2006 SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation

Panelist and Moderator Biographies

Greg D. Adams is a Director and the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of EDGAR Online, Norwalk, Connecticut. Mr. Adams is a Certified Public Accountant with diversified business experience in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining EDGAR Online, he served as the Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration of PRT Group Inc., a technology solutions and services company. Mr. Adams was the Chief Financial Officer of the Blenheim Group Inc., a publicly held UK information technology exposition and conference management company for trade shows, such as PC Expo and Networks Expo. Before that, Mr. Adams worked for 11 years as an accountant with KPMG. He is a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and serves as Vice Chairman of Financial Executives International’s Committee on Finance and Information Technology. Mr. Adams has a B.B.A. degree in Accounting from the College of William & Mary.

Brian R. Balbirni is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of My EDGAR, Inc., Cary, North Carolina. Before My EDGAR, Mr. Balbirnie founded a compliance and consulting company called Catapult Consulting Group LLC-a practice focused on assisting small cap and micro-cap companies with compliance challenges and reporting transparencies. Mr. Balbirnie also served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Mobile Reach International, a public company located in Cary, North Carolina. Mr. Balbirnie was responsible for the day-to-day operations, including all facets of SEC reporting. His duties included directing corporate compliance and investor relations as well as overseeing different business units. Mr. Balbirnie spent several years consulting with several companies in the Tampa Bay area, assisting in public strategies, mergers and acquisitions and financial reporting. Mr. Balbirnie has always maintained rolls in private investment and public equity markets both with institutional and boutique firms. Mr. Balbirnie attended St. Petersburg College, majoring in Business Administration and Marketing.

Martin P. Dunn is the Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, Washington, D.C. Mr. Dunn has been with the Division of Corporation Finance since 1988 and served as the Division’s Associate Director (Legal) from 1999 until March 2002. He received his J.D. from The American University and a B.B.A. in finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Deborah Allen Hewitt currently serves as Clinical Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. Dr. Hewitt also serves as a member of the Investment Committee of the Virginia Retirement System, which manages a $45 billion portfolio. She was President of Rutledge Research, a private research firm specializing in economic research, market sector valuation, and portfolio risk metrics, from 1995 to 2005. She was President of Claremont Economics Institute, an economics consulting and forecasting firm that advised the first Reagan administration as well as hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, from 1980 through 1995. Dr. Hewitt was the Chairman of The Claremont Fund, a family of mutual funds, from 1984 to 1988. She has also worked as an international economist at the U.S. Treasury. Dr. Hewitt holds her Ph.D. from Duke University, where she was a James B. Duke scholar. Dr. Hewitt is also an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees of the Endowment of the College of William & Mary, where she received her BA in economics with high honors and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

John D. Hogoboom is a Member of Lowenstein Sandler PC, Roseland, New Jersey. Mr. Hogoboom concentrates his practice in securities and mergers and acquisitions. He frequently represents entrepreneurs in the establishment, funding and growth of new ventures, including the negotiation of venture capital investments and strategic alliances. He has represented a number of companies in initial public offerings and registered secondaries. He has represented both buyers and sellers in all types of acquisitions and disposition transactions. Mr. Hogoboom received his B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, cum laude, where he served on the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Gerald J. Laporte serves as Chief of the Office of Small Business Policy in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, Washington, D.C. He has practiced law in Washington, D.C. since 1976, including a previous period at the SEC from 1982 to 1987. Before rejoining the SEC in late 2002, Mr. Laporte practiced with the firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP. From 1997 to 1998, Mr. Laporte served as Chairman of the Corporation, Finance and Securities Law Section of the District of Columbia Bar. He holds a J.D. degree, awarded with honors, from the George Washington University Law School, where he was Managing Editor of the law review. He also holds an M.A. degree in political science from Georgetown University, and degrees from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and Sacred Heart Seminary College, Detroit.

Philip C. Marchal is a Director, Equity Capital Markets of BMO Capital Markets, New York, New York. He is responsible for the origination and execution of registered directs and PIPEs for corporate clients across all sectors. Before joining BMO Capital Markets in 2006, Mr. Marchal was a Principal at ThinkEquity Partners focused on PIPEs and registered directs as well as equity placements for private companies. Before ThinkEquity, Mr. Marchal worked for eight years at JPMorgan in a variety of capacities, including equity and debt private placements and mergers and acquisitions across all industries. Mr. Marchal began his career with the U.S. Department of Commerce as an analyst investigating international trade disputes. He has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins’ Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College.

