Karen Abraham
Senior Vice President of Finance
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona

As senior vice president of finance at BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona (BCBSAZ), Karen Abraham is responsible for the company’s financial reporting, cost accounting and budgeting, financial operations, financial systems, purchasing, the fleet department, and support operations, including distribution services, optical data capture, microfilming, and duplication services. She is also responsible for corporate facilities.

As senior vice president of finance at BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona (BCBSAZ), Karen Abraham is responsible for the company’s financial reporting, cost accounting and budgeting, financial operations, financial systems, purchasing, the fleet department, and support operations, including distribution services, optical data capture, microfilming, and duplication services. She is also responsible for corporate facilities.

Abraham graduated from Arizona State University in 1979 with a B.S. degree in accountancy. She serves on the Board of the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Abraham serves on the YMCA Metro Board and is the secretary/treasurer for the Phoenix Public Library Foundation Board.

Bob Auer
Embedded Products Controller
Intel Corporation

As the Intel embedded products controller, Bob Auer leads and manages an organization responsible for strategic investment support for 27 market segments as well as budget management and financial reporting for a large business group. Auer has been with Intel for 11 years and has held a number of positions, including three years as the global indirect materials controller.

Auer’s professional interests center on leadership development, game theory, strategic thinking and advanced negotiation. Auer has 22 years of direct international experience from travelling and doing business.

Auer graduated from Arizona State University in 1998 with a B.S. in finance. He has co-led the Intel/ASU collaborative thesis program with Dr. Michael Hertzel since 2001. He in involved with Scouts, United Way, Singleton Moms and Gilbert Public Schools, and is a leadership development trainer.

Jason Berg
Principal Financial Officer
Amerco/Uhaul

Jason Berg is principal financial officer for AMERCO, the holding company of U-Haul, AMERCO Real Estate, Oxford Life Insurance and Republic Western Insurance. U-Haul employs more than 17,000 people across the country at over 1,400 company locations with its home office located in downtown Phoenix. In his current position he is responsible for the financial management of the AMERCO system, reporting, analysis, accounting, SEC reporting, tax compliance and investor relations.

Berg first joined AMERCO in its life insurance subsidiary in 1996 and held the positions of chief financial officer, treasurer, secretary and vice president.

He is a 1995 graduate of Arizona State University and has a B.S. in accountancy. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Kurt Brueckner is a founding partner of the law offices of Titus, Brueckner & Berry, P.C. He has experience in transactional and litigation matters involving securities, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, finance, intellectual property, corporate law and commercial litigation. He has represented real estate developers, home builders, brokerage firms, businesses seeking debt and equity financing, mergers and acquisition transactions, internet and software companies and various other entities and individuals in numerous transactions, regulatory enforcement actions, commercial litigation, arbitration proceedings and corporate representation.

Brueckner is the former chairman of the Scottsdale Area of Commerce and the 2008 recipient of the Chairman’s Award. He is the past-president and former member of the Board of Directors of the Scottsdale Bar Association. Brueckner received the 2007 award of excellence from the Scottsdale Bar Association and the 2008 Frank W. Hodges Alumni Achievement Award from Scottsdale Leadership for his significant contributions to the community. He also serves on the Scottsdale Leadership Advisory Board and the McDowell Corridor/South Scottsdale Economic Development Task Force. He has served on the Securities Council and Committee on Rules and Regulations of the Securities Section of the State Bar of Arizona. Brueckner has also lectured on various aspects of real estate, securities and corporate law.

Brueckner graduated magna cum laude in business administration from Arizona State University in 1977 and was awarded the degree of Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1980. Prior experience includes working on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., serving as in-house counsel for a Fortune 100 corporation and working for a national law firm based in San Francisco.

Brueckner is currently, and/or has in the past been, involved in various civic organizations, including: president and member of Board of Directors of Scottsdale/Paradise Valley YMCA, chairman of the Scottsdale City Transportation Commission, vice-chairman and member of City of Scottsdale Redevelopment Board, chairman of the Transportation Committee and the State Affairs Committee of the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, director of Heritage Foundation of Arizona, and legal counsel to the Foothills Community Foundation, Inc. He has also been involved with or a member of the advisory board to Senator Jon Kyl, the Board of Trustees of Healthwest Regional Medical Center, the Board of Directors of Scottsdale Leadership, and the Scottsdale City Endowment Advisory Board.

