Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board
Lawrence Miller has served as Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of our general partner since our formation in April 2004 and had served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Cornerstone, from March 1999 through April 2004. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Mr. Miller was employed by The Loewen Group, Inc., where he served in various management positions, including Executive Vice President of Operations from January 1997 until June 1998, and President of the Cemetery Division from March of 1995 until December 1996. Prior to joining The Loewen Group, Mr. Miller served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Osiris Holding Corporation, a private consolidator of cemeteries and funeral homes, of which Mr. Miller was one-third owner, from November 1987 until March 1995, when Osiris was sold to The Loewen Group. Mr. Miller served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Morlan International, Inc., one of the first publicly traded cemetery and funeral home consolidators, from 1982 until 1987, when Morlan was sold to Service Corporation International.
Allen R. Freedman has served on the Board of Directors of our General Partner since our formation in April 2004, and had served as a director of Cornerstone from October 2000 through April 2004. Mr. Freedman is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Virginia School of Law. Mr. Freedman retired in July 2000 from his position as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fortis, Inc., a specialty insurance company that he started in 1979. He continued to serve on the board of Assurant, Inc. (successor to Fortis, Inc.) until May of 2011. He was previously Chairman of the Board of Systems & Computer Technology Corporation until 2004 and Indus, Inc. until 2007. He currently serves as trustee of the Eaton Vance Mutual Funds Group, where he serves on the Governance and Portfolio Management Committees, as well as the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee. Mr. Freedman has served on the board of a number of charitable organizations, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the United Way of New York. He currently serves on the board of Opera America, the service organization for over 100 opera companies in the United States, Canada and Europe. He is also a founding director of the Association of Audit Committee Members, Inc. Mr. Freedman has been retained as a member of the Board of Directors of our general partner due to his extensive financial experience, his investment and general management experience in the field or related fields in which the company operates, and his experience on other boards of public companies.
Howard L. Carver has served on the Board of Directors of our general partner since August 2005. Mr. Carver retired in June 2002 from Ernst & Young. During his 35-year career with the firm, Mr. Carver held a variety of positions in six U.S. offices, culminating with the position of managing partner responsible for the operation of the Hartford, Connecticut office. Since June 2002, Mr. Carver has served on the boards of directors of Assurant, Inc. (formerly Fortis, Inc.) and Phoenix National Trust Company (until its sale in April 2004) and has been the chair of the Audit Committee for both boards. Since September 2004, Mr. Carver had served on the board of directors of Open Solutions, Inc. and was the chair of that company’s Audit Committee (until January 23, 2007 when Open Solutions, Inc. was sold). Effective January 2012, Mr. Carver was appointed to the Audit Committee of Pinnacol Assurance, the workers compensation facility for the State of Colorado. Mr. Carver has been retained as a member of the Board of Directors of our General Partner due to his extensive financial and audit experience, and his risk management background.
Peter Grunebaum has served on the Board of Directors of our general partner since December 2004. Mr. Grunebaum, currently an independent investment banker and corporate consultant, was the Managing Director of Fortrend International, an investment firm headquartered in New York, New York, a position he held from 1989 until the end of 2003. Mr. Grunebaum currently serves as a director and is a member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the Audit Committee of PrePaid Legal Services, Inc., a NYSE-listed company that provides legal service plans. Mr. Grunebaum also serves on the board of directors and is a member of the Audit Committee of Lucas Energy, Inc., a crude oil and gas company. Mr. Grunebaum has been retained as a member of the Board of Directors of our General Partner due to his extensive audit background, his experience with raising capital, and his service with other public companies.
Robert B. Hellman, Jr. has served on the Board of Directors of our general partner since our formation in April 2004 and had served as a director of Cornerstone from March 1999 through April 2004. Mr. Hellman is the Chief Executive Officer and a Managing Director of McCown De Leeuw & Co., LLC, which he joined in 1987. McCown De Leeuw & Co., LLC is the sponsor of numerous private equity investment funds. Mr. Hellman was named Managing Director in 1991 and Chief Executive Officer in 2001. Mr. Hellman also co-founded American Infrastructure MLP Funds in 2006. He has been a private equity investor for 25 years and responsible for inventing the pioneering idea of applying the MLP structure to the deathcare industry, which led to our IPO as an MLP. Mr. Hellman received an MBA from the Harvard Business School with Baker Scholar Honors, an MS in economics from the London School of Economics, and a BA in economics from Stanford University. He is a member of the board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Mr. Hellman has been retained as a member of the Board of Directors of our General Partner due to his involvement in our initial public offering, his extensive investment experience, and his prior experience with raising capital.
Martin R. Lautman, Ph.D., has served on the Board of Directors of our general partner since our formation in April 2004 and was a director of Cornerstone from its formation in March 1999 through April 2004. Dr. Lautman is currently the Managing Director of Marketing Channels, Inc., a company that provides marketing and marketing research consulting services to the information industry. Most recently, he served as the President and CEO of GfK Custom Research North America, a division of a public worldwide marketing services company headquartered in Nuremburg, Germany. Prior to that, he was the Senior Managing Director of ARBOR, a U.S.-based marketing research agency, where he held several positions, including Senior Managing Director, since 1974. He has also served with Numex Corporation, a public machine-tool manufacturing company, as President from 1987 to 1990 and as a director from 1991 to 1997. From 1986 to 2000, Dr. Lautman served on the Board of Advisors of Bachow Inc., a private equity firm specializing in high-tech companies and software and is now active in venture capital serving as a venture partner in three early-stage funds. Dr. Lautman is currently a board member for two family-owned businesses, E.P. Henry, a hardscaping company and A. Duie Pyle, a trucking company. He has lectured on marketing at The Cornell Hotel School and at The Columbia University School of Business and currently teaches marketing strategy in the MBA program at The Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lautman has been retained as a member of the Board of Directors of our General Partner due to his involvement in numerous boards, his strategic-planning experience, and his capital-raising background.
Fenton R. “Pete” Talbott has served on the Board of Directors of our general partner since our formation in April 2004 and had served as Chairman of the Board of Cornerstone from April 2000 through April 2004. Mr. Talbott served as the President of Talbott Advisors, Inc., a consulting firm, from January 2006 through January 2010. Mr. Talbott previously served as an operating affiliate of McCown De Leeuw & Co., LLC from November 1999 to December 2004. Additionally, he served as the Chairman of the Board of Telespectrum International, an international telemarketing and market-research company, from August 2000 to January 2001. Prior to 1999, Mr. Talbott held various executive positions with Comerica Bank, American Express Corporation, Bank of America, The First Boston Corp., CitiCorp, and other entities. He currently serves as a board member of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute, Kansas University Board of Trustees, and Christus/St. Vincent Hospital Foundation. Mr. Talbott has been retained as a member of the Board of Directors of our General Partner due to his extensive operational experience, his private consulting experience, and his extensive professional contact base.
William R. Shane retired from StoneMor in March 2012, at which time he was named Vice Chairman of the Board. He had served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and on the Board of Directors of our general partner since our formation in April 2004 and had served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cornerstone from March 1999 through April 2004. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Mr. Shane was employed by The Loewen Group, Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President of Finance for the Cemetery Division from March 1995 until January 1998. Prior to joining The Loewen Group, Mr. Shane served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Osiris Holding Corporation, which he founded with Mr. Miller, and of which he was one-third owner. Prior to founding Osiris, Mr. Shane served as the Chief Financial Officer of Morlan International, Inc.
= Chair
= Member
