Marlys M. Appleton, Vice President and Sustainability Steering Committee Chair

Marlys M. Appleton is a Vice President of Investment Strategy and Risk and Chair of AIG Asset Management’s Sustainability Steering Committee where she oversees the governance structure for architecting sustainability into the investment process. Her multi-disciplined background in financial markets is grounded in such traditional risk as fixed income market and theoretical pricing and option-adjusted valuations of illiquid bonds, interest rate stress testing, scenario analysis, and the newly identified ESG (environmental, social and governance) risk.

In 2006, based on her leadership in an elite concept team looking at newly emerging ESG risks, she was appointed by the CEO to spearhead the integration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) risk into investment decision making. In this capacity, she has developed and executed strategies for enhanced investment due diligence, including thought leadership, education and skill building, reporting metrics, and data acquisition to support enhanced due diligence.

Ms. Appleton developed proxy voting policy on environmental and social (E & S) issues and led the effort internally to establish the legal and fiduciary basis for E and S proxy voting. Externally, she engages with NGO’s as AIG’s signatory representative at the UN Environmental Program- Finance Initiative and with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Using CDP data, she developed a carbon intensity calculator to assess the embedded footprint of portfolio holdings in sensitive sectors including oil sands and metals and mining, among others.

Previous positions include Vice President of Portfolio Analytics at BlackRock Financial Management, Senior Risk Consultant at MSCI BARRA, and with Dr. Thomas Ho in his insurance consulting practice; Head of Institutional Fixed Income Sales at UBS Securities, and Adjunct Lecturer at New York University’s Finance, Tax and Law Department, specializing in fixed income.

Ms. Appleton holds an MS from the MIT Sloan School of Management, a BA in Economics from the University of Washington and a Certificate in Pubic Finance from the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF), a network of knowledgeable practitioners working to advance women as leaders in sustainability. She serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) and is a prolific contributor to leading financial texts.

James W. Heavener, CEO

James W. Heavener is the CEO of The Heavener Company, through which he holds and manages his interests in education, media production, internet services, real estate franchising, publishing, banks, and information technology. Mr. Heavener serves on many boards. He is Co-Chairman and CEO of Full Sail University, Co-Chairman of LA Film School, LA Recording School, and RMCAD (Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design). He is a Managing Partner of Platinum Creative Media Production, as well as a Director of Alliance Multimedia Investors, Inc., an extreme sports’ publication. His real estate interests include serving as Managing Director of ERA Europe, a group of 1,300 European residential real estate offices located in 19 European Union countries, Co-Chairman of ProMarketWeb, Ltd., a European residential MLS, and Co-Chairman and CEO of Silver City Partners of Florida. He is the Co-CEO and Director of Pioneer Technology Group, LLC, a software development company specializing in software solutions for government institutions.

Mr. Heavener is also a Director for Florida Capital Bank. In addition to Mr. Heavener’s board responsibilities, he is proud to serve as a Director to Take Stock in Children and to the Davey O’Brien Foundation. He is a Founding Trustee of the Global Pastors Network and the Bright Media Foundation, as well as an Orlando Advisor for the International Justice Mission. Staying true to his alma mater, Mr. Heavener serves the University of Florida Alumni Association and the Gator Boosters as one of their Directors, and is also a member of the Harvard Club of Central Florida. Some of Mr. Heavener’s prior accomplishments include his years at ERA Real Estate Southeast, ERA Mortgage, Inc. and ERA Insurance as Co-Founder and CEO; Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of The Enterprise Bank Network. Mr. Heavener holds a BSBA from the University of Florida and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School OPM (Owner/President Management).

Roger Krakoff, Venture Capitalist

Roger Krakoff has nearly 20 years of venture capital, equity investing and operating experience. He has been a Venture Partner with Sigma Partners for the last five years focusing on enterprise related investments in the areas of software, services, mobility, virtualization, e-commerce and data intensive applications. Before joining Sigma Partners, Mr. Krakoff was a General Partner with JEGI Capital – an early stage focused media and technology enabled marketing venture capital fund. Prior to JEGI Capital, he served as a Managing Director in Veronis Suhler Stevenson's Business & Professional Information Group, where he focused primarily on business information companies in the areas of IT, marketing services and vertical market solutions. Previously, Mr. Krakoff served as Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at WebLine Communications, Inc.; Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategic Marketing at Stream International, a services subsidiary of R. R. Donnelley & Sons.; and at Dun & Bradstreet Corporation he held a variety of senior management, marketing and business development positions. Mr. Krakoff began his career with IBM. Mr. Krakoff earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics from Tufts University.