Bill Cox
Executive Vice President
CORE Construction Services of Arizona

Bill Cox is executive vice president of CORE Construction Services of Arizona. CORE is a leading national general contractor with revenues exceeding $700 million. CORE has built notable Arizona projects such as Chase Field, Surprise Sports Stadium and the Dodge Theater. Cox joined CORE in 2004 and is responsible for all aspects relating to sales and marketing. Under Cox’s direction, CORE has more than doubled revenue in the past three years. In addition, CORE was ranked the #1 contractor by Ranking Arizona magazine in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

As a college student in 1993 Cox began raising money for Arizona State University. Upon graduating in 1996, he joined the ASU Foundation as the associate director of Annual Programs. For seven years Cox worked for ASU in a variety of development positions, including associate director of development for the W.P. Carey School of Business and assistant vice president of the ASU Foundation.

Cox also has been actively involved in the community, serving nonprofit organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Scottsdale, the Association for Construction Excellence, the Economic Club of Phoenix and the Arizona Association for Economic Development.

Tim Dillingham
Vice President & Senior Relationship Manager
Wells Fargo Bank

Tim Dillingham graduated in 1990 from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance. Dillingham joined Wells Fargo in 1990 and has held a various positions in different locations, such as bank examiner in Los Angeles, where he reviewed credit quality of the commercial bank loan portfolio and served as trainee in the credit management training program in San Francisco, real estate loan officer in the commercial real estate workout group in Los Angeles, relationship manager at the South Bay Regional Banking Office in Long Beach, relationship manager at the Arizona Regional Commercial Banking Office in Phoenix, and loan team manager at the Central Texas Regional Commercial Banking Office in Austin.

Currently Dillingham has the position of vice president and loan team leader in the Arizona Regional Commercial Banking Office in Phoenix. He is primarily responsible for managing a team of five relationship managers that maintain 113 relationships with total loan outstandings of $540 million.

Susan Edwards, CFP
First Vice President, Financial Advisor
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

For three years after graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1968 with a degree in biology, Susan Edwards worked in basic hearing research. She then switched to personal finance and real estate. She moved to Phoenix in 1975, and began her career in financial planning and wealth management in 1977 with Reynolds Securities, a predecessor firm to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Edwards earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation in 1983. She was the 1996 honoree as Outstanding Professional by the YWCA of Maricopa County. In 1997, she was one of five people nationwide to be inducted into the Research Magazine Advisor Hall of Fame, which recognizes successful veteran registered representatives who have served both their clients and their community.

Edwards has a history of active and varied community involvement. She has served on and chaired the boards of two large behavioral health agencies. As a member of the City of Phoenix Bond Committee in 1988, she was instrumental in the birth of the Phoenix recycling program. She became fascinated with the judicial system while serving on the Arizona Commission on the Courts in 1988-1989, where she was vice-chair of the Task Force on Productivity. A recommendation of the Task Force was the creation of the Arizona Judicial Council (AJC), which was established by the Chief Justice in 1990. The AJC assists the Supreme Court in managing the court system and helps develop the central direction for managing all state courts and coordinating court services. Edwards has served since she was named to the Council in 2000, and was honored with the Chief Justice’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Courts in 2008, the highest award the Supreme Court gives. Edwards was also the founding chair of the Friends of Public Radio Arizona in 2001, and still serves on its board.

Chris N. Froggatt
Vice President and Treasurer
Pinnacle West Capital Corporation and Arizona Public Service Company (APS)

Chris N. Froggatt is the vice president and treasurer for Pinnacle West Capital Corporation and Arizona Public Service Company (APS). He is responsible for the corporate finance, treasury operations, and trust investment management.

Froggatt graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting from Michigan State University. Prior to joining APS in 1986, he spent more than six years in public accounting at Arthur Andersen and is a certified public accountant. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Edison Electric Institute Accounting Executive Advisory Committee. He currently serves on the boards of Childsplay, Inc. and the Arizona Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

In his role as American Express vice president and business leader of Card Financial Capture and Settlements, Garrison provides strategic leadership to an organization with global responsibilities and impacts. This group includes a 24-hour, 365-day-per-year processing operations group to ensure the financial integrity of more than 200 global systems that impact card member billing and merchant payables. His accounting teams ensure that these transactions are properly stated in the general ledger and that the data is properly fed into internal and external financial reporting applications. Both of these teams offer support to a variety of financial, technological and operational groups in the United States and 48 markets worldwide.

