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Overview

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Panelists

Suzanne Hopgood Managing Member The Hopgood Group, LLC

Suzanne Hopgood is the Managing Member of The Hopgood Group, LLC, a corporate business consulting and governance firm she founded in 1985. Ms. Hopgood assists companies in business and financial challenges.  Her expertise includes being CEO and or Chair, operations, and adding shareholder value.

Ms. Hopgood has served as Chairman of the Board and as CEO of both public and private companies, and she is a Financial Expert. She has served on the board of eleven companies, six of which are public companies.

Ms. Hopgood has served as Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee on the board of Point Blank Solutions, Inc (PBSO.pk), a global manufacturer of high performance body armor; on the board of Italy-based Villa Sistemi Medicali; as Chairman of the Board of Del Global Technologies, Inc (NASDAQ: DGTC), an international manufacturer of medical equipment and defense products; as chair of Nominating & Governance and a Financial Expert of Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:  AKR); as Chair & CEO of Furr’s Restaurant Group (NYSE: FRG); as CEO of Houlihan’s Restaurant Group; as Chair of Nominating & Governance of Mace Security International (OTC:MACE), and as Chair of Newport Restaurant Corporation, a hospitality company.  She currently serves on the Board of Newport Restaurant Group, on the board of Leaf Group (NYSE: LEAF), and she serves as the Governor-appointed Chair of the Capital Region Development Authority, which currently oversees over $1 Billion in real estate investment.

She was Managing Director of the Board Advisory Services division of the National Association of Corporate Directors responsible for board evaluations and in-board training programs from 2007-2010.

She speaks internationally on corporate board issues, including to directors in Russia, Brazil, London, and Hong Kong.  She co-authored the award-winning Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis. 

Prior to founding The Hopgood Group, LLC, Ms Hopgood was responsible for a $1 billion equity real estate portfolio for Aetna Realty Investors.  Prior to Aetna, she was the Vice President and Senior Lending Officer of a Massachusetts savings bank, responsible for all residential and commercial lending and collections/foreclosures.

Shep Pryor, formerly SVP Deputy Group Head/Corporate Banking, Wells Fargo Bank, has served on the boards of 13 corporations and 3 non-profits, including financial institutions, retailers, manufacturers, and service companies. With 20 years of corporate banking experience, he initiated a consulting practice, providing services to financial institutions on 4 continents. He has also conducted over 35 assignments as an expert witness on the practices of lenders and corporate directors and he taught finance courses to MBA candidates as a visiting professor at Keller GSM. For the recent 9 years, he was Chairman of the Board of Ulteig Engineers, Inc. an ESOP owned engineering firm headquartered in Fargo, ND. He is also a director and audit chair of Devon Bank, a Chicago community bank, and a director of Land O’Frost, Inc., a manufacturer of quality processed meat products headquartered in Munster, IN. Previously director and chair of the Compensation and Governance Committee at Equipoise Corp, a Minnesota-based ESOP majority-owned truck dealership, he serves on PDA’s ESOP Committee.  He is a founding member and VP Resources of the PDA. Shep has co-authored two books: Building Value through Strategy, Risk Assessment, and Renewal, and The Private Equity Edge. Degrees: MBA, Finance (University of Chicago Booth School of Business), and AB (cum laude), Economics (Princeton University).

Margaret Reynolds has advised numerous organizations on value creation, strategic growth, cultural engagement, and sustainable performance at the governance level. Her practice focuses on privately held, larger middle market companies across a wide variety of industries and ownership types. She has advised on leadership and governance issues including business model revision, product development, operational integration and performance, culture development, and M & A.

Her ESOP experience has included companies in construction, agricultural management and pet health, manufacturing, and travel management, including the firm that was named as the 2015 ESOP Company of the Year by the ESOP Association. 

In addition to being a business owner, she is also an author and speaker. Her newest book, Boost Your GrowthDNA: How Strategic Leaders Use Growth Genetics to Drive Sustainable Business Performance, shows leaders how to strengthen the GrowthDNA of their business, the invisible DNA that lies below the surface but determines business outcomes, by focusing on HOW they lead, rather than business practices deployed. She has also authored Reignite: How Everyday Companies Spark Next Stage Growth.

Prior to starting her own firm, she was the lead strategic officer at Hallmark Cards, named to the internal board for Corporate owned retail stores, and served as General Manager for a sizeable business unit and its P & L.  She has served on numerous boards. 

Moderator

John C. Schumacher is the founder and President of True Financial POV, LLC.  Through his firm, he provides financial opinions, and related financial advisory, consulting, and forensic services to companies, attorneys on behalf of their clients, financial sponsors, investors and trustees. Throughout his post-graduate degree career, Mr. Schumacher has led valuations of businesses, derivatives, earnouts, illiquid securities and intellectual property for various purposes including family law, financial reporting, employee stock ownership plans, shareholder transactions and disputes, gift & estate taxation and corporate planning.

Mr. Schumacher’s experience with ESOPs includes valuations for annual administration of the ESOP, fairness opinions on M&A transactions by ESOP-owned buyers and litigation consulting on distressed ESOPs.  His ESOP clients have included new ESOPs, mature ESOPs, partial ESOPs, as well as C-corp. and S-corp. employer sponsors of the subject ESOP, respectively.

Mr. Schumacher is a Chartered Financial Analyst, conferred by the CFA Institute.  Mr. Schumacher started his career in public accounting, as a Certified Public Accountant. In addition to earning a bachelor of science in business administration degree from Drake University, later Mr. Schumacher also earned a master’s degree in business administration from what is now the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Mr. Schumacher is a member of the board of directors of The Ability Experience, a non-profit dedicated to instilling a passion for lifelong service in members of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity while helping to empower people living with disabilities.

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