Management Team

John M. Schobel, Chief Executive Officer

As a founding member of RegEd, John worked in partnership with his father, John Schobel Sr., to build RegEd into a market-leading provider of securities continuing education. In that process, John gained tremendous insight into his customers' most pressing problems which revealed an opportunity to address a much broader industry challenge – cost-efficient broker-dealer compliance with FINRA rules and regulations. John went on the lead the creation of RegEd's "Trax" suite of compliance management applications, which propelled RegEd into its next phase of market growth. Under his direction, Trax became the most widely adopted suite of FINRA education and compliance solutions in the financial services industry and today serves nearly every major broker-dealer firm.

Over the next decade, RegEd continued its growth trajectory under John's direction. John's passion for customer intimacy and his desire to create strong and lasting customer relationships has resulted in a solution-driven sales philosophy, continuous product innovation and a customer service model that has helped earn RegEd a reputation as a creative, responsive market leader that fully understands clients' needs. In 2006, John assumed full operational control of the organization and led RegEd's continued growth through the acquisition and integration of Xchange, the industry's leading licensing and registration solution. Since becoming CEO in 2007, John has focused his attention on building a strong senior management team, creating professional growth opportunities for RegEd's employees and on his continued leadership of RegEd's product innovation and the evolution of RegEd's service experience so that it continues to exceed the expectations of its customers.

John holds a B.A. from New York University and a J.D. from Washington University in Saint Louis. His interests include art and architecture, consumer electronics, innovative software and the promotion of financial literacy for underserved communities.

Pamela C. Parker, Chief Operating Officer

Pam joined RegEd in 2011 as Chief Operating Officer. Pam leads the Product and Platform Management group, which includes the product, sales, service and operations organizations for RegEd's suite of licensing, broker-dealer compliance and education solutions, serving its more than 700 broker-dealer and insurance company clients, as well as its nearly one million end users. Along with RegEd’s Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives, Pam serves on the executive team that sets the overall strategy and direction for RegEd. She is responsible for establishing goals, implementing objectives and strategically branding RegEd. Pam plays an essential role in guiding the growth of the company and propelling RegEd to the next level of excellence in compliance management solutions.

With a deep financial services background, Pam brings more than 20 years of experience at top financial firms supporting Financial Advisors by developing products, platforms and strategies that improve the way services are delivered to clients. Prior to joining RegEd, Pam led the Banking & Credit Products and Platforms and Client & Advisor Experience for JP Morgan's Wealth Management business. She was previously an executive with Citigroup/Smith Barney with responsibility for the client and advisor experience and various product management and finance functions.

Pam holds an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University and a B.A. in Economics and Japanese Studies from the University of Rochester. Pam donates time and effort in her community, providing homeless meals and coordinating holiday dinners for immigrant families. She is Treasurer, a Board member and leads the Finance Committee for a community non-profit.

Brian Lora, Chief Technology Officer/Chief Information Officer

Brian joined RegEd in 2011 as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer. He has an extensive background in technology, product development and systems management.

Brian has a proven track record of innovation and product development success in start-up and high growth environments. Most recently, as lead technologist of Arsenal Digital Solutions, the market leader in software-as-a-service/cloud backup services, Brian’s unique services architecture invention fueled the creation of a new services utility business model, successfully acquired by IBM in 2008.

Brian has held key technical and executive positions with IBM, Arsenal Digital Solutions, Storability (acquired by SUN/STK), and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). Brian is the lead inventor on 12 pending patents (U.S. and International) and is a frequent speaker at key technical and industry conferences.

Brian earned his Engineering degree from North Carolina State University. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and enjoys time with his active family and competing in strength athletics.

Allen Ramsay, Chief Financial Officer

Allen joined RegEd in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer. He has an extensive background in corporate finance, strategy, and business development, including expertise in structuring, negotiating, acquiring, and assimilating multiple domestic and international business alliances.

Allen has contributed significantly to the senior leadership of several high profile consumer products companies, including key CFO positions at both Sara Lee Corporation and VF Corporation. In his position as CFO for the VF International Outdoor Coalition, he led the transition of the VF European headquarters to a tax-advantaged location, integrated global acquisitions, and identified new growth platforms. Most recently, Allen led the financial team at L&M Companies, a multi-entity agricultural firm.