Garrison earned a B.S. degree in finance and an M.B.A from Arizona State University. He has held various leadership positions in areas such as financial performance management, technologies, global payments and travel financial operations. He has extensive experience in business continuation planning and crisis management. Garrison is also very active in employee development. He has been involved in various activities such as campus recruiting, internship sponsorship, training and mentoring, and he is currently the executive sponsor of the Toastmasters organization at his campus.

Richard Gleason has served as senior vice president of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Colorado market since 2008. He previously worked with Merrill Lynch and Company for more than ten years. In that time he directed Merrill Lynch’s Arizona and New York markets and served as regional sales manager of its mid-America market, resident manager of operations in Santa Monica and as vice president and sales manager in Beverly Hills. Prior to that, he worked with Prudential Securities as vice president and branch manager in Pasadena, vice president of investments in Scottsdale, and as director of training in the Pac-South Region. He also worked with Shearson Lehman Brothers for several years as a financial advisor in Mesa.

Gleason earned his B.S. degree in finance with a specialization in investments from Arizona State University. He has been very involved in community activities, including Homeward Bound, Salvation Army, American Heart Association, Maricopa County Sheriffs Posse, the W. P. Carey Dean’s Council of 100, American Cancer Society and the 100 Club.

Jerry Olivo is a managing director within Citi’s Global Transaction Services division. He leads global product management and pricing policy for the liquidity and investments business. In addition, he directs his business line’s asset-liability management activities in support of GTS and corporate treasury objectives.

Prior to joining Citi in 2004, he was a director at Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank’s global institutional services group for 14 years where he held a variety of business and financial management positions within the global institutional services group. He then led the financial control function for the Bank of New York’s U.S. securities services group.

Olivo has served on various industry groups and committees including the Federal Reserve’s Intraday Liquidity Management Task Force. He received his undergraduate degree in finance from Arizona State University and an M.B.A. from New York University. In addition, he is an AFP Certified Treasury Professional and a series 7, 63 registered securities representative with Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. In addition to serving on the Department of Finance Advisory Board within ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business, he also leads Citi’s recruiting activity at the school.

Ed Raponi
Regional Finance Manager - Americas
Shell Marine Products

Ed Raponi joined the Royal Dutch / Shell Group in 1988. He has had assignments in trading, transportation, internal audit, corporate planning consulting, commercial management and renewables. Highlights of his service include serving as finance lead in Shell’s purchase of Texaco’s US refining & marketing business, leading the acquisition and integration of Fletcher Challenge Energy in New Zealand, and serving as vice president of finance for Shell WindEnergy as they acquired, built and developed wind farms in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Raponi currently serves as the regional finance manager of Shell marine products, which sells marine fuels & lubricants to vessels traveling or contracting out of North and South America.

Raponi earned a B.S. degree in finance from Arizona State University. In 2008-09 he completed the Shell Group leadership program at Wharton University. Prior to that he participated in Shell’s management development program at Columbia Business School and completed postgraduate studies at Rice University.

Raponi has served as a judge and case study facilitator for NetImpact, participated in Shell’s on-campus recruiting for 15 years and been active in the United Way as a fundraiser and business leader.

Louie Sampedro
Senior Vice President – Investments, Private Wealth Management Group
UBS Financial Services, Inc.

Louie Sampedro serves as senior vice president of investments for the Private Wealth Management Group of UBS Financial Services, Inc. for the southwest region based in Los Angeles. Sampedro and his team manage money exclusively for ultra-high net-worth individuals and foundations. He previously was employed for more than nine years with the private wealth management division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Prior to his career in financial services Sampedro spent over 10 years with General Electric, including seven in GE's Healthcare Division and three with GE Capital. Sampedro began his career at GE in the technical leadership program after graduating from Arizona State University.

