John P.M. Higgins has broad domestic and international experience as an asset manager of private and public securities, real estate, and oil and gas investments, as well as expertise advising not-for-profit and family organizations. John was formerly an officer of Citicorp (Santo Domingo), the Lambert Brussels Capital Corporation (New York), and the Banque de Gestion Privee (Paris). For three decades, John served as the president and chief investment officer of Ram Trust Services, a small boutique investment management firm in Portland, Maine which specialized in private investments, the management of generational wealth, and not-for-profit financial affairs. He is deeply involved in the field of corporate governance and formerly was the chairman of the board of GMI Ratings, an international organization focused on environmental, social, governance and accounting risk in publicly traded companies. John graduated from Harvard and currently sits on a number of non-profit and family boards.

Director

 

Robert A. G. Monks is currently the Founder and Chairman of ValueEdge Advisors.  He is a globally respected author, speaker and pioneering practitioner in corporate governance. Mr. Monks is a co-founder of GMI Ratings (formerly The Corporate Library). He is also the founder of Lens Governance Advisors, a law firm that advises on corporate governance in the settlement of shareholder litigation. Mr. Monks was the founder and president of Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc., now the leading corporate governance consulting firm, advising shareholders with assets in excess of $1 trillion on how to vote their proxies. He founded the investment fund known as LENS, which since 1992 has developed the “institutional activist” mode of investment. Mr. Monks served as the President of Henley Management College’s Center for Board Effectiveness from 2000 to October 2003. He is also the board chairman of Governance for Owners – G40 - for both the London and U.S. based share-ownership services venture which has initially focused on a European fund informed by the principles of value to be added by proper governance.

He is a graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge University and Harvard Law School. 

 

Richard A. Bennett is President and CEO of ValueEdge Advisors, a firm he founded in the summer of 2014 to help institutional investors engage with their portfolio companies.  From 2006 he was CEO and then Chairman of GMI Ratings and its predecessor, The Corporate Library, a globally recognized investment research firm specializing in corporate governance and ESG with offices in London, New York, San Diego and Portland, Maine.  In August 2014 GMI Ratings was sold to MSCI, where Mr. Bennett serves as a senior advisor. He worked as Director of Corporate Governance for LENS, an institutional activist fund, from 1997 to 2002.  He is an independent director of Biddeford Internet Corporation.  From 2009 to 2014, he has served on the Board of Governors of the International Corporate Governance Network.

Director - Senior Portfolio Manager

 

Jonathan L. Cottrell has twenty-nine years of experience in the financial services industry.  He has previously served as President of Fidelity FOREX, Inc., a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, Senior Vice President of the Bank of Boston, Senior Vice President of Acadia Trust, N.A., and President of Acadia Financial Advisors.  He has spent his career advising individuals, non-profits and corporations on “best in class” risk management, investment strategies, portfolio management and hedging practices.  Throughout his career, Mr. Cottrell has held numerous licenses, and has passed the Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 Security Industry exams. Mr. Cottrell has contributed to several Harvard University Case Studies and has been a guest lecturer at Brandeis University.  He holds a B.A. from Wittenberg University and an MBA from F.W. Olin Graduate School at Babson College.

His civic involvement includes currently serving as a Director for the State of Maine Film Commission, a past Director with Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility, The Cape Elizabeth Educational Foundation and The Cape Elizabeth Little League.  Mr. Cottrell has also been an active volunteer with The American Cancer Society and The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers.