Experts

Wendy Lane Chairman

Wendy Lane has served for over 30 years on 12 boards, three of which were internationally based and several of which oversaw transformational change. She is a qualified Financial Expert and a recognized expert in finance, compensation and governance.

Transformational Change—sitting on the Verisk board to oversee structural and operational transformation; on the Willis board for 7 years, then selected to serve on the merged board of Willis Towers Watson to oversee the merger integration and subsequent growth of the merged company to its current market cap exceeding $25B. Also selected to join MSCI’s board as part of an activist slate. While at MSCI, oversaw the development of a major strategic and business strategy shift and was deeply involved in capital allocation and capital expenditure approvals as well as C-level revisions and was central to the major restructuring of the accompanying compensation plan. The share price tripled in 2 and 1/2 years, with a market cap exceeding $18.5B when she left the board.

At LabCorp, she joined in the midst of a regulatory suit that sent the shares into the single digits before the company recovered to become the premier diagnostic testing company in the US, including participating in its decision to acquire Covance to strengthen its position in personalized medicine and biopharma sciences. On the board of Tyco, Ms. Lane helped to stabilize the company and select the new CEO and reviewed various control systems to preclude future problems. She was the one current director selected by the new board to help develop all of its governance policies and practices.

Financial Expert—For 15 years, Ms. Lane was an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co and then DLJ where she left as a Principal and Managing Director. She served a broad range of companies all across the globe and designed and oversaw the full range of transactions and advisory work, including IPOs, capital raises and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Lane was lead banker on transactions for Orient Leasing, Advanced Micro Devices, Roche Holdings, Epsilon Data and other companies. She is a founding individual investor in several companies including but not limited to Staples, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Skyhook and the initial leveraged buyout of 7-Up, and invests in the medtech and biotech industries. Her broad range of experience enables her to cross-fertilize ideas between companies and industries.

Ms. Lane chaired LabCorp’s Audit Committee for 12 years, sat on the Audit Committee of WLTW and its predecessor for 12 years, founded and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee of private family held Saudi company Al-Dabbagh Group, and sat on the Audit Committee of UPM, a $16B Finnish paper, pulp and energy company, for 13 years. She recently became the Lead Director of a Canadian fintech SPAC.

Governance and Compensation Expert—Ms. Lane is a recognized expert in Governance and speaks at many venues, including those of the NACD, Council of International Investors, 13D Monitor, Harvard Business School, and Stanford Law School, among others.

Ms. Lane chaired the Compensation Committee at Willis Towers Watson and its predecessor company through the merger and turnover of two CEOs. She chaired the Compensation Committee of LabCorp and sat on the Compensation Committee of MSCI. In addition, Ms. Lane has served on Executive, CEO Search, and Strategic Alternatives Committees

Amy Rojik Partner, National Assurance

Amy Rojik has spent 19 years with BDO as part of the National Professional Practice. She founded and directs BDO’s Center for Corporate Governance, designed for those charged with governance of both public and private companies. She is responsible for the development and presentation of a significant volume of BDO’s continuing professional education (CPE)-worthy webinar, on-demand and podcast programs and thought leadership pieces on a variety of matters related to corporate governance, including cybersecurity, fraud, succession planning, and audit quality. She further develops certain of our firm’s board of director forums as well as participates in external events for corporate directors.

Amy also participates in the development and implementation of BDO’s national strategies and initiatives that support industry, business, technical, and client service goals and serves on BDO’s ESG Executive Leadership Team. She is responsible for publication and issuance of BDO’s annual voluntary Audit Quality Report as well as tools and templates supporting communications with our client Audit Committees.
Amy currently serves as BDO's Policy Lead to and participates on the Center for Audit Quality’s (CAQ) Advisory Council and has assisted in CAQ initiatives, including audit committee communications and audit quality indicators.

She fully supports BDO initiatives aimed at flexibility, development, and career progression, and serves the BDO’s Women’s Inclusion initiative and the Virtual Parenting Network as well as BDO’s focus on the audit of the future.

Amy has a combined 11 years of prior Big Four firm public accounting experience serving manufacturing and high technology companies as well as private companies, primarily in the wholesale distribution and biotechnology markets. Such experience included assisting clients with public debt offerings and acquisition transactions.

Gloria Cordes Larson Director and Board Member

Gloria Cordes Larson was the President of Bentley University from 2007 until her retirement in 2018. She spent her post-presidency Sabbatical as President in Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 2018 to 2019. Larson previously served as partner, co-chairperson of the Government Practices Group, and coordinator for the Administrative Practices Group at Foley Hoag, LLP, joining the law firm in 1996. Prior to joining Foley Hoag, she served as Secretary of Economic Affairs and as Secretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and prior to that was Deputy Director of Consumer Protection for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington.

Ms. Larson has served on the Board of Directors of Unum Group since 2004, where she is Chair of the Governance Committee. In addition, she presently serves as a director on the board of reacHIRE, a privately held company. Larson also served as a director of Boston Private Financial Holdings, Inc. from 2015 until the sale of the company in 2021. Previous public company board service also includes RSA Security and KeySpan Energy, as well as service as a director of BCBS of MA.

Active in civic engagement, Ms. Larson currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, President of the MA Conference for Women, Trustee of McLean Hospital, and Emeritus director of NACD NE.

Hosts

Ellen Richstone Member of the Board of Directors

As a Board member, currently a Financial Expert and Audit Chair. In addition, experience on Compensation and Nom/Gov Committees. Public Boards range in size from micro-cap up to Large Cap. Operating Experience as CFO up to $4Billion in revenue. From an operating perspective, CEO of private services company growing it threefold. Have also been CFO for both public and private companies ranging in size from early stage up to US $4Billion in revenue and market caps up to US$7 Billion. She is a former Fortune 500 CFO (Rohr Aerospace) and former Fortune 500 Treasurer (Data General). Other companies included: Sonus Networks (Telecommunications), Brooks Automation (semiconductors) and Honeywell Bull (mainframe computers), Polaroid (Consumer Products) and Chemical Bank (Financial Services). Operating experience includes completing and integrating over 35 acquisitions, raising over US$1 Billion in the equity/debt markets and implementing business planning/operational reviews globally. Extensive global business experience includes: China, Europe, India, Japan, S. Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, US), Investor Relations, Crisis Management, Manufacturing, Growth and Turnaround.