Board of Directors
Non-Employee Directors
Mark Stephen Neuhof has been a director of our company since April 2008. Mr. Neuhof has over 30 years of experience in the fields of metals trading and derivatives. Mr. Neuhof is currently a Senior Manager at Sumitomo Corporation Global Commodities Limited and is responsible for developing their base and precious metals business in the United States. Mr. Neuhof has been involved with Sumitomo Corporation since 2005, initially as a consultant advising them on their metals business worldwide and aiding them in developing various new opportunities. Concurrently, Mr. Neuhof was a principal of JEMM Development Group which invested in and developed properties in New York and Connecticut. Prior to his affiliation with Sumitomo, Mr. Neuhof was employed by AIG Financial Products from 1990 to 2005 as a Managing Director in both their Wilton Connecticut and London offices. Mr. Neuhof had overall responsibility for their precious and base metals business including profit and loss, risk management as well as maintaining and developing client relationships. Prior to that, he was a Vice President at Drexel Burnham Lambert and held various other positions in the currency and metals trading fields. Mr. Neuhof is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience trading physical metals. Mr. Neuhof is a graduate of Queens College and Saint John's University where he earned his Masters of Business Administration.
P.J. (Patrick James) Richardson has been a director of our company since January 2008. Mr. Richardson is currently Chairman of the EXTOL Group, Inc., a private investment group, specializing in diagnostic technology for the Homeland Security Industry since 2005. Previously, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Reeves Group, (TRG) Inc., a company he founded in 1990 and divested in January 2005. TRG was the technology leader for products used in the consequence management of WMD events of a Chemical/Biological nature. Prior to the formation of TRG, Mr. Richardson served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Racal Health & Safety, a subsidiary of Racal Electronics PLC, from 1986 to 1990 and was responsible for all North American activities for Racal Health & Safety Group, PLC, a world leader in the manufacture and distribution of respiratory protection and other personal protective equipment. Prior to joining Racal, MR. Richardson served as Director of Sales & Marketing for American Optical Corporation, Safety Products Division, from 1983 to 1984. Early in his career he spent considerable time with The Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. He held a series of senior level positions over ten plus years with the Johnson & Johnson organization. Mr. Richardson currently serves on the board of directors of Trailerlogic, LLC and the Board of Advisors of Evergreen Capital LLC. Mr. Richardson is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience founding, growing and managing start-up businesses since 1990. Mr. Richardson received his Bachelor of Business Administration from St. Michael's College and has co-authored two books for Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Fred Arena has been a director of our company since January 2008. Mr. Arena is currently the Senior Vice President of Asset Management of American Financial Realty Trust. He is also currently the founder and President of Vision Equities LLC. Mr. Arena has served as Senior Vice President of Asset Management at American Financial Realty Trust since May of 2006 and is a member of the company's senior management team. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Arena served as Regional Managing Director of Commercial Real Estate for one of the Goldman Sachs Whitehall Companies. Prior to 1999, Mr. Arena was Senior Vice President of Asset Management and General Manager for one of the most prestigious privately owned real estate companies in the northeast. Mr. Arena began his career with Hartz Mountain Industries in the 1980s managing a 10 million square foot commercial office portfolio. Mr. Arena serves on the board of directors of the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA) New Jersey and is a member of its Executive Board. He is also a member of the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties (NAIOP). Mr. Arena is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience managing a portfolio of over ten million square feet of warehouse buildings in the northeast as well as founding an asset management company that oversaw the management of warehouses. Mr. Arena received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from Rutgers University.
William C. Martin has been a director of our company since January 2010. Mr. Martin is currently the Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Raging Capital Management, LLC, a private investment partnership based in Princeton, New Jersey. Mr. Martin is also the co-founder and a principal of Indie Research, LLC and InsiderScore, LLC, since 2002 and 2004, respectively. Indie Research and InsiderScore are providers of proprietary investment research tools for individual and institutional investors. Mr. Martin launched his career in 1997 as the founding partner and Chief Executive Officer of Raging Bull, Inc., a consumer-focused online investment site that attracted more than $20 million in venture financing from CMGI and C|NET Networks. Mr. Martin sold Raging Bull in 2000. Subsequently, Mr. Martin has been actively involved in a number of successful public and private companies. He served four terms as a member of the Board of Directors of Bankrate, Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE) until that company was acquired by Apax Partners LLC in September 2009. He also served on the boards of CallStreet, Inc, acquired by FactSet Research Systems, Inc. (NYSE: FDS), and ByteTaxi (dba FolderShare), acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Mr. Martin currently is a member of the Board of Directors of Salary.com (NASDAQ: SLRY). Mr. Martin has appeared on CNBC and Fox News, and been a guest speak at Fordham School of Business, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Indiana University, MIT, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Martin is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience founding start-up companies as well as his previous and current history serving on the Board of Directors of publicly trading companies.