Mark A. Vander Ploeg

Mr. Vander Ploeg has over thirty-five years of investment banking experience, providing advice to major companies on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, long-term strategy and governance. Until his retirement in 2011, Mr. Vander Ploeg was a Senior Managing Director of Evercore Partners. Prior to Evercore Partners, Mr. Vander Ploeg was Vice Chairman of Investment Banking for Merrill Lynch & Co., where he worked from 1995 to 2007. Prior to that, Mr. Vander Ploeg was a Managing Director of Salomon Brothers and Head of the firm’s San Francisco investment banking business. Mr. Vander Ploeg currently serves as a director of Okabena Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is the investment and business company for the Dayton Family, founders of Target Corporation. He is a member of that board’s Investment Committee and is Chair of the Compensation & Personnel Committee. Elsewhere, Mr. Vander Ploeg serves as a director of the Spencer Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, and as a member of Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). Mr. Vander Ploeg has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, and a B.A. from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, where he is a current trustee and served as Board Chair from 2000 to 2006.