Bob Irvine – President
A founder of UPRR, Bob Irvine is an innovator and pioneer in the securities and unclaimed property industries. Since 1983, Bob has worked tirelessly to establish standards and develop comprehensive procedures for identifying and reporting unclaimed securities and locating shareholders. Bob began his career as the Director of Securities Management for the Massachusetts Division of Abandoned Property and was then instrumental in the creation of the Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse and the National Abandoned Property Processing Company, the original state agents for unclaimed property reporting. Upon leaving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Bob conceived and implemented the First Chicago Trust Company’s unclaimed property program. First Chicago was the first transfer agent to offer its clients unclaimed property reporting capabilities, achieving compliance for hundreds of issuers while reducing costs and risk. Bob is a frequent speaker on issues affecting the securities and unclaimed property communities and is proud of his affiliations with ASCS, STA, SSA and NICSA. Bob received a Masters degree in Management from Northeastern University in Boston and a B.A. from Providence College.
Contact Bob at birvine@uprrinc.com.
Pete Miller – Chief Administrative Officer
Another founder of UPRR, Pete Miller’s professional background includes senior management experiences with financial systems, data organization and securities transfer agent operations. Pete began his career as a Systems Engineer at IBM and eventually became IBM’s Director of Business Management for Financial Systems. After 14 years at IBM, Pete joined the First National Bank of Chicago where he managed the Systems Planning Department. Pete was quickly promoted to Corporate Senior Vice President of Securities Services. In this capacity, Pete oversaw the Stock Transfer, Corporate Trust, and Custody Departments and was responsible for compliance with state unclaimed property laws. Pete received a law degree from Loyola University of Chicago, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and degrees in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research and Mathematics from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Contact Pete at pmiller@uprrinc.com.
Ron Smith – Chief Technology Officer
With a background steeped in information systems design, programming and operations related to securities systems and transfer agent operations, Ron Smith is an integral part of UPRR’s intensive information processing operation. Ron previously served as the Management Information Systems Director for Multimode, Inc., and as chief operating officer of CIC DISC Corporation. At CIC, Ron managed back office operations for a major transfer agent and designed the data processing systems now in use by a number of banks and transfer agents. Ron then moved to ACS Financial and Securities Services where he designed their unclaimed property processing system and managed a department of over fifty professionals. In 1999, Ron brought his securities and unclaimed property technical expertise to UPRR and now serves as UPRR’s Chief Technology Officer. In this capacity, he designs and operates sophisticated systems for tracking merger and acquisition activity, locating shareholders, tracking the success of outreach programs, account reconciliation, shareholder communication, unclaimed property identification and annual compliance. Ron received a B.A. in Business from Marist College.
Contact Ron at rsmith@uprrinc.com.
Bob Walsh – Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Officer
Co-founder of UPRR, Bob Walsh began his career in unclaimed property as the Manager of Investor Services for the First Chicago Trust Company. He eventually became an Assistant Vice President for First Chicago, overseeing the Unclaimed Property Department, where he designed and implemented compliance systems for public companies, and was responsible for filing 17,000 unclaimed property reports per year. Bob previously ran several successful consulting businesses and served as an audit contractor for many state unclaimed property divisions, as well as a Budget Analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Bob continues to improve compliance, reconciliation and reporting systems at UPRR. Bob earned a B.S. in Accounting from Rutgers University.
Contact Bob at bwalsh@uprrinc.com.
Jennifer Borden – Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Jennifer Borden joined UPRR in 2010 after nearly twenty years in leadership roles in unclaimed property law and public accounting. Most recently, Jennifer was a Partner at Holland & Knight LLP, where she litigated unclaimed property issues in several states, provided counsel to corporations to ensure compliance with unclaimed property laws, and defended against unclaimed property audits. Jennifer began her career as General Counsel for the Abandoned Property Division of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where she resolved disputes arising from abandoned property audits, negotiated settlements with businesses, defended the Division in state and federal courts and annually approved several million dollars in returns of unclaimed property to taxpayers. Prior to representing the Abandoned Property Division, Jennifer was Counsel to the Commonwealth’s largest public pension fund. In addition, for more than five years she was a leader in the State and Local Tax Practice at Ernst & Young LLP, providing unclaimed funds services to Fortune 1000 companies around the country. Jennifer received her law degree from Suffolk University and a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts. A member of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s 2008 Class of Future Leaders, Jennifer is a graduate of the Boston Latin School and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Boston Latin School Association.
Contact Jennifer at jborden@uprrinc.com.
Ray Boone – Senior Vice President
Ray Boone is a Senior Vice President of Operations who leads UPRR’s Pre Escheat Location and Unclaimed Property Groups. He has been a member of UPRR’s teams for the past 14 years focusing on shareholder location and escheatment reporting. Ray has also assisted on several consulting projects for many of our major clients. He is responsible for the daily operations for both areas as well as the coordination between our company and our clients.
Prior to arriving at UPRR, Ray worked with the Bank of New York’s Mutual Funds Group. Previously, he worked with First Chicago Trust Company, first as a member of the Shareholder Services Department and later as an Assistant Accounting Manager in the Financial Business Services Department where he prepared forecasts, financial statements and balance sheets and reconciled controlled disbursement accounts. Ray earned his Bachelor’s Degree in business economics from The College of Wooster.
Contact Ray at rboone@uprrinc.com.