Marc H. Morgenstern is a Partner in Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, San Francisco, California. Mr. Morgenstern practices in Sonnenschein’s Corporate Practice Group. Mr. Morgenstern was the founding lawyer for national retailer OfficeMax and represents public companies and private equity and venture capital funds. He focuses on public and emerging growth companies, private equity and venture capital funds, corporate governance, buying and selling businesses, and public offerings. Mr. Morgenstern has written and lectured extensively on business, securities, private equity, and other legal issues at national forums. Mr. Morgenstern received a J.D. degree from Boston University School of Law and a B.A. degree from Yale University.

Malcolm C. Persen is Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Finance and Secretary of Radyne Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to joining Radyne, Mr. Persen served as the Chief Financial Officer for DW Acquisitions, a private equity partnership involved in the acquisition and operation of direct-mail and marketing businesses.  He was Director of Finance for Avnet Inc. a distributor of electronic components and computer systems.  For several years, Mr. Persen was a Senior Manager with the consultancy Arthur D. Little, where he worked with a global portfolio of clients primarily involved with corporate level strategy development and execution.  Mr. Persen has served as an independent financial consultant to emerging businesses.  He holds a BA in Political Economics from The Colorado College, and an MBA from The Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Steven D. Pidgeon is a Partner in Snell & Wilmer LLP, Phoenix, Arizona. Mr. Pidgeon’s practice is concentrated in securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged recapitalizations, venture capital investments and general corporate matters. He represents issuers, underwriters, venture capital firms, financial intermediaries and consolidators. Mr. Pidgeon has lectured on numerous corporate and securities topics, including initial public offerings, PIPEs, disclosure issues and corporate governance, and has also authored a number of articles on these subjects. Mr. Pidgeon has B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Miami, magna cum laude.

Anna T. Pinedo is a Partner in Morrison & Foerster, LLP, New York, New York. Ms. Pinedo has extensive experience as a corporate lawyer in the areas of securities and derivatives. She has particular financing expertise representing companies across a range of industries, having worked with technology-based companies (Internet-related, life science and biotech), telecommunications companies, healthcare companies, financial institutions, REITs and consumer finance companies. Ms. Pinedo has a B.S.F.S. degree from Georgetown University. She received her J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as a member of the University of Chicago Legal Forum.

Byron Roth is Chairman of Roth Capital Partners, Newport Beach, California. He has served as CEO since 1997, President since 1993, and Director of Corporate Finance since 1992. Roth Capital Partners is a leading investment bank for emerging growth companies. Roth Capital Partners has been the leading placement agent over the past two years for a number of PIPE transactions. Mr. Roth earned his undergraduate degree from the University of San Diego and his MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

Peter J. Wallison is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) and co-director of AEI’s program on Financial Market Deregulation, Washington, D.C. Mr. Wallison is an expert on financial services and banking law. Before joining AEI, Mr. Wallison practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. He has held a number of government positions. From June 1981 to January 1985, he was General Counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan Administration's proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry, served as General Counsel to the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee, and participated in the Treasury Department's efforts to deal with the LDC debt issue. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was Counselor to the President of the United States. Between 1972 and 1976, he served first as Special Assistant to New York's Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller when he was Vice President of the United States. Mr. Wallison earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and law degree from Harvard Law School.

R. Christopher Whalen is a Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a unit of Lord, Whalen LLC, Hawthorne, California. Mr. Whalen is responsible for sales, marketing and business development at Institutional Risk Analytics. Mr. Whalen is a general securities principal and has worked as an investment banker, research analyst and journalist for more than two decades. He is active in the US Jurisdiction of XBRL International and participates in the adoption working group of XBRL US. Mr. Whalen has appeared before the U.S. Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission to testify on a variety of financial issues and speaks on topics such as investing, Enterprise Risk Management, Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley.

John W. White is Director of the Division of Corporation Finance, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C. He joined the SEC staff in March 2006. Prior to joining the staff, Mr. White was a partner for over 25 years at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he represented public companies, their directors and their financial advisors on a wide variety of matters including public financings, public reporting obligations, corporate governance issues, restatements and other financial crises. Mr. White has played an instrumental role in the Commission’s recent steps to improve the implementation of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regarding internal control over financial reporting. Mr. White has been a frequent speaker on the securities laws and corporate governance and has been actively involved with leading securities law conferences around the country. He is currently serving as Vice Chairman of the Securities Regulation Institute. Mr. White received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and his B.S. in accounting from the University of Virginia.

http://www.sec.gov/info/smallbus//gbfor25_2006/gbfor25bios.htm