Allen earned an MBA in Finance and a BA in English from Wake Forest University. He serves on the Board of the RTP CFO Forum, enjoys tennis and golf, and is an avid reader. Allen lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife and two daughters.

Debra Freitag, Chief Strategy Officer

In her decade-long employment with CCH, Inc., a division of Wolters Kluwer, Debra was responsible for the management and growth of a product line worth more than $120 million. She also led two pioneering and highly successful initiatives: a major effort to move key transactional filing and search services to the web, and the firm's market entrance into insurance compliance, which would become CT Insurance Services. As General Manager of CT Insurance Services – which would become RegEd Xchange - she oversaw the division's rapid growth, acquisition of marquee clients and evolution into the industry's leading product of licensing and registration services.

Since the acquisition of Xchange, Debra has spearheaded multiple RegEd growth initiatives at both a foundational level, spanning enterprise sales and product management, as well as the development of RegEd's long-term vision and strategy. Today, she is responsible for strategic planning and new product and growth initiatives with a focus on expanding RegEd's regulatory, technology and service offerings into new markets.

Debra received her undergraduate degree from City University of New York. Her continuing executive education has included the completion of marketing and business development programs at Columbia University at Arden, University of Chicago and Kellogg University. Her passions include mentoring upcoming business talent. She volunteers with StreetWise Partners in Jersey City, NJ, which works with low-income individuals to overcome employment barriers, obtain better jobs and achieve economic self-sufficiency by creating deep mentoring relationships with volunteer business professionals.

Margaret S. "Peggy" Fox, General Counsel

Peggy has worked in the financial services industry for nearly 25 years, as a regulator, a compliance officer and a vendor. Peggy joined RegEd in 1999 and currently serves as General Counsel, handling transactions with customers and vendors, providing counsel and regulatory advice to the executive team and human resources group, and acting in risk management as the chief privacy officer working closely with the information security officer.

Peggy's deep knowledge of financial services regulation has been deployed by RegEd over the years, in its continuing education courseware, as a consultant to clients and in the development of the company's suite of securities compliance management applications and tools. Before coming to RegEd, Peggy was a First Vice President of Compliance at Salomon Smith Barney, providing compliance advice to a variety of the firm's capital markets businesses on SEC and SRO regulations, as well as developing written supervisory procedures and compliance training for many of the firm’s trading desks and business units. While at the New York Stock Exchange as an Enforcement Director, Peggy and her staff conducted numerous investigations of and prosecutions for violations of NYSE and SEC rules by NYSE member firms and their registered personnel, including trading and market surveillance, sales practice, registration and reporting matters.

Peggy received her B.A. with highest honors from the University of Florida, with majors in History and Philosophy and minors in English and Economics. She also received her J.D. from the University of Florida, and is a member of the Florida Bar. Peggy is active in her community, serving on the Board of Directors of a local school, working with an affiliate of a school-based service-learning organization that funds and executes local and international humanitarian and economic development programs, and is an active fundraiser and committee member for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Peggy is an avid reader, an outdoor enthusiast and finds creative outlet in the pottery studio.

Angela Pace, Chief Regulatory Officer

Angela currently serves as RegEd’s Chief Regulatory Officer. An attorney with deep expertise in financial services regulation, Angela has led RegEd's Regulatory Affairs department since she joined the company in 2000. In her role as Chief Regulatory Officer, Angela and her team focus on helping RegEd's clients comply with existing regulation and monitoring emerging regulation that will impact the financial services industry.

During her time at RegEd, Angela has held several management positions, focusing on compliance with state insurance regulation and product management for RegEd's insurance licensing and education products. Angela was instrumental in RegEd's 2006 acquisition of CT Insurance Services, which would later become RegEd's Xchange licensing and registration application. Since 2006, she has lead RegEd's Registration and Licensing Services Operations, RegEd's fastest growing product line, which provides outsourced licensing and registration services. She oversaw the development of RegEd’s MAX products, which allow agencies and smaller licensing and registration departments to leverage RegEd’s industry-leading Xchange technology to improve their compliance with regulations and provide more efficient transaction processing.

