Peter C. Morse has served as Chairman of Bankrate since October 2002, a position he previously held from 1997 until 1999. Since 1982, Mr. Morse has also served as President of Morse Partners, Ltd., an investment firm that concentrates on acquiring operating companies and providing expansion capital. Mr. Morse is also a partner in Permit Capital, LLC and a founding member of CA Partners, LLC. He was Chairman of the Board of FAO Schwarz from 1986 to 1990 and has served as a director of several private companies. Prior to founding Morse Partners, Ltd., Mr. Morse was a First Vice President and Director of the corporate finance department of Janney Montgomery Scott, Inc., an investment banking firm, and held positions at Lehman Brothers, Inc. and Chemical Bank in New York.
Thomas R. Evans became President and CEO of Bankrate in June of 2004, after having been elected to the board a month earlier in May 2004. From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Evans was Chairman and CEO of Official Payments, an internet processor of payment to government entities which he took public and subsequently was acquired by Tier Technologies. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Evans was president and CEO of the internet company GeoCities, which he took public and was acquired by Yahoo!. Prior to that, Mr. Evans was a 20 year veteran of the magazine publishing business, his last post being the President and Publisher of U.S. News & World Report, Fast Company and the Atlantic Monthly Magazines. Mr. Evans is also a director of Navasite, Inc. and Future Fuel Corp.
William C. Martin has served as a Director of the Company since April 2000. Mr. Martin was the co-founder of Raging Bull, a leading online financial community. An active entrepreneur and investor, Mr. Martin is the co-founder and principal of Indie Research, a provider of proprietary investment and research tools for individual and institutional investors. Mr. Martin has invested in and/or advised a number of Internet and institutional financial services companies, including CallStreet (acquired by FactSet), ByteTaxi/FolderShare (acquired by Microsoft), Gerson Lehrman Group, Majestic Research, Foresight Research, and Lux Research. Mr. Martin currently serves on the board of The International Longevity Center, a not-for-profit organization that studies the impact of population aging on society.
Robert P. O'Block
Robert P. O'Block has served as a director of the Company since 1999 and is a member of both the Audit and Compensation Committees. Mr. O'Block held senior positions with McKinsey & Company, Inc. for 30 years until his retirement in 1998, serving as a consultant to a wide variety of business, nonprofit and public sector organizations in the United States, Europe and the Far East. Mr. O'Block currently serves as a board member for several not-for-profits and continues as a senior counselor at McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Richard J. Pinola has served as our director since 2004. Mr. Pinola has served as principal of Eric M. Golshalk & Co. since February 2005. From July 1992 until his retirement in February 2005, Mr. Pinola was President and Chief Executive Officer of Right Management Consultants, a career transition and organizational consulting firm and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manpower Inc. Mr. Pinola also serves as a director of K-Tron International, Nobel Learning Communities, Inc., Kenexa, Inc., and three real estate investment trusts-Corporate Property Associates 14 Inc., Corporate Property Associates 15 Inc., and Corporate Property Associates 16-Global Inc. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Mr. Pinola received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from King's College.
Randall E. Poliner has served as a director of the Company since 1998. He is Chairman of the Compensation Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Poliner is a General Partner at Antares Capital Corporation, a private venture capital firm investing equity capital in developmental and expansion stage companies. Prior to joining Antares in 1993, Mr. Poliner was a founder and Chief Operating Officer of Macrodyne, Inc., an instrumentation and signal processing company. He successfully led the publicly held turnaround of Scientific Systems Services, Inc., as Vice President for Operations, Marketing and Sales and served as Vice President of Scientific Systems Services for Computer Task Group, Inc., which purchased the company.