Executive Committee

Secretary

Annalisa Barrett

Annalisa Barrett is a Senior Advisor with the KPMG Board Leadership Center, where she plays a key role in the development of research and thought leadership and advises directors on emerging trends in corporate governance. She has been quoted in the New York Times, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times, and her research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Prior to joining KPMG, Barrett was CEO of Board Governance Research LLC. Barrett was also a Senior Advisor for ValueEdge Advisors, and Vice President and Senior Research Associate at The Corporate Library (now MSCI ESG Research). She previously was a Research Consultant in the Executive Compensation practice at Towers Perrin (now Willis Towers Watson) and a Tax Consultant in the Family Wealth Planning practice of Arthur Andersen.

Barrett is an adjunct lecturer at the University of San Diego School of Business. In 2018, she was appointed to the Insurance Diversity Task Force, which works to increase the board diversity of insurance companies that do business in California.

For over a decade, Barrett has served on the board of the Corporate Directors Forum. In 2008, she was named a Millstein Rising Star in Corporate Governance by the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School. She is a Fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program, a member of the International Corporate Governance Network, the Society for Corporate Governance, and the 30% Coalition. She serves as the San Diego Campaign Co-Chair for 2020 Women on Boards. She holds an MBA, with distinction, from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Chair, Director of the Year Awards Committee

Sara Bennett

Sara joined Marsh & McLennan Agency in 2003 and is a Principal in the Business Insurance Division. Sara is currently the Leader of MMA’s largest industry vertical, and specializes in structuring property and casualty programs for her clients that enhance coverage and drive down insurance costs.

In 2012 Sara was honored with the “Women to Watch” award from Business Insurance Magazine. This international award honors 25 women annually for their professional achievements, influence on the marketplace, and contributions to the advancement of women in business.

Most recently in 2018, Sara was honored by the San Diego Business Journal and named one of San Diego’s Next 40 Top Business Leaders Under 40, by San Diego Magazine as a “Woman of the Year” finalist, and again by the San Diego Business Journal as a “Business Woman of the Year” finalist.

Sara proudly serves a number of associations and non-profit organizations, including the San Diego Women’s Foundation, where she currently serves as Board President. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Sharp HealthCare Foundation Board, is on its Executive Committee, and is Chair of the Sharp Mesa Vista Philanthropy Council. She is the former Chairwoman and Women’s Health Sub-Committee Chair of GROW, MMA’s internal women’s initiative which helps to advance the role of women at MMA and serve as a springboard for leadership opportunities.

Sara also enjoys serving as Mentor to two MMA associates and volunteering for Mended Little Hearts of San Diego, a volunteer-led program providing hope and support to children, patients, and families affected by congenital heart disease.

Sara graduated from the University of San Diego with a major in Political Science and Business Administration. She holds the professional designations of Accredited Advisor of Insurance (AAI) and Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC).

Chair, Programs Committee

Matt Browne

Matt Browne’s practice focuses on transactional and general corporate matters, with Matt typically serving as
his client’s first point of contact at Cooley for all matters and regularly working with them on mergers and
acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, public company reporting and disclosure issues,
corporate governance matters and other commercial matters. Matt also has expertise in the drug royalty
space, having advised clients on numerous drug royalty transactions involving many different transaction
structures and with aggregate proceeds in excess of $2.3 billion.

Matt’s clients include companies in the software, hardware, telecommunications, information technology,
semiconductor, financial technology, cleantech, consumer products, medical device, robotics, biotechnology,
internet and retail spaces.