Pascal Levensohn, Founder and Managing Partner

Pascal Levensohn has been a finance professional for twenty eight years and a venture capitalist since 1996, when he founded Levensohn Venture Partners ("LVP") in San Francisco. LVP specializes in intelligent infrastructure investments in security, cleantech, and digital media companies. Pascal is an industry spokesperson on venture capital trends and a frequent speaker on corporate governance issues. His public policy speeches have been quoted extensively, reprinted in prominent VC industry blogs, and he has written opinion pieces and been quoted in publications including the San Jose Mercury News and The Wall Street Journal. In May 2006, Pascal established and now chairs the Working Group on Director Accountability and Board Effectiveness, a 33 member VC industry group that promotes director education and best governance practices. The group’s first effort, “A Simple Guide to the Basic Responsibilities of Venture–Backed Company Directors”, was published in January 2007.

Pascal co-authored the first governance white paper in the VC industry in November 2003, "After the Term Sheet: How Venture Boards Influence the Success or Failure of Technology Companies". A second white paper, “Rites of Passage: Managing CEO Transition in Venture-Backed Technology Companies”, was published in January 2006. Pascal's VC governance work is widely used in the field and is part of the curriculum at several universities, including the Harvard Business School and Stanford's Graduate School of Engineering (Department of Management Science & Engineering). These papers are freely available at www.levp.com. Pascal was elected to the board of the National Venture Capital Association (www.nvca.org) in April 2007, where he chairs the education committee. He is a former co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Aspen Institute’s Socrates Society (www.aspeninstitute.org), a leadership development program with which he has been involved since 1997. Pascal is an active advocate of public policy initiatives to promote early adoption of leading technology security solutions by the Federal Government. In 2009 he became a director of the Security Innovation Network, "SInet" (www.publicprivatepartnerships.org) and LVP has been the lead venture capital sponsor of the IT Security Entrepreneurs Forum ("ITSEF"), held annually at Stanford University since its inception in 2007. Pascal received a BA in Government from Harvard University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (www.cfr.org).

James B. Lurie, CPA/ABV, ASA, CBA, CVA, BVAL, CIRA 

James B. Lurie has over 35 years of diversified financial experience. He is currently a Member of CapVal, LLC, providing appraisal, litigation, bankruptcy, and business planning services. He holds both the Certified Business Appraiser and Business Valuator Accredited in Litigation designations from The Institute of Business Appraisers, the Accredited Senior Appraiser designation from the American Society of Appraisers, the Accredited in Business Valuation designation from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Certified Valuation Analyst designation from National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

For many years he had an active bankruptcy and reorganization practice and earned the Certified Insolvency and Reorganization Advisor designation from the Association of Insolvency and Reorganization Advisors. He is a member is the American Arbitration Association’s Panel of Neutrals for commercial cases, and has provided mediation services for the United States Bankruptcy Court – District of Delaware. Mr. Lurie has testified as an expert witness in state and federal courts in North Carolina, Vermont, Georgia, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. Mr. Lurie has been a senior commercial banker with extensive loan recovery and turnaround experience in New York and New England. He also held senior treasury positions with Revlon, Inc. and Sony Corporation of America. He served in the United States Air Force as a Crew Commander and an Instructor in the Minuteman missile system. Mr. Lurie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Michigan State University’s Honors College and a Master’s Degree in Industrial Management from the University of North Dakota. * CPA licensed in North Carolina (#26542) and Ohio (#45516)

Timothy P. Selby, Partner

Tim Selby is a partner at the law firm of Alston & Bird and focuses his practice on advising clients with respect to the structuring, formation and management of hedge funds, publicly offered and privately placed commodity pools, and private equity funds. He represents a broad range of clients, employing a wide variety of alternative investment strategies, from well-established institutions to experienced fund managers that have decided to venture out on their own. In addition, he is often called upon by clients to provide advice with respect to compliance with exemptions from the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Commodity Exchange Act, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, SEC and CFTC regulations, and NFA and NASD rules.

Mr. Selby is licensed as a CPA, a chair of the Committee on Futures Regulation of the New York City Bar Association, a member of the Futures Industry Association, a member of the Government Relations Committee of the Managed Funds Association, and is the President of the New York Hedge Fund Roundtable.

