Press Release - September 10, 2008
"Welcome to the Big Leagues; Again"
Whether you are looking for something old or new; Executive Trading Solutions is just that. Executive Trading Solutions (ETS) is a partnership of 2 executive professionals who have worked in the executive trading and equity compensation field for a major financial services firm. They have teamed up with a seasoned business professional that completes the management team that offers expertise in all aspects of the business process and execution.
Andrew Neal was the manager of UBS' 10b5-1 Executive Services Group. He was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the department and oversaw the management of thousands of trading plans which resulted in the execution of over 200 million shares of stock. Edward Papina was a senior relationship manager for UBS's Corporate Employee Financial Services department and also created the software utilized to manage and administer UBS' 10b5-1 Trading Plans. While at UBS, Andrew and Edward designed and implemented a software platform created exclusively for managing Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. Rick Pritikin has been in executive management for over 35 years and spearheaded profitable turn-around and business development for several companies. He has founded successful businesses in the profit and not for profit sectors and has expertise in sales, management, finances, accounting, operations, and strategic planning.
In response to the Corporate Executive Trading scandals of the recent past, Rule 10b5-1 was created in 2000 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a means by which Corporate Executives can sell their stock via a contractual trading plan. These trading plans provide a strong layer of disclosure to shareholders, transparency to regulators, an affirmative defense, and a structured diversification mechanism for America's executives.
The corporate environment has drastically shifted since the news broke about Enron, WorldCom, and several other high-level corporations being investigated for insider-trading, securities fraud, and misappropriation of funds. Regulators and stock holders are ever-watchful and suspicious of the trading activity of the nation's executives. Due to this change in the market and greater scrutiny by the SEC, the demand for executive protection and accountability is at an all-time high. The number of 10b5-1 contracts has significantly increased over the last 2 years. The expectation is that this industry need will continue to gain momentum. More and more Issuers are making 10b5-1 plans mandatory for larger and larger populations of their employee base.
The founders of ETS have been seasoned with extensive experience in the 10b5-1 executive trading and corporate equity-based plan management, and have maintained excellent reputations in the industry. Combined, they possess the single most unique and highly specialized skills for doing this business from every aspect: trading plan creation, administration, execution, reporting and relationship management, and they have developed a web-based 10b5-1 enterprise plan management software solution. Their mission is to serve the need in the 10b5-1 trading plan software and administration market with an emphasis on equipping all parties with a dedicated, comprehensive solution.
Management of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans is not a business that can be effectively undertaken without the rare combination of two key ingredients; experience in managing trading plans, coupled with the ability to transfer that experience into technology. The ETS partners are not only extremely fluent with these two essential ingredients, but also possess years of experience in equity compensation plan administration. Understanding Rule 10b5-1 is just the beginning. ETS is the only provider able to transfer that understanding into technology and provide day-to-day administration in the marketplace. Not only does ETS have the most superior technological tools available for administration of 10b5-1 plans, but ETS also leverages something that is immeasurable in this business – Experience.
Together, the principals possess over 15 years of combined executive trading and equity compensation experience along with over 60 years of business experience. ETS will be the one and only dedicated 10b5-1 plan management company that also provides administration and software. Clients will be able to utilize services that solve their executive trading problems from plan creation through execution reporting.
The days of what some issuers, executives, and brokerage firms have referred to as the "10b5-1 cottage industry", due to the disjointed and fragmented processes between all of the interested parties, has been changed forever. The dual abilities for clients to view their specific portals containing their clients' activities; and to grant all parties access to the information they need surpass the capabilities that were offered to the market prior to the Executive Trading Solutions roll out on September 10, 2008.
Welcome back. There are a lot of corporate equity compensation professionals that are glad to see you again...