Board
David Liptak
Non-Executive Director and Chairman
Mr. Liptak serves as Chairman of the Board of Diligent Board Member Services.
Mr. Liptak is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Spring Street Partners, LP, an investment partnership that has provided capital, expertise and strategic relationships to innovative small companies since July 1994.
After receiving a B.A. degree in Economics from Harvard College in 1981, Mr. Liptak began his career at Bear, Stearns & Co. as an analyst in their arbitrage department. In September 1984, Mr. Liptak joined Oppenheimer & Co. as Senior Vice President in charge of the firm’s proprietary arbitrage department. In 1992 Mr. Liptak founded West Broadway Partners, Inc., and managed the firm’s event driven and arbitrage funds, and served as Chairman of the firm’s Executive Committee until March 2005. Mr. Liptak began managing Spring Street Partners, LP on a full time basis in 2005.
Mr. Liptak serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Spring Street Partners’ portfolio companies. Mr. Liptak has also served on a number of philanthropic boards and actively supports children’s educational programs, particularly in underserved areas, and has established scholarship programs for disadvantaged youths with educational organizations and schools.
Mr. Liptak is married with three children and lives in Manhattan.
Alessandro Sodi
Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer & President, USA
Alex Sodi is President and CEO of Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. Mr. Sodi assumed the role of CEO in December 2007 and is responsible for ensuring the future expansion of the company is consistent with Diligent’s growth strategy, as well as with the needs of its global client base.
Mr. Sodi is one of the founders of the Company and served as Executive Vice President of Manhattan Creative Partners, LLC (MCP) from 1998 until 2003.
From 2001 to 2003 he led the development of Diligent Boardbooks and was responsible for building and maintaining the pivotal relationship with the board of directors of SunAmerica Funds — Diligent’s foundation client.
In 2003, MCP was renamed Diligent Board Member Services LLC at which time Mr. Sodi was appointed President. This enabled him to focus entirely on developing and marketing the Diligent Boardbooks product.
Rick Bettle
Independent Director, New Zealand
Rick Bettle is a professional director and an Accredited Fellow and Immediate Past President of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. He is also a Graduate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Mr. Bettle was Managing Director of Wrightson from 1987 to 1991 and CEO of Alliance Group from 1991 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998 he was head of the law firm Kensington Swan.
He is currently Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand, Dominion Finance Ltd and ATTTO Ltd, and a Director of Southport Ltd, Goodman NZ, Revera Ltd and Synergy International Ltd.
Mr. Bettle previously Chaired the New Zealand Totalisator Agency Board for over eight years. He has also previously Chaired The Racing Industry Board, NZ Lamb Co., Capital Coast Health and Wrightson Finance.
Joseph Carrabino Jr.
Independent Director, USA
Joe Carrabino, Managing Director of AEA, joined in 2004 to lead a new mezzanine investing effort focused on the middle market. Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Carrabino spent four years at Whitney & Co. as co-head of the mezzanine debt group and member of the credit and investment committees, managing US$1 billion of dedicated capital. While at Whitney, he was also co-head of the structured products (CBO) group and was a member of its credit and investment committees. He also spent significant time on private equity activities and served on several boards in his various capacities.
Prior to joining Whitney in 1999, Mr. Carrabino spent twelve years at Credit Suisse First Boston in a number of areas including leveraged finance and financial sponsor coverage, high yield finance and corporate restructurings and reorganizations.
Mr. Carrabino is a graduate of Harvard College, with a BA in economics.
Greg Petersen
Independent Director, USA
Greg Petersen is currently a private investor and serves as a director and on the audit committee of two publicly traded companies, PROS Holdings, Inc. and KIT digital, Inc. He has an extensive background as a technology company chief financial officer, and significant experience in financial planning, reporting and internal controls. He has driven strong financial returns for investors at many companies over the past 20 years
From 2001 through 2012, Mr. Petersen was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of several technology companies including Activant Solutions, an enterprise software provider to the automotive, hardware, lumber and wholesale verticals; Lombardi Software, a business process management software company sold to IBM; CBG Holdings, Inc., a provider of banking software and services, and CSIdentity, Inc., a provider of identity monitoring software and services. At these companies, he actively executed on successful turnaround and growth initiatives that resulted in liquidity events with strong returns for shareholders.
Mr. Petersen started his career after business school at American Airlines where he worked in corporate development and finance from 1989 to 1997. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Boston College and an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Mark Russell
Independent Director, New Zealand
Mark Russell is a senior commercial partner of the New Zealand law firm Buddle Findlay, acting for a wide range of public and private companies and has extensive experience in corporate finance and structuring, and banking and insolvency.
He acts for a number of companies listed on NZX and NZAX, with particular emphasis on Listing Rules, compliance advice, initial listing and IPOs.
Mr. Russell gives banking and securities advice to New Zealand and overseas banks and overseas law firms, and he also provides advice to trustee companies and issuers on public securities issues and managed funds.
He is ranked as a leading individual in banking and finance in Asia Pacific Legal 500 2006/2007. Mr. Russell is also a Director of Landpower Holdings Limited.
Mark Weldon
Independent Director, New Zealand
Mark Weldon served as CEO of the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) from 2002 to 2012. While there, he transformed the NZX into a publicly listed data, technology, shares market and commodities business that experienced an 1800% increase in value. Prior to that, he was a senior engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, and an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slade, Meagher & Flom. Both positions were in the US. Mr. Weldon graduated Columbia University School of Law in 1997 with a law degree and a diploma in International Law, and Auckland University with a Masters in Economics (First Class Honors), a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Arts.
Mr. Weldon has also dedicated himself to public policy and national causes. He led the NZ Prime Minister’s Appeal for Christchurch after the devastating February 2011 earthquake, chaired the Prime Minister’s Job Summit in 2009, and participated on the Capital Markets Development Taskforce in 2009-10, Tax Working Group in 2009 and Climate Change Leadership Forum in 2007. He has also served on the board of High Performance Sport New Zealand and previously on the board of the New Zealand Olympic Committee from 2004 to 2006.
About Us
Diligent Board Member Services, Inc. is traded on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) under the symbol DIL.