Mitchell H. Shames, Independent Fiduciary

Mitchell H. Shames is an expert in fiduciary practices and investment products for domestic and global institutional investors. Mr. Shames, an attorney for over 25 years, is the co-founder of Harrison Fiduciary Group (HFG), a firm providing independent and investment named fiduciary services to retirement plans. Prior to forming HFG, Mr. Shames was the General Counsel for State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the $1.8 trillion global investment management unit of State Street Corporation, where he managed a legal staff of over 25 lawyers across four continents and provided advice to senior management on a daily basis.

In addition to his duties at SSgA, Mr. Shames was also an Executive Vice-President of State Street Corporation. Over the course of his tenure at SSgA, Mr. Shames structured a variety of fiduciary relationships for corporate and institutional clients, ranging from investment management and company stock management to broader fiduciary oversight engagements. He served as a member of SSgA’s Independent Fiduciary Committee that provided fiduciary services for corporate benefit plan sponsors. He also structured SSgA’s firm-wide Fiduciary Review Committee for purposes of overseeing all fiduciary matters within SSgA. His expertise in the establishment of fiduciary policies and procedures contributed to State Street’s court victories in significant class action lawsuits. Mr. Shames has had extensive experience working with state, federal and international regulators. He oversaw significant examinations with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor pertaining to market timing and late trading allegations; and, he served as the lead attorney on a Department of Justice investigation. Mr. Shames has a sophisticated understanding of investment strategies and is an expert on the wide range of investment vehicles available to institutional clients in the U.S. and globally. He was the key legal advisor in the creation of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF in 1993 (the first Exchange Traded Fund). Earlier in his career, Mr. Shames was a tax associate first at Sherburne, Powers and Needham, and then at Goulston & Storrs, law firms located in Boston, MA. Mr. Shames received an A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1979, a J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1983, and an Ll.M. in taxation from New York University in 1984.

Richard Slavin, Managing Partner

Richard Slavin is the managing partner of the law firm of Cohen and Wolf's Westport office. He is a principal and chair of Cohen and Wolf, P.C.'s Securities Group. He is also a member of the firm's Litigation and Business & Corporate Groups. Mr. Slavin practices in the areas of securities regulation, securities and federal court litigation, and banking regulation. He regularly represents broker-dealers, investment advisors, broker-dealer agents, investment advisor agents and solicitors, and issuers of securities before federal, state and self-regulatory securities agencies.

Prior to joining Cohen and Wolf, Mr. Slavin served as the Director of the Connecticut Banking Department's Securities and Business Investments Division from 1981 to 1983. Prior to that time, he served as a financial analyst examiner, staff attorney, and attorney inspector at the Ohio Division of Securities from 1972 through 1981. He also served as a staff attorney in the Division of Enforcement at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in 1981, as a part of the Intergovernmental Exchange Act Program.

Mr. Slavin is admitted to practice in Connecticut and Ohio. He is a member of the Connecticut Banking Commissioner's Securities Act Advisory Council. He served as chairman of the Business Law Committee of the Greater Bridgeport Bar Association from 1996 to 1998, and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Connecticut Bar Association's Business Law Section since 1985. He was the chairman of the Section's Securities Law Committee from 1995 to 2000, a position he also held from 1985-1990. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Connecticut Bar Association's Federal Practice Committee. In 2007 Mr. Slavin was elected as a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation.

Mr. Slavin was recognized as a leading lawyer in Connecticut in the area of Commercial Litigation by the 2009 edition of Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business . In addition, Mr. Slavin was included in the 2009 edition of Best Lawyers in the area of Securities Law.

Mr. Slavin serves on the State Regulation of Securities Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and is vice-chair of its Enforcement Committee. He is also the liaison for this Committee to the Connecticut Banking Department. Mr. Slavin is a member of the Securities Litigation Committee and the Arbitration and Enforcement Subcommittees of the Litigation Section and a member of the Federal Practice Section of the American Bar Association. He is a member of the Arbitration Boards of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. and the National Futures Association. Mr. Slavin is the author of "Securities Regulation in 1990," Connecticut Bar Journal, May 1990, and lectures and writes extensively on securities law.

Mr. Slavin was a member of the Board of Directors of Connecticut Legal Services, Inc. from 1993 through 2007, where he served as fundraising chair for ten years. He previously served as secretary to this organization and as a member of its executive committee. Mr. Slavin was a founder of the Legal Center for Connecticut Non-Profit Organizations, Inc. and contributes as a trustee or board member for a variety of leading non-profit organizations.

Mr. Slavin received his B.A. in 1969 and his M.B.A. in 1972 from Case Western Reserve University. He received his J.D. in 1977 from the University of Akron.