Nonprofit Alliance for Investor Education Elects New Officers

Dallas Salisbury is the new president of the Alliance for Investor Education (AIE), a nonprofit consortium of 19 leading U.S. organizations involved in investor education. The other newly elected AIE officers are: Joy Howell, vice president; John Gannon, secretary; and Gloria Talamas, treasurer.

Salisbury, who also serves as the president and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and chairman of the American Savings Education Council (ASEC), replaces Michael Jones, formerly of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), as the top officer of AIE.

In addition to his duties at EBRI/ASEC, Salisbury is a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and a member of the board of the NAHR Foundation, the Commonwealth Commission on a High Performance Health System, the board of directors of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, and the board of advisors to the Comptroller General of the United States. Prior to joining EBRI, Dallas worked for the Washington State Legislature, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Joy Howell is the executive director of the Financial Publishers Association. She has a background in working for independent investment research firms and financial publishers, helping them to function as a resource on issues at the intersection of Wall Street and Capitol Hill. With a master's degree in business administration from the University of Redlands and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Howell brings over 25 years of public policy experience to AIE.

John Gannon is senior vice president for investor education at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and president of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. In his capacity as senior vice president of investor education, he is responsible for the development and operations of FINRA's investor education program. As president of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, he manages the Foundation's grant program, which funds educational projects and research aimed at educating and protecting the investing public. The Foundation's efforts are particularly focused on assisting underserved groups of Americans, including young adults, women, Native Americans, seniors, and members of U.S. military. He has been with FINRA since September 2001. Before assuming his present duties, Gannon was deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Office of Investor Education & Assistance. Gannon also served for seven years as senior counsel in the SEC's Division of Enforcement, where he brought cases and investigated violations of federal securities laws.

Gloria Talamas is vice president of education services for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). Talamas is the director of SIFMA's Securities Industry Institute at The Wharton School; staff advisor to SIFMA's Continuing Education Committee, the Continuing Education and Training Managers' Roundtables and; responsible for the management of SIFMA's Foundation for Investor Education's Path to Investing Web site, an objective investor education resource for the investing public. Talamas has been in the financial services industry for more than 20 years and has experience in program development, marketing and promotion, committee and board relations with exposure in multiple sectors, including trade associations and corporations.

ABOUT AIE

Founded in 1996, the Alliance for Investor Education Web site at http://www.InvestorEducation.org provides investors with access to a full range of information they need to make wise investment decisions. The 19- member Alliance for Investor Education is dedicated to facilitating greater understanding of investing, investments and the financial markets among current and prospective investors of all ages. We pursue initiatives for education and join with others to motivate Americans to obtain objective information and increase their knowledge and understanding of investing.

Full members of the Alliance include: American Association of Individual Investors, Employee Benefit Research Institute/American Savings Education Council, BetterInvesting, CFA Institute, Financial Planning Association, Financial Publishers Association, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Investment Company Institute Education Foundation, Investor Protection Trust, National Council on Economic Education, National Endowment for Financial Education, National Futures Association, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the North American Securities Administrators Association are the governmental and quasi- governmental advisors to the Alliance.