Chief Executive Officer

Christina de Vaca

Ms. de Vaca is the CEO at the Corporate Directors Forum (CDF) and has been in this role since May 2017. The organization’s mission is “to help directors, and those who support them, build more effective boards through continuous education and peer-networking.”
Before joining CDF, she served as the Director of Corporate Relations and Business Development for the Graduate School of Business at the University of San Diego (USD). In that role she was responsible for building and strengthening USD’s School of Business relationships with the business community as well as customized executive education programs for corporate clients.
Prior to that, Ms. de Vaca served as the Chief Governance Officer and Corporate Secretary for Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, an approximately $1 billion publicly-traded specialty pharmaceutical company in Aliso Viejo, California. During this time she was instrumental in defining the new role of a governance executive to focus on strategic planning and move beyond compliance. She was actively engaged with governance affairs at a time when burgeoning changes in corporate governance began to impact boardrooms on an international scale.
Before Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Christina served as Operations Vice President at Premier, Inc., a publicly-traded group purchasing organization, currently based in North Carolina. While at Premier she also identified entrepreneurial opportunities and brokered innovative and highly successful partnerships for the benefit of shareowners.
Prior to Premier, Ms. de Vaca served as the Corporate Secretary at American Medical International, a $2.5 billion publicly-traded hospital organization in Dallas, Texas. In that role, she was highly effective in managing complex relationships with international healthcare entities and other constituencies.
Ms. de Vaca is Six Sigma black-belt trained. As a professionally qualified instructor, she has taught governance in the Forum of Corporate Directors Education Program at the University of California, Irvine and other local universities. She also taught Business Communication at MiraCosta College. She continues to be engaged in a variety of efforts to improve governance practices and is the Vice President, Membership Chair for the Southern California Chapter of the Society for Corporate Governance based in New York City and currently serves on their Advisory Committee as well. She has served on the boards of Just In Time for Foster Youth, the Ronald McDonald House and the Corporate Directors Forum in San Diego, California.
Ms. de Vaca has a Bachelor of Business Studies degree from Dallas Baptist University and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine.

Chair, Membership Committee

Jamie Mason

Jamie Mason is an Assurance Partner in BDO’s San Diego office and has over 17 years of professional experience serving public and private audit clients in the technology, manufacturing, software, life science, pharmaceutical, medical device, automotive, insurance and service industries. Jamie has worked with a wide range of clients, from start-ups to large multinational Fortune 500 companies.

Jamie has extensive experience in revenue recognition, business combinations, share-based compensation, foreign currency translation, consolidations, non-controlling interests, accounting for exit and disposal activities, and Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) 404 audits of internal controls. He has served as a firm-wide specialist in financial accounting for income taxes and facilitates local and national trainings on a variety of topics.

Jamie currently sits on the Audit Committee of The La Jolla Institute. Prior to joining BDO, he was a Senior Manager with a Big Four firm. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Chair, Nominating & Governance Committee

Michael J. Rider

Mr. Rider is the senior vice president, deputy global general counsel for ResMed, a global manufacturer ResMed is a San Diego, California-based medical equipment company. It primarily provides cloud-connectable medical devices for the treatment of sleep apnea (such as CPAP devices and masks), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other respiratory conditions. ResMed also offers comprehensive out-of-hospital software platforms to support the professionals and caregivers who help people stay healthy in the home or care setting of their choice. ResMed is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol RMD.  Since its founding in Sydney, Australia in 1989, ResMed has grown to $40.0 billion in market capitalization, with global sales of more than $3 billion.  Mr. Rider is the legal business partner for the sleep and respiratory care business, accounting for approximately 80% of ResMed’s global revenues.  Mr. Rider works with a team that provides day to day legal work for ResMed’s sleep and respiratory business, including contracts, antitrust, regulatory compliance, privacy, and litigation. Mr. Rider is also responsible for managing assertion of ResMed’s intellectual property rights through litigation, and defending the company from suits by others.

Before joining ResMed, Mr. Rider served as the senior vice president, general counsel of Callaway Golf Company, providing legal guidance on a number of issues, including intellectual property litigation, antitrust counseling, general commercial litigation and employment law issues. Callaway Golf manufactures and sells golf clubs, balls and accessories, under the Callaway Golf®, Odyssey and other brands.  Prior to joining Callaway Golf, Mr. Rider was a senior attorney in the litigation department of American Airlines and was responsible for the airline’s antitrust litigation. Mr. Rider was also an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, specializing in antitrust, intellectual property and trade secret litigation. After completing his law degree, Mr. Rider clerked for the Honorable George C. Pratt, of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York.