Sampedro has an M.B.A from The Anderson School of Management at UCLA. He is also an industrial engineering graduate from Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. Louie earned an Arizona Board of Regents Academic Scholarship to attend ASU upon his graduation from Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona.

Jim Saunders
Founding Partner
TransChem Environmental LLC

Jim Saunders is a seasoned executive with over 18 years of experience in posts as CEO, COO, and president for manufacturing companies ranging in size from $50 million to $150 million. He is a recognized turn-around expert, having successfully implemented two start-up operations and three turn-arounds in his business tenure. Saunders has extensive experience with multi-plant operations across diverse business industries, including the automotive, electronics, aerospace and government and defense. He has used a wide variety of quality practices in his work and has extensive experience in strategic planning, decision analysis and economic value added financial analysis.

Saunders is the founding partner of TransChem Environmental LLC, an Arizona-based hazardous waste transportation and disposal company. He is also the company’s managing member.

Saunders earned a B.A. degree in psychology and an M.B.A. from Arizona State University.

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Larry Seay
Chief Financial Officer
Meritage Corporation

Larry W. Seay has served as chief financial officer and secretary of Meritage Homes Corporation since joining the company in April 1996. Seay was instrumental in taking Meritage public in 1996 and structured the acquisition of nine homebuilders since that time. Meritage Homes is currently building in six sun-belt states and was projected to close approximately 5,600 homes, generating $1.5 billion in revenue during 2008.

Prior to joining Meritage, he served as chief financial officer and treasurer of two other publicly-traded homebuilders and also was an audit manager with Deloitte & Touche.

Seay received B.S. degrees in finance and accounting and an M.B.A. from Arizona State University in 1977, 1978 and 1979 respectively. Seay is a certified public accountant and is active in many professional organizations including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Financial Executives Institute, and Arizona Business Leadership. He is also active in several civic and philanthropic organizations, including serving on the board of the Arizona Better Business Bureau and the Men’s Arts Council, a Phoenix Art Museum support organization.

Randy Snittjer
Controller
Allstate Insurance Co.

Randy Snittjer serves as the controller for Allstate Insurance’s Southwest Region, located in Phoenix, encompassing Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma. He manages more than $1.4 billion in premium and oversees a staff of 14 financial analysts. Snittjer has been with Allstate for more than 20 years.

He received his B.B.A. in marketing from the University of Iowa and his M.B.A in finance from California State University, Bakersfield.

Mark Sokol
Principal
Vanguard Financial Advisor Services Group

Mark Sokol is a principal in Vanguard’s financial advisor services group, responsible for managing the firm’s broker/dealer and independent broker/dealer sales teams. In addition, Sokol is a member of the Vanguard site executive team in Arizona. Prior to his current role, Sokol was a sales executive in Vanguard’s institutional investor group.

Before joining Vanguard in 1996, Sokol served in a number of sales and investment management capacities at Key Corp, U.S. Bancorp and the First National Bank of Ohio.

Sokol received a B.S. degree in finance from University of Akron. He holds FINRA Series 6, 63, 7, and 24 licenses.

Michael Tully
President & CEO
AAA Arizona, Inc.

Mike Tully joined AAA Arizona in 1998 as the chief financial officer. He currently serves as the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Tully has been instrumental in driving the tremendous growth of AAA over the last decade, including the rapid expansion of its membership, financial services, and insurance and travel operations. He also helped develop and implement AAA’s automotive buying service and AAA- owned auto repair, and was a key driver in the establishment of a holding company with AAA Northern California, which has now expanded to an 11-state region. Tully is currently responsible for the Arizona operations, which includes approximately 800,000 members, and he is also on the leadership management team for the holding company.

Prior to joining AAA, Tully owned an export finance company that arranged structured trade finance transactions for exporters throughout the United States, and he previously held CFO positions at both Fairchild Data Corporation and PJ1, Inc. Tully started his career at Digital Equipment Corporation where he received their financial excellence award.

Tully earned a B.S. degree in finance in 1987 and M.B.A in 1991, both from Arizona State University, and an advanced management degree from Harvard Business School. Tully also holds a CPA certification. He is a lifetime member of the Fiesta Bowl Committee and is a finance committee member for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. Tully also serves as the current vice chairman for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and is a past board member for the Boys and Girls Club of America, as well as the past vice chairman for Financial Executives International.