Tom Burns – Senior Vice President
Tom is Senior Vice President of Operations, responsible for designing all shareholder outreach programs, insuring seamless integration with the transfer agent, tracking, and reconciliation. In addition, he and his team have filed over 70,000 unclaimed property reports over the last decade. Before coming to UPRR in 1997, Tom worked as an analyst at First Chicago Trust Company and in the mutual fund accounting area at The Bank of New York. He holds a B.S. from Manhattan College with concentrations in Finance and Computer Information Systems.
Contact Tom at tburns@uprrinc.com.
Michael Bodisch – Senior Vice President
Michael is Senior Vice President of Financial Reporting. He has been a member of UPRR’s teams for the past 16 years. Michael currently manages several consulting projects for many of our major clients. Since joining UPRR in 1996, he has managed teams responsible for filing more than 100,000 unclaimed property reports for various clients.
Having served UPRR in various capacities, Michael’s current responsibility of client forecasting and financial reporting proves an invaluable resource in ensuring UPRR meets client financial expectations. He is responsible for coordinating all aspects of client financial reporting, including monthly, quarterly and ad-hoc forecasting statements. Additionally, he supports the UPRR sales team with client revenue tracking and reporting. Michael began his career as a staff accountant at First Chicago Trust Company performing general ledger sub-account reconciliation and proof functions. He has also worked as a mutual fund accountant at The Bank of New York, where he was responsible for daily trade reconcilement and fund accounting. Additionally, he worked as a business analyst for Bankers Trust Company focusing on tax lot accounting enhancements. Michael earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Moravian College.
Contact Michael at mbodisch@uprrinc.com.
Karen L. Anderson – Senior Vice President – Compliance
Karen Anderson is a 23 year veteran of the unclaimed property industry. She assists UPRR in maintaining compliance related data, guides UPRR clients in achieving and sustaining compliance and provides holder education via the UPRR website, holder outreach at conferences and trade shows, speaking engagements and publications. Before working in the corporate arena, Karen was a member of the policy staff of former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson and was assigned to guide policy and programs relating to state business regulation. She also served as Illinois’ Unclaimed Property Administrator. After leaving state service, Karen served as the first Director of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA). Karen holds a degree in law from Loyola University of Chicago. She is the Second Vice President of the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO), the past UPPO Board Treasurer, a past UPPO Board Secretary, a member of the Securities Transfer Association Unclaimed Property Committee, and the NAUPA Uniformity Committee. Karen is a frequent speaker at business conferences, audio conferences and webinars held by trade associations. She has published numerous articles and chapters in trade-related books and periodicals including the Shareholder Optimizer, the Securities Transfer Association Newsletter, and the Treasury Management Manual.
Contact Karen at kanderson@uprrinc.com.
Peter A. Billows – Vice President
Peter Billows is a project and compliance manager for UPRR, having spent more than 10 years with the company serving in various capacities. He is responsible for database analysis and maintenance for more than 120 clients with various types of unclaimed property. He manages relationships and correspondence with all clients while assisting them in maintaining compliance with state laws. He began with UPRR in 2000 as a project consultant responsible for the analysis of share and cash balances resulting from acquisitions, mergers, stock dividends/splits and redemptions. In 2002, he became a corporate accounting consultant overseeing the company’s Maximum Owner Return program and held that position until 2004. Peter received his Bachelor of Science in business administration from Villanova University in 2000 and his Masters of Business Administration from Seton Hall University in 2008.
Contact Peter at pbillows@uprrinc.com.
Phillip Fitzsimmons – President, UPRR Securities, LLC
Phillip Fitzsimmons is the President and Financial Operations Principal for UPRR Securities, LLC, where he supports both the MOR and PEL programs and coordinates the operation of these programs with the regulatory framework required for the processing of securities transactions. He is also directly responsible for all financial reporting, FOCUS filings and annual audits of the financial statements of UPRR Securities, LLC. Phil currently holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 27, 53, 55 and 63 securities licenses.
In 2004, Phil joined UPRR Securities, LLC, after six years with Mellon Securities where he served as Director of Operations with supervisory responsibility for all retail securities operations. In addition, he held positions as both a Regional Sales Manager and Assistant Vice President of Trading for Mellon responsible for the development of fixed income and equity securities trading for the broker-dealer operations of bank clients.
Phil began his career as an analyst in the commodities department of Goldman, Sachs & Co. His early experience included brokerage sales as an Account Executive for E.F Hutton, Senior Vice President of Equity Trading for a boutique money manager, and as a Retail Sales Manager with different securities brokerage firms. Phil holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Villanova University.
Contact Phil at pfitzsimmons@uprrinc.com.
Michael Prendergast – Chief Compliance Officer, UPRR Securities, LLC
As Chief Compliance Officer, Michael Prendergast oversees compliance with regulatory requirements, internal policies and procedures, and the firm’s compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) obligations. Michael supervises AML training for employees and is also responsible for administering UPRR Securities’ Firm Element Continuing Education Program and for quality control and problem resolution associated with operations. He currently holds FINRA Series 7, 66, and 24 securities licenses.
Michael began his employment with UPRR in 2000, performing a wide variety of functions. Past projects include providing audit defense services for transfer agent clients and performing historical reconciliations for client reorganization departments. His experience includes working on a daily automated reconciliation system and check reconciliation projects for client accounts payable departments. Also, Michael has maintained bank reconciliations and supervised the escheatment resulting from the demutualization of many insurance company clients. He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Scranton, and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Montclair State University.
Contact Michael at mprendergast@uprrinc.com.
