Launny Steffens

Launny Steffens was appointed to our Board of Directors on May 16, 2007, and is the Founder and Senior Managing Director of Spring Mountain Capital, LP. Prior to founding Spring Mountain Capital in 2001, Launny Steffens spent 38 years at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., where he held numerous senior management positions, including President of Merrill Lynch Consumer Markets, Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., and Chairman of its U.S. Private Client Group. Under his leadership, the Private Client Group experienced tremendous growth, increasing assets under management from $200 billion to $1.6 trillion. Launny Steffens also served on the board of directors of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. from April 1986 until July 2001. Launny Steffens currently serves on the board of directors of Colony Financial, Inc. He also serves on the board of managers of HealthpointCapital and the advisory boards of StarVest Partners and Wicks Communication & Media Partners, L.P. In addition, he is currently National Chairman Emeritus of the Alliance for Aging Research and a member of the Board of Overseers of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Previously, Launny Steffens served as Chairman of the Securities Industry Association (now the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, or SIFMA) and as a Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development. In 2010, Launny Steffens was the recipient of the Billie Jean King Contribution Award from the Women’s Sports Foundation. Launny Steffens received a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and also completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.