Angela has led several education initiatives at RegEd, leveraging RegEd's robust course delivery system and wealth of financial services content. In 2010, Angela led RegEd's initiative to address new annuities training requirements on a shared industry platform. Many of these initiatives are designed to enhance and promote carrier wholesaler programs and address independent agent populations. The result, RegEd's Annuity Training Platform, is the industry's leading site for annuities training and compliance tracking.

Prior to rejoining RegEd in 2000, Angela was a manager with a leading global provider of education to financial services corporations and an attorney. Angela received her J.D. from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri - Columbia.

Lorraine Smith Carver, Executive Vice President of Sales

In nearly ten years of employment with RegEd, Lorraine has worked in partnership with the founder John Schobel Sr. and the executive team to build RegEd into a market-leading provider of compliance, training, and licensing/registration solutions for the financial services industry. In that capacity, Lorraine gained tremendous insight into all aspects of the business, including the essential element of focusing on customers’ key challenges and delivering solutions in the most effective and efficient manner. Lorraine’s mission in her various roles in operations, product development, marketing, and sales has been to build the business with dedicated focus on clients, employees and the industry.

Over the past five years, Lorraine has focused solely on sales and marketing activities. Her passion for this business and desire to create powerful customer relationships has driven strong results across all RegEd product lines. The collective impact of the work of her team in coordination with the strong support provided by each employee has been to ensure that RegEd's solutions are the most widely adopted suite of FINRA education and compliance solutions in the financial services industry. Today, the Trax solution set serves nearly every major broker-dealer firm. Since the acquisition and integration of Xchange, the industry's leading licensing and registration solution, the RegEd sales effort has been successful in acquiring significant customers to add to this impressive client base.

Lorraine received her B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her interests include her busy family life, as well as donating her time and effort within her community focused on a variety of education and family oriented non-profit initiatives. She serves on the board for a community non-profit.

Valerya Poltorak, Executive Vice President, Strategic Client Relationships

Val joined RegEd in 2006 and is charged with establishing, building and maintaining strong client relationships to ensure RegEd is focused on the company's critically important value of customer success. Integral to this achievement is Val's passion for customer intimacy, a deep understanding of clients' business problems and the very high standard she sets for customer service. Val formed and sponsors RegEd's Client Advisory Board, which has become the strongest voice in RegEd's product strategy.

Previously, Val has had executive responsibility for RegEd's Licensing & Registration Solutions Group with oversight for product strategy, product management, account management, professional services, customer service and quality assurance. Under her strategic leadership, Xchange has advanced on the innovation curve and more than doubled its customer base.

Val also led the product management of RegEd's Education, Broker-Dealer Compliance and Licensing & Registration product lines and leading the effort to integrate the Xchange solution within the RegEd portfolio. Prior to that, Val was a Senior Vice President with CT Insurance Services, a division of Wolters Kluwer, where she was responsible for product management, product development, quality assurance and implementation services.

Val holds a B.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is committed to instilling a community service ethic in young people and leads a community teen group focused on volunteerism and fund-raising.

Thad Tremaine, Executive Vice President of Operations and Customer Support

Thad joined RegEd in 2005 and serves as Executive Vice President of Operations and Customer Support. He has broad operational responsibilities over product implementation, RegEd's registration and licensing outsourcing operations, customer service and product support, eLearning, and several other operational functions. Formerly, Thad served as Executive Vice President for RegEd's Broker-Dealer Solutions Group where he was responsible for all aspects of service for the Trax compliance management platform, including program management, and implementation. In 2008, he initiated the strategic integration of RegEd's Trax products, with the goal of creating a more unified compliance platform that would allow firms to leverage their FINRA and employee data, along with their hierarchy, to extend workflows and limit operational risk.

Prior to RegEd, Thad was a Vice President with Thomson Financial in New York, where he led a team of account managers, trainers, and specialists responsible for client retention and sales. Thad began his career developing and servicing financial services software at StreetFusion, (now part of Thomson/Reuters) a pioneer in financial event webcasting in the late 1990's. Throughout his career, Thad has been recognized for his strengths in leadership, team building, communication and employee development.

Thad received his B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has since completed over 150 hours of e-commerce related coursework at UC Berkeley and has received his Pragmatic Marketing certification. He enjoys landscaping, non-fiction adventure books and running. He is a neighborhood organizer for PORCH, a non-profit focused on feeding the homeless in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro community.