Mr. Rider earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of San Diego (USD) School of Law and his B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Arizona.  During law school, Mr. Rider served as the executive editor of the San Diego Law Review. Mr. Rider is a past recipient of USD’s distinguished alumni award, serves on the law school’s board of visitors, and is a frequent lecturer on intellectual property enforcement.

Mr. Rider lives in San Diego with his wife, Deborah (a USD School of Law alumna), and their three children.

Chair of the Board

Phillip H. Rudolph

Phil Rudolph is a strategy, ethics, and corporate responsibility consultant based in San Diego, California. Previously, Phil was Chief Legal and Risk Officer, and Corporate Secretary of Jack in the Box Inc., where he worked from 2007 until March of 2020. Prior to joining Jack in the Box, Phil was Vice President and General Counsel for Ethical Leadership Group, where he also provided ethics and corporate responsibility consulting services for companies and trade associations primarily in retail industries.

He was previously a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Foley Hoag, LLP, and a Vice President at McDonald’s Corporation where, among other roles, he served as U.S. and International General Counsel. Before joining McDonald’s, Phil spent 15 years with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, the last six of which he spent as a litigation partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. In addition to his service on the Corporate Directors Forum Board, Phil is on the Board of Directors of The Alliance for Children’s Rights in Los Angeles, where he serves as Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee.

Treasurer

Daniel Schreiber

Daniel Schreiber has extensive business development and accounting system design experience with manufacturing and wholesale business concerns, along with special emphasis in law firm consulting. He is a qualified professional in solving tax and business problems for small to mid-sized closely held concerns. He currently services clients in the manufacturing, electronics, wholesale, legal, medical and service industries. He is also a frequent lecturer on microcomputer consulting and accounting software implementation. Prior to joining JGD & Associates in 1983, Mr. Schreiber spent four years with a regional Wisconsin accounting firm where he managed a branch office.
Dan has conducted various seminars on management information systems and has many years of hands-on experience, one-on-one and group training of client personnel on accounting systems and microcomputer procedures. He has written various articles on microcomputer system design issues, accounting software implementation and training issues. He is responsible (hands-on) for user training, system design, hardware and software implementation for JGD & Associates LLP’s wide area network.
Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, University of Wisconsin
• Extensive and ongoing continuing education in various tax and consulting courses
• Accountants’ Boot Camp participant

Past Chair of the Board

Scott Stanton

Scott is a corporate attorney with extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, corporate governance, and general corporate matters. His experience includes: structuring and negotiating M&A deals of all sizes; leading public and private securities transactions; serving as primary outside counsel to public and private companies; and advising clients on SEC compliance and other governance matters. He represents companies, boards of directors, and board committees in a wide variety of industries, including software, medical devices, life sciences, semiconductors, manufacturing, consumer products, insurance and financial services.
In the M&A side of his practice, Scott handles public company mergers, tender offers, hostile takeovers, and many other types of strategic acquisitions and divestitures. His capital markets capabilities include representing issuers and underwriters in public and private offerings of debt and equity securities. He also guides clients through initial public offerings (IPOs), private investment in public equity (PIPE) transactions, registered direct offerings, bond offerings, private placements, and venture financings.
Prior to joining Mintz Levin, Scott was a partner in the San Diego office of a global law firm, where he served as chair of the firm’s global corporate practice group from 2010 to 2013. Earlier, he practiced at a California law firm that focused on serving technology and biotechnology clients.
Recognitions & Awards

• Recommended by The Legal 500 United States (2012–2014)
• Best Lawyers in America: Mergers and Acquisitions Law (2007-2018)
• Best Lawyers in America: Securities / Capital Markets Law (2013-2018)
• Included on the Super Lawyers list: (2007-2016, 2018)
• C. Hugh Friedman Director of the Year award, Corporate Directors Forum (2015)