Robert Sanborn is Partner and Portfolio Manager at Sanborn Kilkollin Partners. He has over 29 years experience in portfolio management and investment analysis and has been a strong and consistent proponent of value investing. Sanborn was the portfolio manager of The Oakmark Fund, the flagship mutual fund of Harris Associates, L.P., from Oakmark’s launch in August 1991 through March 2000. During this period, The Oakmark Fund’s assets grew from $100,000 to over $9 billion. In 1998, Lipper, Inc., ranked Oakmark in the top 10% of value mutual funds, and Barron’s named Mr. Sanborn the 1997 Fund Manager of the Year. Mr. Sanborn was a long-time member of Harris Associates’ Board of Directors and Stock Selection Committee. Before joining Harris in 1988, he was a security analyst and equity portfolio manager for the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, from 1983 to 1988. Sanborn holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College (1980) and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago (1983).

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Thomas Sandell founded Sandell Asset Management in January 1998 and is the Chairman and CEO. He has been involved in the securities industry since May, 1986. Mr. Sandell joined Bear Stearns & Co. in May, 1989, to establish the proprietary international risk arbitrage operation and to serve as a senior analyst in domestic risk arbitrage. He held the title of Senior Managing Director and was second-in-command of the Risk Arbitrage department. He previously worked as a securities analyst for Atlantic Finance in Paris from May 1986 to May 1987 and subsequently was head of equity research at Group Delphi in Paris. He received a B.S. in International Business Administration and Economics from Uppsala University (Sweden) and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School. Sandell is a founding Board Member and the current Chairman of The New Leader's Group of the Institute of International Education, the administrator of the US Government's Fulbright Program. He is also a Trustee of Friends of ARK (Absolute Return for Kids). He was born and raised in Sweden and resides in New York City.

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Andrew Sandler is the head of Sandler Capital Management and has served as the portfolio manager for its long/short equity strategy since 1997. Sandler Capital currently manages over $1.6 billion in its long/short equity strategy and has 32 employees. Mr. Sandler joined Sandler Capital in 1991 after beginning his career as a research analyst at Perry Capital, working alongside Paul Leff and Richard Perry. He grew up in the investment business and has studied the markets and analyzed stocks from an early age. He has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

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George Schultze is Managing Member and Founder of Schultze Asset Management, which invests in distressed securities. He chairs the firm’s Investment and Strategy Committees and, together with his team, makes the final decision on all investments for the portfolio. Mr. Schultze is the author of “The Art of Vulture Investing” published by Wiley Finance. Prior to founding SAM, he honed his activist distressed investing approach with MD Sass. Before that, he was employed with Fiduciary Partners fund of funds, the Mayer Brown & Platt law firm, and Merrill Lynch. He is a joint graduate of Columbia Business School and Columbia Law School, JD/MBA. He founded the Columbia Law School Investment Club and served as editor for the Columbia Business Law Review. He also authored several papers including: Negotiating the TWA Bankruptcy Restructuring, Tax Factors and ERISA Implications of Corporate Restructurings, and International Banking Law. While at Columbia, he placed 2nd in the 1995 business school annual stock-picking contest. He earned a BA from Rutgers College where he graduated with a joint major in Economics/Political Science and the Henry Rutgers Scholar distinction. While at Rutgers, he won The Wall Street Journal Award for Excellence in Economics and placed 23rd nationwide (from over 14,000 participants) and first place at Rutgers in the 1991 AT&T Annual Stock Picking Contest.

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Don Seymour is the Founder of DMS Offshore Investment Services, the worldwide leader in providing specialized professional services to the offshore investment management industry. Serving all major offshore financial centers and currently representing leading investment funds with assets under management of approximately $265 billion, DMS provides trusted and comprehensive Investment Funds, Banking + Custody, Trust, Corporate and Outsourcing solutions, that support investment across a range of structures, and diverse investment strategies. Seymour was directly responsible for the creation of the Investment Services Division of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, where he is credited with the development and implementation of its market-friendly and responsive regulatory framework for regulating hedge funds that propelled the Cayman Islands to become the leading hedge fund jurisdiction in the world. After his tenure as Head of Investment Services, he served as a member of the board of directors of CIMA. He is a previous Director of Cayman Airways Limited and a former member of the Trade & Business Licensing Board of the Cayman Islands. He began his career in Audit and Business Advisory Services with Price Waterhouse. Seymour serves as the Vice-President of the Cayman Islands Directors Association and is a member of the Financial Services Council of the Cayman Islands Government, a cabinet-level appointment to provide strategic advice on the financial industry to the government of the Cayman Islands. A Notary Public, he holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and a Certified Public Accountant certificate from Illinois.

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Mr. Pratik Sharma is the Managing Director of Atyant Capital, an India focused asset manager which sponsors private investment vehicles for Family Offices, Foundations, Endowments and High Net Worth Individuals. India is a dynamic economy which presents many opportunities and many challenges to international investors. Atyant Capital seeks to leverage its on the ground expertise combined with a bottoms up value investing investment philosophy to generate outperformance over a full business cycle. Prior to Atyant Capital, Mr. Sharma held various roles in the Management Consulting and Financial Services. Mr. Sharma graduated from Boston University’s College of Engineering with a degree in Biomedical Engineering.

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Irwin Speizer is conference manager for the HedgeWorld suite of conferences, responsible for creating the agenda and selecting speakers and panelists. Mr. Speizer is a professional journalist with experience covering hedge funds and the financial sector, including a stint as a staff writer at Absolute Return magazine.

Mr. Speizer has written for Alpha magazine, Institutional Investor, Fast Company, Business.com, On Wall Street, Crain’s Chicago Business, Workforce Management, the Los Angeles Times and the Raleigh, N.C. News and Observer. In addition to covering hedge funds and Wall Street, Mr. Speizer has written about the banking industry, energy, retail, real estate (both residential and commercial) and human resources.

Mr. Speizer holds a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

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