahoney was a corporate securities lawyer at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP; a law clerk to the Honorable James G. Exum Jr., chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court; and an auditor at Arthur Andersen LLP. Mahoney holds a J.D. degree, served on the North Carolina Law Review, and was named to the Order of the Coif. He also holds a B.B.A. degree and an A.A. degree. Mahoney is a member of the District of Columbia and North Carolina Bar Associations and is admitted and qualified to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He also is a certified public accountant in North Carolina and Michigan, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.

Steven Meizanis, Global Data Product Manager, Bloomberg LP

Steven Meizanis is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in the financial industry. Steven graduated summa cum laude from Rider University with a bachelor’s degree in finance. Steven is currently the global head of Bloomberg’s LEI Services and Open Symbology. He also manages the Fixed Income Implementation team which is responsible for employing technology to solve for data ingestion and processing needs within the Fixed Income space. With a focus on industry standards, Steven most recently led an effort through the GLEIF accreditation process, allowing Bloomberg to become a Local Operating Unit (LOU) and issuer of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).

Steven joined Bloomberg in 1994 and quickly became an expert in fixed income products, covering fixed income calculations and structured notes. Steven has held multiple positions over the years within the Global Data division, including manager of the Fixed Income department and Quality Assurance. Steven was also responsible for overseeing business development for Bloomberg Data License, which combines the resources of the Bloomberg Professional Service – the world’s most trusted source of information, analytics, data and news – with end of day reference data services.

Steven also sits on the Board of Directors of the Data Foundation in DC. The Data Foundation is a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C. that seeks to improve government and society by using data to inform public policymaking.

Campbell Pryde, President and CEO

Campbell Pryde brings significant experience in technology development, accounting and finance to XBRL US. Before taking on the President and CEO position, Mr. Pryde led the development and maintenance of taxonomies as Chief Standards Officer, playing an integral role on the executive team. Mr. Pryde joined XBRL US from Morgan Stanley, where as Executive Director in the Institutional Securities Group, he managed the equity research XBRL-based valuation framework. He has been involved with XBRL since 2001, and served as Chairman of the XBRL US Domain Steering Committee during the critical initial build of the US GAAP Taxonomy under contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Pryde was a Partner in the Risk and Advisory Practice of KPMG LLP. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Dean Ritz, Senior Director, Workiva

Dean is a subject matter expert in information modeling with a focus on disclosure data modernization. As a Senior Director at Workiva, he applies his expertise to product and technology strategy, and policy advocacy for disclosure data modernization. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Data Foundation (a DC-based non-profit seeking to improve government and society by using data to inform public policymaking). His interests extend to topics of rhetoric and ethics, with scholarly work in these areas published by Oxford University Press (2011, 2009, 2007), and Routledge (2017). His most recent publication is a policy paper titled “Understanding Machine-Readability in Modern Data Policy” published by the Data Foundation in July, 2020.

David Rosenberg, Associate Professor of Law, Associate Director of the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity, Baruch College

Professor David Rosenberg teaches in the Law Department at Baruch College and is Director of the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity. He has written extensively on the fiduciary duties of corporate directors and corporate social responsibility. His most recent research has focused on the free speech and religious rights of the various stakeholders in a corporation. Professor Rosenberg is also a member of the consortial faculty of CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College where he teaches a course on the history of New York City.

Michael Schlanger, Vice President, Solution Sales, Toppan Merrill

Michael Schlanger is a business leader and innovator, with decades of experience in financial printing, who focuses on developing transaction and compliance product strategies based on client needs and regulatory changes. Mike leads a team of experts that guide the development and sale of Toppan Merrill Corporation’s SEC compliance and XBRL service offerings. Prior to joining Toppan Merrill Corporation, Mike performed numerous roles with other companies, including sales, sales management, division president and business development. He is currently serving as the Vice Chairman of the Board of XBRL US, where he has been a Board member since 2009. He is a frequent speaker at law firms, financial industry conferences and professional associations on topics related to SEC regulatory initiatives.

Mohini Singh, ACA

Mohini Singh is a director in the Financial Reporting Policy Group at CFA Institute. She identifies, writes about, and speaks on pressing issues related to financial reporting policy to foster greater transparency and accountability in global financial markets, including outreach to the industry, standard-setting and regulatory communities. Currently, she is focused on the areas of structured data and technology as well as ESG standards and increasing their use amongst the investment community.

Ms. Singh serves on the XBRL International Board, and the Consultative Advisory Groups (CAG) of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) as well as the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), both independent standard-setting bodies. In addition, she is a member of the XBRL US data quality committee, the CPA Canada Value Creation Working Group and the Appraisal Issues Task Force.

She is an ACA and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Christine Tan, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Research Officer of idaciti

Christine is also a professor in accounting at Hunter College – City University of New York. At idaciti, Christine oversees all research functions related to financial data analyses, data quality assurance and the application of machine learning to financial and non-financial datasets. Prior to that, she was the XBRL Project Manager at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for two years from 2010-2011. At the FASB, she led the team that was responsible for updating the US GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy for new accounting pronouncements, common reporting practices and for ongoing taxonomy architectural developments. Christine was also part of the core team at XBRL US that was contracted by the SEC to design and build the XBRL US GAAP Taxonomy. She is a member of the FASB’s Taxonomy Advisory Group and the IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group. Christine has consulted with a number of Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, investment banks and private equity firms on matters related to financial reporting, financial data analyses, XBRL and quantitative analyses of large financial data sets. She received her Ph.D. in Accounting and Finance, and a Bachelor of Commerce and Economics with First Class Honors from the University of Melbourne in Australia.

John Turner, CEO, XBRL International

John Turner leads XBRL International, the not-for-profit standards development organisation behind XBRL, the business reporting data exchange standard. He works with regulators, governments and the private sector to help the shift from a paper-based to a data-centric reporting paradigm. He has been involved in the XBRL standard, in a number of different capacities, since 1999. Prior to taking on his current role, at the end of 2013, he served as the CEO of CoreFiling, an XBRL software firm. Before that, he led the global XBRL activities of KPMG LLP, and prior to that, worked as a prudential regulator, running off-site surveillance and leading the revamp of data collection systems at APRA in Australia.

He is a passionate advocate for the pragmatic use of standards to enhance reporting and with the staff of XBRL International works with the consortium’s members and leading regulators around the world to this end. Based in Oxford in the United Kingdom, he holds degrees in Law and Arts from the University of Queensland, with majors in computer science and government.

Mike Willis, Assistant Director, Office of Structured Disclosure

Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Mike is a retired PwC partner with public company reporting, audit and data analytics experience and knowledge of relevant reporting standards, regulations and process and control considerations. He is the Assistant Director of the Office of Structured Disclosure at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where he is responsible for leading the design and implementation of technological processes and tools to support the many structured data needs of the Commission, including the creation, implementation, and maintenance of forms and processes designed to capture structured data from SEC registrants through their filings with the Commission.